1782

• Baltimore City annexes area west of Harris Creek

1785

• August: Capt. John O'Donnell brings first shipload of China goods to Baltimore and settles here.

1786

• O'Donnell buys 11 acres east of Harris Creek and calls it Canton.

1796

• O'Donnell has acquired 1,941 acres.

1797

• September 7: The U.S.F. Constellation, the first ship of U.S. Navy, is launched at David Stoddard's shipyard on Harris Creek (now the current site of Safeway).

1805

• October 4: Captain O'Donnell dies at age 56 and is buried in Westminster churchyard in and Egyptian style tomb near Poe's first grave.

1814

• September 12–14: Battery of three cannons at Lazaretto Point helps defend the city as British ships bombard Fort McHenry.

1817

• February 3: Maryland General Assembly passes bill moving Baltimore city line to East Avenue (middle of street)

1828

• December: Columbus O'Donnell, William Patterson, Peter Cooper, et al. form the Canton Company.

1828–29

• Peter Cooper forms Canton Iron Works at Boston and Hudson Streets with rolling mills and kilns.

1831

• The 34-foot high Lazaretto Lighthouse is constructed near the southern end of Clinton St., with a detached keeper's house.

1835

• Canton Company stock becomes a hot commodity on Wall Street thanks to speculator Daniel Drew.

1836

• Most streets in Canton are laid out but not many have been constructed.

1847

• Fall: Canton Methodist Church, first church in Canton, dedicated on Clinton St. between Boston & Toone

1848

• Booz Bros. Shipyard is established at Harris Creek and Kenwood Avenue (current site of the Shipyard Apartments).

1850

• Baltimore Copper Smelting Co. formed in the 1600 block S. Clinton St., making six million pounds by 1860.

1854

• St. Bridget's (Brigid's) Catholic Church opens at Canton (now Ellwood) Ave. and Hudson St.

1859

• Canton Market opens at O'Donnell and Potomac Streets (current site of O'Donnell Square).

Late 1850s

• Wendell Bollman opens the Patapsco Bridge & Iron Works on Clinton St. below Boston St.

1860

• George Pabst opens a small brewery at the southeast corner of O'Donnell & Baylis Streets.

1861–1863

• Abbott Iron Works produces thick iron plates for Civil War ironclad ship the U.S.S. Monitor.

1864

• Fr. Gibbons of St. Brigid's builds a three-story rectory next to the church on Canton (now Ellwood) Ave.

1865

• The Baltimore Gaslight Co. builds a tank at Clinton and Cardiff Streets to distribute gas to homes and businesses.

1869

• The J.S. Young Co. opens on Boston St. producing industrial licorice, dyes, and tanning extracts.

1870–1885

• Lazaretto Fertilizer, Patapsco Guano, Maryland Fertilizer, Susquehanna Fertilizer, Davison Chemical, and Baugh & Sons & Chemical Co. of Canton open fertilizer plants on lower Clinton St.

1870s

• Many row houses are built for workers and families north of O'Donnell St.

1872

• Skilled Irish & Polish workers begin immigrating to work in Canton factories.

• Wunder's Brewery opens at the northeast corner of Conkling & O'Donnell streets and later becomes National Brewing Company.

1873

• March 25th: Columbus O'Donnell dies at 81 and is buried at Greenmount Cemetery.

• John Gardner opens a grain elevator and warehouse at the south end of Canton Co. property.

1874

• Edward Renneburg & Sons begins making equipment for oyster and other canning businesses.

• The German United Evangelical Church is dedicated at East Avenue and Dillon Street.

1876

• Christian Gehl opens a small brewery on the southeast corner Conkling & O'Donnell, which becomes Gunther's in 1880.

1877

• December 14: Baltimore United Oil is formed under the sponsorship of Standard Oil Co.

1878

• March 30: The first telephone in Canton is installed at Booz Bros. Shipyard.

• Baker-Whitely opens a coal company on the 2200 block of S. Clinton St. to supply ships in Baltimore's harbor.

1883

• The Norton Tin Can Co. of Chicago acquires Abbott Iron Works to make tin cans for the canning industry.

1883–1884

• Three-story houses for Welsh copper workers are built along the 1600 block of S. Clinton St., known as Copper Row.

1884

• November 30: The new Canton Methodist Church is dedicated at Canton (now Ellwood) Ave. and Dillon St.

1886

• February 15: The Canton Library opens at Canton (now Ellwood) Ave. & O'Donnell St. as the first branch of the Enoch Pratt Free Library. The building was designed by architect Charles Carson, who also designed 3046 O'Donnell St. (the "key hole house"), Mt. Vernon Methodist Church, Goucher Hall next to Lovely Lane Methodist Church, and the 1880s wing of Evergreen House.

1887

• May 15: Canton & other Baltimore County residents vote against extending city line eastward from East Ave.

1892

• Baltimore United Oil Co. is sold to Standard Oil Co., owned by John D. Rockefeller.

• Canton National Bank is founded at East Ave. & Elliott St.; after many mergers over the years, it's now Carrollton Bank.

1895

• The Norton Tin Plate & Can Co. on Boston St. builds a new gabled manufacturing plant (current side of DAP World Headquarters).

1896

• Rev. William Batz becomes pastor of the German United Evangelical Church. Although he died in 1926, people admired him so much that the church has been unofficially known as Batz's Church ever since.

1899

• Present Holy Evangelists Episcopal Church opens at Potomac & Dillon Sts.

1900

• March 1: Messiah English Lutheran Church dedicates a new granite church building at Potomac & O'Donnell Streets, which is now the Church on the Square.

1901

• March: The American Can Co. is formed and takes over Norton Tin Plate & Can Co. at Boston & Hudson Streets.

1902

• June 16: Fire Engine Co. No. 2 opens in a new building at Linwood Ave. & O'Donnell St., which is now the present-day Firehouse Coffee Company.

• November 9: St. Casimir Catholic Church opens on Lakewood Ave. at O'Donnell St. for the growing Polish population.

1904

• The American Can Co. builds a large warehouse along Boston St. next to the 1895 gabled building.

1906

• The Canton Railroad is begun by the Canton Co., connecting businesses to all major railroads in the city.

1908

• The present-day Sacred Heart of Jesus Catholic Church building is constructed at Foster Ave. & Conkling St.

1913–1914

• William Oktavec begins painting window screens, which are popular all over Canton for decades.

1914

• The Tin Decorating Co. is created by American Tobacco Co. and is the world's largest producer of tin cans, producing 4 million tins per day in 1937.

1916

• Lazaretto Lighthouse is the first in Maryland to be electrified.

1918

• March 29: The Maryland General Assembly approves moving the city line from East Avenue to its present location.

1923

• The American Can Co. builds the Flatiron-style building at the intersection of Boston and Hudson Streets and Montford Ave.

1926

• September 29: The original Lazaretto Lighthouse is demolished, and a new 39-foot high lighthouse is constructed on the site.

1927

• A new Renaissance Revival-style St. Casimir's Catholic Church, designed by Palmer, Willis, Lambdin architects, opens on Kenwood Ave. at O'Donnell St. with a replica of the altar from the Basilica of St. Anthony's in Padua, Italy.

1929

• Penroad Corp., part of the Pennsylvania Railroad, buys the Canton Co.; Sen. Harry S Truman criticizes the sale.

1943

• Canton Market closes.

1946

• Rukert Terminals Corp. buys Lazaretto Point from the Western Maryland Railroad for the warehouse and piers.

1947

• National Gypsum Co. opens a wallboard production plant at 2300 S. Newkirk St.

1954

• August: The second Lazaretto Lighthouse is decommissioned.

1957

• Esso/Standard Oil Co. stops making gasoline at its Boston Street refinery.

• The present-day United Evangelical Church building is constructed at East Ave. and Dillon St.; Civil War artifacts are found during construction.

• November 29: Baltimore's Harbor Tunnel opens, connecting East Baltimore to South Baltimore. At 1.4 miles long, it cost $138 million to build.

1959

• Hamm's Brewery buys Gunther's Brewery.

1960

• July 19: The Canton Company becomes a wholly-owned subsidiary of International Mining Co.

1962

• September 11: Lehigh Portland Cement Co. buys property on S. Clinton St., builds silos, and opens a distribution center.

1964

• Schaefer's Brewery buys Hamm's Brewery.

1966

• January: City Council passes condemnation bill for construction of I-83 expressway along Boston St.

1967

• The present-day St. Brigid's Catholic Church building is constructed at Ellwood Ave. and Hudson St.

1968

• Baltimore city demolishes 215 houses between Boston and Elliott Streets and Linwood and Lakewood Avenues to make way for I-83. Gloria Aull and Barbara Mikulski start the Southeast Council Against the Road (SCAR) to protest construction of the East-West Expressway through Canton, Fells Point, Federal Hill, and other communities.

1970s

• The city spends over $15 million to rebuild the Lakewood Avenue storm drain.

1971

• November: Barbara Mikulski is elected to the Baltimore City Council.

1975

• The American Smelting & Refining Co. closes its copper plant on S. Clinton St. At its peak, it covered 45 acres, employed up to 12,000 workers, and was owned by the Guggenheim family.

• National Brewery closes its Canton plant; production continues in Linthicum next to the Baltimore Beltway and I-895.

1978

• Schaefer's Brewery closes.

• Historic Canton by Norman G. Rukert is published by Bodine & Associates, Baltimore.

• September: The old Canton Market roof is moved to the play field near Toone and Robinson Streets.

1980

• January 29: The Canton Historic District is added to the National Register of Historic Places.

• The statue of John O'Donnell, by Tilden Streett, sculptor, statue isdedicated in O'Donnell Square.

1983

• The Anchorage Townhouses, forty three-story houses, are completed as the first new waterfront houses built in Baltimore for over 100 years, with initial asking prices ranging from $152,500 to $172,500.

1985

• A replica of Lazaretto Lighthouse is rebuilt in memory of Norman G. Rukert.

• March: The Hatton Senior Center opens at Fait and Linwood Avenues.

• November 23: The Fort McHenry Tunnel opens at 1.5 miles long; it took 5 1/2 years to build at a cost of $750 million.

1986

• February 15: The Canton Library celebrates its 100th anniversary with a gala re-enactment of the original 1886 opening program and publication of the Canton Centennial Cookbook; 1,000 copies sell out quickly.

1987

• Spring: The Tindeco Wharf Apartments on Boston Street, with 240 rental units, are completed and occupied. The Shipyard Apartments at the former Renneburg Co. site on Boston St. are completed with 56 rental units.

• April: North Shore at the Anchorage is proposed with 120 condo units and twelve pier houses; prices range from one-bedrooms at $142,000 up to pier houses at $1 million.

• The State of Maryland buys Canton Railroad for $875,000.

• Construction begins on the Canton Square townhouses, 124 units which are located on the site of the rowhouses demolished for the never-built East-West Expressway.

• Anchorage Tower is completed with 95 luxury condos at $110,000–$399,000.

• October: Canton Nursing Center opens, Boston St. between Ellwood & Decker aves. (several owners since)

• November: The Waterfront Coalition releases its Canton Guide Plan because the city has no master plan for development.

1988

• Spring: The American Can Company closes its lithography ovens, the last operations at the 87-year-old plant.

• August 31: The Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, a federal agency, notifies Baltimore City that re-development of the historic American Can buildings "should select a development proposal responsive to citizen input," regarding adaptive re-use of the buildings after the Waterfront Coalition and other community residents reject demolition of site.

1989

• The Atlantic & Southweatern Broom Company at Baylis & Boston Streets closes.

• Fall: The city passes an Urban Renewal Plan for Canton and Fells Point, ignoring community requests for minor changes affecting height and density of development proposals.

1989–1990

• Canton Cove at 2901 Boston St., the site of a former factory, opens with 88 condo units and prices from $124,000-$450,000.

1990

• Canton Waterfront Park and the Korean War Memorial are dedicated, replacing a railroad yard and cargo pier, closed many years prior, of which a car float is the only remaining structure.

1993

• The Broom Factory re-opens with affordable commercial office space.

1998

• March: DAP opens its world headquarters in the 1895 Norton Tin Can Co. building and is the first tenant at The Can Company, the re-developed American Can site.

• November 12: Bibelot Bookstore and Donna's Coffee Bar open at The Can Company.

1999

• Renovation of existing houses north of O'Donnell Street for new homeowners dramatically increases.

2001

• Bibelot Bookstore and Donna's Coffee Bar close at The Can Company