Baltimore Through My Eyes

Hammerjacks.

Ah. Yes.

That place.

Considering it opened 45 years ago – to my mind that makes it historic, and it was a major part of Baltimore’s music scene – especially in the 80’s, so I’m writing about it. The sign was visible when you came into the city from the south on I-395. From South Charles Street, past Harborplace, one turned right onto Hamburg Street, then dove right onto the access road next to the Hamburg Street bridge and hung a left onto S. Howard Street. The site is now Lot G for Ravens Stadium.  Known as Baltimore’s “hard rock shrine” it was considered to be the largest club on the east coast.

The infamous neon sign. Photo from Pinterest.

Hint. I was pretty much a regular in college from ’86 until after I got married in ’89. So much so that they quit carding me and another friend of mine. The bouncers would come out, look at the line, which usually stretched around the building on weekends, point and say “You, you, you and you, and you…” and just let us in. They knew us. We knew the bar-backs – I didn’t drink because I was usually the designated driver, so I usually got all the soda I wanted – for free. Prior to ‘86 I’d go down for their 18 and older concerts. I drove a gold, pinstriped, 1968 Chevelle (a muscle car) and the guys loved it. I’d park under the highway behind the club, and when I left at closing, I’d find men sitting all over the thing. I’d gently shoo them, and most were actually pretty cool about it, some were surprised that it belonged to a “girl”, some just wanted to buy the thing, and just a very, very few were jerks about it. I met a lot of guys at “Hammers” just in the parking lot because of that damn car.

Owned by Louis Principio, III, along with his father, Hammerjacks was originally located at 1024 S. Charles Street in a converted 3-story rowhouse, in the Federal Hill Historic District of the city. Opening in 1977, by 1982 it had shifted to 1101 S. Howard Street into the site of what had once been a 1890’s era brewery. With approx. 22,000 square feet of space – it was actually two spaces – a “club side” and a “concert hall side”. The concert hall side was completed and opened in 1985. I remember the anticipation, especially on local rock stations, as the countdown began for the concert hall to finally be finished.

Site of the original Hammerjacks – its now Nobles Bar and Grill – pic from Google Streetview

The front of Nobles when it was Hammerjacks. The stained glass over the door hung proudly in the club side at the Howard Street location. Photo from the Baltimore Sun.

The building itself was brick and with the high ceilings and wooden beams across the roofline – the acoustics were outrageously good. It was located in what I’d call an industrial wasteland – close to Koppers and Port Covington, and far enough away from residential neighborhoods not to bother anyone with the noise, but close enough to downtown be called the Inner Harbor Concert Hall. I think it held about 2500 people and because of the acoustics – it was literally like a small concert hall, despite being a club. On nights that there wasn’t a concert, the floor of the concert hall side literally became a HUGE dance floor. If that got crowded – and it did – one could always dance on the bar. Ha! There were at least a dozen or so bars located inside including a pizza bar in the back of the concert hall on the upper floor.

The property on South Howard Street before it was converted into the clubs second and most infamous incarnation.

The Ramones playing in the concert hall – under the bud light banner were doors leading to the club side. Just to give an idea of the sheer size of the space. Photo from Pinterest.

When Ravens stadium retained the property in 1997 – Hammerjacks as most knew it was resigned to history. It was razed. Folks came one last time to see the place, collecting bricks, etc. and like me, crying at its demise. It was briefly resurrected in 2000 as a DJ based night club located at 316-318 Guilford Ave (under I-83) but that shuttered 6 years later. The 3rd incarnation bore little to no resemblance to the club that most remember. That venue then became Bourbon Street and was finally rebranded as The Assembly Room – now used for wedding receptions and as conference space.

Left to right – the club with the train roaring past, the “line” at the side of the building wrapped around from the front, the front after the light-rail went in.

This is where it sat – literally. The parking lot was under the highway. Photo from Google Streetview

Many, many, many bands played there and if they didn’t actually play that club, they came down after their gig at the Baltimore/Royal Farms Arena (known then as the Civic Center) or Merriweather Post Pavilion and marched right into the club side. I met the guys from Iron Maiden that way. In fact, those boys were so enamored of the place that the name was featured as part of the album cover artwork for 1986’s “Somewhere In Time”. It’s on the back, upper right side. I own it and positively jumped for joy when I saw that. Judas Priest hung out too – in 1986 after their gig at the Capital Center, a few of them must have decided to hop in a limo and drive up to Baltimore to visit the place. Funnily enough, a bunch of us from Baltimore that were at that particular concert must have had the same idea – because we all landed there at about the same time. Late. Very very late. It was very, very cool to see them hanging out and talking with folks, just like regular patrons. Priest had been there before, I’ve seen pics of Rob Halford and Ken Downing at the bar. It also became Brett Michael’s favorite bar in Baltimore.

The back of the album cover.

Limos were always parked out front and many a night, I’d see a driver looking bored as hell, sitting on the hood of one. You never knew if it was celebrity or just some rich person looking to populate another local party. My gal-friend and I asked a driver if we could look inside one of the big stretch-limos one time and as the driver was helping us get (more like climb) back out, a guy stood there awestruck thinking we were “somebody”. We assured him we weren’t. He was kinda cute standing there with his eyes bugging.

 Local bands hung out and played there too – KIX was virtually the house band, and although they weren’t exactly local-local, they were from Hagerstown and they played EVERYWHERE all the time. Including at Hammerjacks. Need an opener? Get KIX. Your opener bailed? Get KIX. Need a fabulous band? Get KIX. Need a headliner? Get KIX. Another friend of mine from college went to high school with their guitar player so anytime they played, we’d go down. They still play and they’re still freaking fabulous. Mannekin and Crack The Sky played there on a regular basis too. Stainless Steel, and U.S.A hung out as well. I’d see those guys with their sunglasses on, hanging out by the pizza bar in the back of the 2^nd floor, concert hall side. John Waters filmed part of his movie “Serial Mom” there; Joan Jett shot a music vid there. Major recording acts like Kiss (who became honorary Baltimoreans when they played in ’92), Foreigner, Skid Row, Ratt, Trixter, Steelheart, Dokken, Pantera, L.A. Guns, Lita Ford, Winger, Extreme, the Ramones, Alice In Chains, Brian May, Cinderella, Saigon Kick, Slaughter, Poison, Danger Danger, Warrant, Vixen, Dirty Looks, Yngwie Malmsteen, Face Dancer, Quiet Riot and the like played there. If you were lucky, you’d get a pass to go and talk to them after the show. I remember meeting a band backstage and realizing that after the show and packing up – they had at least a 10 hour drive ahead of them in a big box truck just to get home to Connecticut and go to work the next day. I forget who there were but they were really nice guys.

They also had contests. Lots and lots of contests. Best Buns in Baltimore, the infamous Wet-T-Shirt Contest, the Naughty Negligee Contest and a Bikini Centerfold Contest. $500.00 prizes went to those winners. For the ladies? Thurday nights were the night with the Macho Man Contest. They also dropped balloons onto the floor with money in them. I got 5 bucks once. Halloween sported costume contests with $100 prizes. After Dirty Dancing came out in 1987, they had Dirty Dancing Contests. Employee appreciation nights were on Mondays, with Monday Nite Live showcasing local talent. Tuesdays were 50 cent draft nights, Wednesdays were slow so they instituted $1.00 drink nights. Pizza was 50 cents a slice. Fridays on occassion they dropped more balloons but this time with upwards of $1000.00 in them. Saturday nights if there was no live music? They had a lazer show in the concert hall side on the dance floor. The cool thing is – the concerts? Were either free or at least very reasonably priced and available through TicketMaster. For local AND national talent. And there was no cover to get in. 98 Rock hosted a myriad of events there and their DJ’s could always been seen just hanging out. In a time without hand sanitizer, the bathrooms were at best – a bio-hazard. There was the occassional fight, but as crowded as that place got, and as drunk as some folks got – people were well behaved for the most part. Security would hustle the offending parties to the door rather quickly and the party would resume.

It was loud, obnoxious, full of smoke, big hair, and debauchery at its finest, but it was also fun, and in an era long before social media – you went not only to drink, dance, goof off and listen to music, you went to hang out with friends, network and meet tons of people.

Like the documentary says – you had to be there.

Sources:

What sources? I don’t need no stinking sources for this one. I WAS there.