Robert Lewis Baker

Robert Lewis Baker (1937 – October 31, 1979) was an American horticulturist and botanist at the University of Maryland, a professor at University of Maryland and widely known as a leader in the campaign to keep federal interstates and expressways from cutting through Baltimore's historic neighborhoods. Baker lectured and published and was active in preserving the Federal Hill district of Baltimore, in turn helping to preserve the neighborhoods of Otterbein, Fell's Point and Highlandtown.

Baker's own garden in Federal Hill was regularly featured in the Baltimore Sun and, after he died, it was recreated at the Baltimore Flower and Garden Show. He was commemorated by the Baker Garden at the United States National Arboretum and by Robert Baker Park – the latter, a pocket park on the northern perimeter of Federal Hill neighborhood of Baltimore, very near the foot of Federal Hill Park.

Biography Robert (Bob) Lewis Baker was born 24 March, 1937 to Marian Baker (nee Lewis, 1907–1990) and Albert Edmond Baker (1900–1995), the latter having been an active member of the Mount Royal Improvement Association.

Red-haired, Baker grew up in Baltimore's Bolton Hill area. Having graduated from Baltimore City College and an internationally recognized plantsman. the book Pruning Ornamental Trees & Shrubs; and the small booklet, A Small City Garden: A Beginners Guide, including Japan in 1974 to study Japanese gardening principles,

Sir,

I recently returned from Seattle where I noted the massive interstate freeways which cut through that city in several directions. However, I learned that in spite of the scale and extent of these roads rush-hour traffic volume has surpassed the freeway's capacity and that total stoppage of traffic is a frequent occurrence.

The Washington State Highways Director, G. H. Andrews, has had to restrict access to the freeway in certain areas, since the roadway intended to serve long-distance travelers first and local commuters second. Mr. Andrews has also spoken in favor of mass transit, saying he believes in "some solution other than more and more highways" in the Seattle area.

Baltimore is on the verge of falling into the same predicament. How grimly ironic if we allow Mayor D'Alesandro and the "road gang' to sacrifice the unique Fells Point area to an expressway only to dis-cover that when completed, it is unable to perform the functions its supporters had claimed for it.

Robert Lewis Baker

Baker was a prominent leader in the campaign to keep interstates and expressways from cutting through Baltimore's historic neighborhoods officer of the Federal Hill and Fells Point Fund, member of the Montgomery Urban Renewal District, and board member and former secretary and president maintaining a photographic record documenting changes in South Baltimore, Baker was a member of the American Society of Plant Taxonomists; the International Plant Propagators Society; and was a founding member (1969) of the Horticultural Society of Maryland.

He grew up at 1607 Park Avenue, in the Bolton Hill neighborhood, later lived in College Park what had become an unpopular and decaying section of Baltimore He transformed his townhouse's 15' x 15' concrete-slabbed courtyard into "part botanic garden, part research lab and part display garden" Ten days before his death, Baker and his townhouse micro-garden were featured in a cover article for the Baltimore Sun'''s Gardening section. In 1980, the year following his death, David H. Tag, with the Horticultural Society of Maryland honored Baker by recreating part of his Federal Hill garden at the Baltimore Flower and Garden Show (1978-1982).

Robert Baker was commemorated with a garden in his name, The Baker Garden'', at the United States National Arboretum in Washington DC, where he had worked, studied and had lectured at its Landscape Design Study Programs for 11 years. A gardening lecture series was named after him at Bryn Mawr College, which also offered an annual scholarship in his name.