Baltimore's First Steps
How to Keep Them Sparkling

View streaming video of step-scrubbing techniques

Lynn Franklin shows NPR's Neal Conan (right) and sound engineer Kevin Wait how to scrub steps. Photo: Laurel Braitman, NPR

July 21, 2001 --The marble front steps of the city's rowhouses are Baltimore -- as much as crab cakes and the Orioles.

The steps are a touch of class on working-class homes, the meeting place of generations, and a chattier alternativ e to the suburban front yard.

Most likely, your mother swept them religiously.

And one day a week (usually Saturday), you scrubbed them with Bon Ami powder, a pumice stone and a bucket of warm water.

Today, you probably don't live in the same house. Mom may be gone. And you may hardly remember what it was like to have red hands that smelled like marble steps -- clean steps that the neighbors praised, asking, "What kinda powder did you use to scrub 'em , hon?"

Could it be that the art of scrubbing marble has been lost in Charm City? No way. It lives with the surviving step-scrubbers of the older generation, and the new champions of block beautification.

Neal Conan demonstrates proper scrubbing technique Photo: Laurel Braitman, NPR

Some of the new people in the old neighborhoods are making it a priority to spend their Saturdays scrubbing. There's even a kit available at the Hometown Girl store in Baltimore, containing a bag of Bon Ami powder, a piece of pumice, and a short list of instructions. The kit is the brainchild of the non-profit Neighborhood Design Center, whose mission is to improve Baltimore neighborhoods' livability and viability.

On Weekend Edition Saturday, Neal Conan speaks to David Collins of the Neighborhood Design Center; Lynn Franklin, an expert step-scrubber; Sen. Barbara Mikulski, a Baltimore native who remembers her childhood hangouts; and Mary Pat Andrea, owner of Hometown Girl, about the renewal of downtown Baltimore -- and how best to scrub your own marble.

Web Resources:

The Neighborhood Design Center can be found at
www.ndc-md.org