The city of Baltimore, Maryland has had its fair share of ups and downs. So it’s not surprising that after another setback to its arts and culture scene this summer, the community rallied. And in the most “Baltimore” way possible. Blue crabs.

A carjacking causes even more damage

A 49-year-old man reports that at 2:30 a.m., four men attacked him on Baltimore’s Madison Avenue. They assaulted him and took his car. The thieves were still driving the vehicle at 11:20 a.m., when the police spotted it cruising down West North Avenue. So the police chased it.

The thieves took off, and tried to escape. Instead, they lost control of the vehicle and crashed through a building called the Motor House.

The Motor House is a Baltimore landmark. It was built in 1914 for the Eastwick Motors dealership. By the 1970s it had become Lombard Office Furniture. A group of artists bought it and changed that sign slightly to read “Load of Fun.” They refurbished it to serve as artist galleries and performance spaces. It was an anchor of the Station North Arts District. In 2013, a nonprofit bought the North Avenue building to transform it again into the Motor House event space and gallery.

The car smashed right through the front of the North Avenue landmark. Of course the Station North Arts District neighborhood community was sad to see the Motor House so heavily damaged. So they thought of an iconically Baltimore fundraiser: a crab feast thrown at Motor House last weekend.

Blue Crab and crab feasts are a Chesapeake Bay tradition. Mollie McKinney, the rentals coordinator at Motor House says, “The crab feast is going to help us continue to support artists, continue our mission statement, and also it’s going to help us recover from the recent accident.”

Leftover funds will go to the anniversary gala. Board member Jennifer Vey says, “It’s exciting that they’re coming up on 10 years, it’s such a great asset for Baltimore, it’s a great space for artists of all types..I’m so proud to be a board member, and just it feels great to be out here on a beautiful Saturday night and support Motor House.”

Da’Rious Moore, the Motor House bartender put it succinctly: There’s no way the accident is “stopping the grind out here or the mission that we have.”