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A Visit With S.J. Martenet in Baltimore

By Marc S. Cheves, LS

NNot far from OriolesStadium at CamdenYards where the 19thcentury foundations ofBabe Ruth’s boyhoodhome lie buried

beneath the ballpark, a grand brown-stone mansion-turned-office-buildingon St. Paul Street houses the offices of S.J. Martenet and Co., one of theoldest firms in the country. Foundedin 1849, Martenet’s archives holdfoundations of another sort—volumesof historic survey records that docu-ment the growth of Baltimore Cityand beyond. One of the company’sprincipals is our own Associate Editor,Joel Leininger. Leininger, of course, iswell-known on the national lecture circuit and has written scores of articlesand essays on survey-related matters,but we thought readers would enjoy amore personal visit and a close-up lookat some of the interesting things hiscompany does.

Leininger was first attracted to the profession after taking a surveying classat the Baltimore Polytechnic Institutewhere he attended high school. He

also served as a surveyor in the MarineCorps Reserve. Early in his career,Leininger would spend his Saturdays poring over law books and case law atthe Pratt Library. He has many boundarylaw and Maryland history volumes inhis library today (see images). Says he, “The rules governing our practicehave their origin in those books. Howcan we afford not to have them athand?” As a result of his self-study,Leininger knows his subject very well,and is highly regarded as a boundarysurveyor among the title community in Maryland. (He is also a computerprogrammer, and wrote the accountingpackage the firm uses, as well as codingfor the firm’s digital records archives.)

Because of their experience andextensive records, the Martenet team isable to concentrate the major portion oftheir work on commercial title surveys,boundary resolution, topography, andlitigation support. As a licensedMaryland surveyor myself, I can personally attest to the value of

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Martenet’s records. Before becominginvolved in the magazine business, Ihad occasion to do a survey inBaltimore in the early 1990s. At thetime, Martenet’s records were availableto any surveyor for $55 per hour. Igathered up all the information aboutmy subject tract, and even thoughMartenet had not surveyed my particu-lar parcel, they had surveyed allaround it. We did our field work, andtied in everything Martenet had sur-veyed, including work that had beendone back in the 1920s. Back then,Baltimore surveyors worked in frac-tional feet, not tenths and hundredths.Once we had computed our field work,we were amazed to find that every-where we turned—even two blocksaway—we hit the 1920’s locations with-in a quarter of an inch. Needless to say,it was one of those surveys where wehad no doubt we were re-establishingour boundary in its correct location.Naturally, access fees to Martenet’srecords have gone up since I lastaccessed them, and their methods ofresearch have changed as well. Todaythe company charges $85-95 per hourfor a Martenet employee to do theresearch, and because they have creat-ed digital indexes and images, most oftheir research takes no more than anhour or two.

The company is currently involvedin an ongoing program to convert all ofits records to digital form. (See moreabout this project in the sidebar.) Allthe records will eventually be availableonline, thereby saving visitors a trip toMartenet’s office. Leininger showed mea PDF version of one set of records,which at 35 pages, looked very com-plete. Martenet will make its recordsavailable for sale, even if the companyis not selected for a job, albeit at a high-er fee. Given that, heaven help the sur-veyor who finds himself in a dispute with Martenet on the otherside, and who didn’t bother to consultwhat the archive contained. A propersurvey, after all, requires having theright records, and Martenet is a primeresource for such records. The firm also requires a copy of the finished plator boundary worksheet as a returnproduct, which then gets indexed andincorporated into the archive to benefitfuture generations. Leininger adds, “We don’t believe in the value of recordsbecause we’re sitting on top of a trove of

The firm of S.J. Martenet has been caught up in an interestingwrinkle in the Maryland licensinglaw. Of the four principals, only

Leininger is a licensed surveyor.Historically, Maryland, like many stateson the East Coast, incorporated road and storm drain design into its surveyinglicense. In the 1970s, because of a perceived lack of candidates having thatsort of design experience, the state legislature created a second surveyinglicense that was identical to the originalexcept that it eliminated the “minor engineering” component. After that time,most newly licensed surveyors opted forthe newer license, which was more consistent with the actual workload inmany surveying offices. In 1990,Maryland changed its law again, andeliminated further issuance of the newernon-engineering license. Thus, untilrecently, candidates for licensure had tosubmit evidence of experience in roadand storm-drain design, something thatmost surveyors could not accumulate,

because market realities dictated thatengineers perform those services. Thepool of Maryland licensed surveyorsdiminished because almost no one gotlicensed for a decade. That requirementhas recently been relaxed such thatclasses can be taken in lieu of experi-ence to meet the requirement. Today,after satisfying the Maryland SurveyorsBoard that they have the necessaryexperience or education, those applyingfor a Maryland surveying license mustalso take a separate exam that testsknowledge of road grade and storm draindesign. For surveyors who have nodesire to do anything but surveying, theburden is onerous. Because of this, notone of the other three principals atMartenet is licensed, although all of themare highly qualified and in the process ofobtaining the necessary education andsitting for the exam. Unfortunately, it isthe public that is the real victim here,because only two or three new licenseshave been granted each year since thechange took place.

Standing L-R: Tom Wilhelm and Jeff HowardSeated L-R: Dave Paplauckas and Joel Leininger

The Maryland Licensing Wrinkle



them, we’re sitting on top of a trove ofthem because we believe in their value.”

In a wide-ranging discussion,Leininger outlined his philosophies onsurveying. First and foremost, hebelieves that surveyors are not goingafter all the work available to them. Inhis column in the May/June issue, hedecried the surveyor who threw up hishands and told the client, “That is out-side the scope of my practice, you’llhave to consult with an attorney.”Because survey and boundary law are no longer being emphasized in law school, attorneys are increasinglyrelying on surveyors for expert assis-tance in this area. Leininger citesadverse possession as an example: asurveyor can know the elements, and isable to ask the questions and find thefacts, therefore he or she could offer an

opinion, if willing to widen their focus.He also poses a number of questions:Why is it assumed that only title com-panies are allowed to render opinions?Is this self-imposed by surveyors? Arethere legal requirements to support thisassumption? He firmly believes thatsurveyors must be more than mere factfinders, and he and his partners havebuilt a very successful practice aroundthis belief.

Leininger cautions fellow surveyorsnot be become too narrow-minded, ortoo focused on what he calls the “pocketprotector,” or technical aspects, of ourprofession. To this end, he has branchedout into planning, zoning and land useopinions. He believes surveyors are justas qualified as anyone else to do this,and argues that it all comes down tosubject matter knowledge and the trustfactor: do your clients trust your judg-ment on the subject? Leininger empha-sized that he is not talking about merelyshifting the liability to the surveyor, butrather participating in the process, andusing our unique knowledge to expandour realms of practice. Leiningerbelieves we have far more in commonwith the title attorneys than we do withcivil engineers, but we need to becomebetter communicators.

When I asked him if there was a“secret” to success, he listed the keys:meticulous execution on every project,knowing your subject well, and beingable to convince others that you areworthy of reliance. It’s a formula thathas preserved the foundations of S.J.Martenet & Co. for more than a centuryand a half, and promises success forgenerations to come.

Boundary law begins here.

History of the Firm

Like many early-day surveyors,Simon J. Martenet was a man of many talents—surveyor, civilengineer, mapper, and real estate

agent. His name is most often associatedwith the Maryland atlases he published inthe latter half of the 19th century, eventhough firm records show that the atlaseswere but a small part of the overall oper-ation. The bulk of the work consisted ofproperty surveys, topographic surveys,and new development layout—in short,typical surveying activities both then andnow. Martenet was elected City Surveyorsix times. As a developer, he had a handin dozens of developments throughoutBaltimore City and County, many of whichare thriving communities to this day.

Following Martenet’s death in 1892,the company’s four principal assistants—Harry Javins, Septimus Tustin, HowardSutton, and William Atwood—purchasedthe firm from his widow. Sutton and Tustin(and their descendants) ended up control-ling the firm for more than nine decades;Atwood was elected City Surveyor. SamuelThompson signed on in 1898.

In February of 1904 the GreatBaltimore Fire swept through most ofdowntown Baltimore, leveling more than80 blocks and destroying hundreds ofbusinesses. S.J. Martenet was located inthe Equitable Building, which was the firstof Baltimore’s new “skyscrapers” at ninestories tall. Although most of the oversizedrecords were lost, while the fire ragednearby the partners of the firm loadedeverything they could into wagons,including paper records, fieldbooks andinstruments and carted them off. Thebuilding’s interior was destroyed, but thefacade remained intact, and rebuildingcommenced immediately. Martenet’srecords were considered the best evidence for the re-establishment of thedowntown area.

George Wimmer and Howard Tustinjoined the firm in 1906. In 1943Thompson and Wimmer died within a



month or so of each other(Wimmer died from typhoid acouple of weeks after water in agutter splashed into his mouthwhile driving an iron pipe) andTustin found himself unable tokeep up with the demands of thebusiness. He asked HowardSutton, son of the former partnerto merge his company, Sutton,Britcher and Co., with Martenet.Tustin and Sutton were chartermembers of the Maryland Societyof Surveyors when it began in1947, with Tustin serving as itsfirst president. After World War IIthe partners decided to get out of

land development because they felt theprocess had become overly politicizedand not financially worthwhile. With thisdecision, the firm was no longer thelargest in the state, but it continued toconcentrate on city and county surveys.

Tustin’s sons, Howard Jr. and Richard,joined the firm after the war, and werethe first to be able to retire from thebusiness. In 1988, Leininger, along withpartners Dave Paplauckas and TomWilhelm, purchased the assets from theTustin brothers and incorporated thefirm. After a four-year joint venture withanother Baltimore firm, Purdum andJeschke, a fourth surveyor, Jeff Howard,left Purdum and Jeschke and joined as

Above: The shocking aftermath of Baltimore’s 1904 fire.Left: Table of Rhumbs drafted by Karl Britcher. Deeds for patents from the1600s used navigational bearings, and the table was used to convert tonumerical values for calculation purposes.



principal. In 1995 the firm acquired therecords of another well-known Baltimorefirm, E.V. Coonan and Co. In 2002,Martenet acquired the 50-odd years ofsurvey records of Purdum and Jeschke.

Today, Martenet’s offices are located ina beautiful 16,000 square foot brown-

stone mansion on St. Paul Street indowntown Baltimore. Perhaps they weremeant to be there all along, for recordsshow that S.J. Martenet and Companyhad originally staked out the building in1885. Today, the firm occupies roughly3,000 square feet; the building also

One of many maps produced either bythe firm or based on surveys by thefirm in the 19th century.



contains six apartments and an additionalcommercial space housing the ConcertArtists of Baltimore. One of the apart-ments is occupied by a violinist for theBaltimore Symphony. While I was there,the sounds of her violin drifted pleasantlydown the elegant 19th century stairwell.

Archives Overview

The Martenet archive consists ofsurveys and related records cre-ated by S.J. Martenet & Co. andother local firms during the sec-

ond half of the nineteenth century.Between 1849 and 2000, the firm con-ducted approximately 60,000 surveysacross the state, focusing primarily onthe Baltimore metropolitan area.

The close working relationshipbetween S.J. Martenet and the state ofMaryland dates back at least to the CivilWar, when the General Assembly passeda law mandating state and federalagency cooperation with Mr. Martenet inthe preparation of his map of Maryland,which was to become the standard mapand atlas used in all Maryland schools.The collection is without peer, comple-menting and enhancing the extensivecollection of public records relating toland in the custody of the Maryland StateArchives. The collection includes the indi-vidual project files containing titleresearch and analysis, correspondence,computations, plats of the property, othernotes regarding the survey and fieldbooks used during the survey, estate filesand related indices, oversized plats, andrelated reference materials pertaining tothe disposition of land.

The records of three other firms—Sutton, Britcher and Associates (circa1920-1942), E.V. Coonan and Co. (circa1910-1960) and Purdum and Jeschke(1950-2001)—are also contained withinthe collection, the records having beenobtained by the firm over the years. TheCoonan records also contain many origi-nal records from the Bouldin family,which surveyed in the Baltimore areafrom the 1790s to1910. These sets ofrecords consist of 5,320 rolls, 55,000packets (files) and 1,500 fieldbooks forMartenet, of which approximately 25,000packets and 510 rolls have beenscanned. Coonan’s records consist of2,500 rolls, and have been indexed butnot scanned. The Purdum and Jeschke

records have yet to be indexed orscanned. All in all, Leininger estimatesthat Martenet has spent $100,000 thusfar in making the records digital.

Several finding aids have been incorpo-rated into the site to assist in identifyingrecords of interest. Of particular impor-tance to surveyors and others interested inspecific properties is geographic indexing.Based on tax maps (and, in Baltimore City,block plats) it enables searchers to identifyrecords of interest by simply providing thelocation of the place of interest. Searchescan also be conducted by client name,agent name and intersecting streets.Extensive cross-referencing was incorpo-rated into the archives to allow quick“jumping” to other data sets containingrelated material. Additionally, resources atthe Maryland State Archives are incorpo-rated into the archives where appropriate.

Because the firm is still activelyengaged in surveying in centralMaryland, it is continuallyadding to the archive.Records of surveys conducted subsequent to1988, however, are notavailable as yeton the website.Continued >



Digital ArchiveProject

The digital archive of the S.J.Martenet records is the product ofan evolutionary process thatbegan more than a decade ago.

In 1990, on a visit to the Pratt library,Leininger took note of a CD-based imageretrieval system for back issues of maga-zines. Although pedestrian by today’sstandards, the system seemed revolution-ary at the time. Using a full-text indexingsystem to identify the pages of interest,the system delivered images of individualmagazine pages, not merely text files ofthe articles. Leininger suspected that sucha system could be modified to accommo-date the firm’s archives, yet neither thetechnology for a large-scale scanningproject nor the funding for it was withinthe firm’s reach. Nevertheless, Leiningerinstituted the geographical indexing project that entailed reviewing every sur-vey file, geographically coding its location,and entering the data into a database.This allowed for improved searchingcapabilities of the original records. Withvarious employees working on the codingproject off and on, it took more than 14 years to geographically reference theentire 60,000-record collection.

At the same time, Dr. Edward C.Papenfuse, Maryland State Archivist andCommissioner of Land Patents, wasdirecting a series of projects at theMaryland State Archives that would deliverimages of records in their collections inresponse to web-based requests.Papenfuse was familiar with the mapsissued by Martenet in the latter half of the 19th century but was unaware of thecurrent status and setup of the firm.Ironically, due to the loss of records resulting from the Great Baltimore Fire of 1904, much of what the contemporaryemployees of Martenet knew about thefirm’s 19th century mapping projects they gleaned from Papenfuse and Coale’sAtlas of Historical Maps of Maryland.Although Leininger was generally familiar

with the Archive team’s mission, he wasnot aware of its interest in preserving pri-vate survey records, nor of its digitalcapabilities.

At the suggestion of a mutual friend, in1998 Papenfuse arranged to visitMartenet’s offices and there saw for thefirst time both the extent of the collectionand its fragile state. He concluded at oncethat it would be in the State’s best interestto attempt to preserve the collection;however, the cost of the undertaking wasbeyond what the Archives or Martenetbudgets could absorb. Papenfuse there-fore set about looking for funding sources.

The project would be beneficial for bothorganizations. The Archives would lendprofessional knowledge in the care andhandling of a one-of-a-kind collection thatcould be preserved for future generations,while the imaging and retrieval systemwould provide a test bed for the develop-ment of similar projects for other organi-zations. The system would also yield arevenue stream.

Martenet would benefit from the fasterretrieval of records, and geographicsearches would be more complete andreliable than the old indexing methods.Also, depositing the original records withthe Archives would place them in the careof professionals experienced in dealingwith fragile documents and thus relievethe firm of the burden of preservingthem. Insurance was also an issue.Policies for “valuable papers” only cov-ered the cost of replacing papers thatwere destroyed. Since one-of-a-kindpapers such as those in the collectioncould not be reproduced, there was noinsurance available for the collection.



Efficiency was another benefit forMartenet. Typically, when other surveyingfirms requested information from theirfiles, someone had to take time toretrieve the information. With a digitalretrieval system, less human interactionwould be required.

Months passed while the Archivesgroup deliberated over the sources fromwhich to request grants. PreservationMaryland awarded the two entities$50,000 to purchase equipment andbegin the project. The Maryland GeneralAssembly committed $14,000 for eachof the next four years toward the proj-ect. The Archives committed to staffingthe project and Martenet provided spaceand underwrote the cost of utilities in itsnewly-acquired facilities on Saint PaulStreet in Baltimore. A high-speed DSLline connected the Baltimore facility andthe Hall of Records in Annapolis.

In the years that followed, the inter-ests of Martenet and the State diverged.

Martenet is still responsible for the“databases” necessary to manage thearchive, and the State is still responsiblefor scanning the papers and creating theimages, but the management of thearchive has taken two separate paths.The State’s system is Windows NT-based, using Microsoft SQL Server andColdFusion. Martenet’s system (coded byLeininger) is Linux-based, using Apache,PHP and MySQL. Both support “dynamicweb page creation,” or the ability to create web pages and serve them to thebrowser on demand. This allows formaximum flexibility and efficiency inmaintaining the archive. From the user’sperspective, one “surfs” the archive witha web browser.

The Archives team set up what ultimately became a seven-scanner/eight-workstation operation at Martenet,scanning images associated with theMartenet collection as well as imagesfrom other collections, including subdivi-sion plats and related materials for thewww.plats.net project and State Highwayplats for the www.mdroads.net project.

The images are available from bothsources, but the Archives may only offerthem in its search room in Annapolis.Web-based inquiries must be directed tothe Martenet site. As yet, however, the siteis not exposed to the Internet at large,because the imaged part of the collectionhas not reached sufficient coverage of thecollection to warrant going “live.”

1912 calculation worksheet



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