ABSTRACT
On the path of industrial boom over the 19th and 20th centuries, the centers of manufacturing grew to encompass not only sites of work for millions of people, but also their homes, forming distinctive ways of life. Elmer J. Hall, who was born into a life heavily influenced by industry and, more importantly, the relationship—both interconnections and contrasts—between it and nature. Elmer grew up in the company town in the middle of the Sparrows Point Steel Mill, located on the deep-water port just outside of Baltimore City, Maryland. m the 1940s through the 1960s, Elmer went to school, played sports, fished and swam all within the confines of one of the largest steel mills in the world. Elmer is one of many people who not only lost a neighborhood to which he could no longer return, but also the places and spaces in which his childhood experiences and memories were formed and remain grounded.
