TO THE TOP OF THE TOWER
Journey over 700 feet up spire gives rare glimpse
Editor’s note:
The thin rectangular spire and the waving flag that tops it are impossible to miss in the Baltimore skyline. Most in the city would recognize the copper-colored building — the William Donald Schaefer Tower — but few know what’s inside the tiny rooms that make up the spire that sits over 700 feet in the air.
In the almost 34 years of the building’s existence, with the exception of select employees, almost no one has made the journey to the top. Certainly no civilians.
That is, until Baltimore Sun reader and subscriber John Nickles posed the question: What exactly is up there?
The latest installment in a series inspired by readers’ curiosity brought three Sun staffers, Nickles — and his tape measure — on a journey to the last room in the spire.
The office building
Beneath the tower, there’s more than 300,000 square feet of office space across 29 floors. It’s home to over 1,100 employees in 14 state agencies including the public defender’s office, people’s counsel, public service commission and an office for the governor.
Construction for the building formerly known as the Merritt Tower began in 1984 after Gerald Klein, chairman and chief executive of Merritt Banking Loan and Associates, set out to build a new $38 million headquarters for the company. Klein told The Baltimore Sun back then that the building was going to be the “best looking, best constructed, best priced” and have the “best location.”
Klein planned to live at the top of the building in a penthouse. But the tower was sold before construction was even completed.
Today, the Maryland Transit Administration has the top floor instead.
The bronze building is compact, but “very functional,” state General Services Secretary Ellington Churchill Jr. said during a tour of the building last month.
Nickles, who’s lived in Federal Hill for a decade, said he’s always looked up at the tower and wondered what was up there.
“It’s this looming spire and you can see it from just about everywhere in the city,” he said. “I think a lot of Baltimoreans have the same curiosity about what’s up there.”
The beginning
Before the journey to the top begins, Churchill wants to make sure: Are we sure we want to do this? It’s not easy and it requires stairs. A lot of them. And most of the spaces aren’t air conditioned.
“It’s why we all came together here today,” Nickles said, replying for us all.
The elevator can only take us as far as the 29th floor. Then we enter a maintenance area where the building’s chiller is kept, and we’re greeted by our first set of stairs.
With each and every cement step, it becomes even more clear few people have been this high. Dust, grime and cobwebs are built up along the pillars.
It’s reminiscent of the years the building sat unused after it was finished in 1986.
In the midst of construction, Merritt fell into conservatorship, and the company’s financial situation continued to unravel. It was one of many Maryland savings and loan companies that became defunct during the ’80s. People became so worried about the stability of savings and loans they raced to get their money out, leading to the collapse of the companies.
A Sun article from 1995 called it the “worst financial crisis in Maryland since the Great Depression.”
Several officials were charged with fraud and racketeering. Klein was among them but eventually acquitted of fraudulently overstating the value of the company and the real estate projects it loaned money to.
Even under new ownership by the Chase Manhattan Corp. and with a new name, the building’s reputation was tarnished. In 1989 it was estimated that 69 percent of the tower was vacant, according to a Sun article.
In 1993 the state bought the tower for $12.2 million — less than half of what it was originally estimated to cost. Shortly after, it was renamed in honor of former Gov. William Donald Schaefer. And since then, Churchill said, the building has always been full of workers.
But few of them have been as far as the building’s roof, where we have just arrived after climbing a steep ladder.
From the rooftop, there’s a panoramic view of the city from 493 feet in the air.