While conducting my research on Babe Ruth, I was always on the look out for old photos of his father's saloons especially on Camden Street and Conway Street, but never ran across any.
Recently I came across the attached photo looking down at Camden Station from the Bromo Seltzer Tower. I contacted the B&O Museum (the source for the photo) and was sent a digital copy. I also understand this photo is on display near the 8th floor elevators of the warehouse at Oriole Park at Camden Yards.
What interested me, were the buildings west of the warehouse (today the outfield bleachers and playing field of the Orioles). Ruth's Conway Street saloon can be seen about a third of the way from the bottom of the photo along the right edge.
I copied an image from a 1914 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map and inserted it next to an enlarged section of the photo showing the saloon. I placed it upside down to aid comparison between the photo and map. One can easily identify the unusually shaped warehouses across from the saloon on both map and photo. One of the buildings is identified as a Paper Warehouse on the map, and the word "Paper" is visible on a painted sign in the photo at the same location.
Although the saloon appears to be directly across the 4 story tall building on the map, not the back of the 6 story paper warehouse as shown in the photo - the photo was taken from the Bromo Seltzer Tower at the northeast corner of Lombard and Eutaw Street, skewing the angle.
A store and dwelling on Conway Street east of the saloon can also be identified on both the photo and map.
Although it is not the clearest image; it is taken from above; and it shows the side of the saloon along Little Paca Street, not the front on Conway Street; the building circled is definitely Ruth's Conway Street saloon.
