Chapter FiveAFTER THE CRASH, 1930–1937
Emulating Mr. Legg's move to a bigger house in 1927 – although their timing was better and on a much more modest scale – in January 1930 Rowe and Eleanor upgraded from their small rental home and bought a stone and wood‐framed 3,000‐square‐foot home on a nicely landscaped half‐acre lot at 4309 Wendover Road, in the upper‐middle‐class neighborhood of Guilford in North Baltimore. The house was valued at $22,000 in the 1930 census ($323,000 in 2018 dollars). They probably got a very good deal, given the traumatic economic environment, and possibly were given some parental help. They would remain on Wendover Road for most of their married life.
Price home at 4309 Wendover Road. Photo online.
The relatively modest size of this house, compared to the mansions of many of his peers, speaks volumes of the man and the way he conducted his life and business. He had absorbed the lessons of the Quaker Way learned at Friends School and Swarthmore, letting results speak for him. He didn't need the pretense of a large house.
As the country plummeted into the Depression, Baltimore suffered along with it. Men would be up early looking for work, but by noon, unsuccessful in their search, they would join long bread lines to get hot soup and a piece of bread. Mackubin, Goodrich couldn't escape the devastation of the market. Rowe wrote in his journal on September ...