In 2009, the TBHS worked to bring recognition to William Fuld’s iconic Harford Avenue Ouija factory, built after the Ouija told William Fuld to “prepare for big business.” Fuld reacted by purchasing a block of land across the street from his old address of 1208 Federal Street, and the three story, thirty-six thousand square foot factory at 1508-1514 Harford, Lamont and Federal opened its doors in late 1918. It was unlike anything built in Baltimore at that time, and cost one-hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars!
This is the same factory that cost William Fuld his life on February 24th 1927, when he was tragically killed after falling from the factory’s roof while attempting to replace a flagpole. The iron support he was leaning on gave way, and he tumbled backwards, grasping and catching one of the factory windows and then falling to the ground. He suffered a “concussion of the brain, five fractured ribs, a broken arm, a fractured leg, and numerous cuts and bruises.” An employee who witnessed the fall picked him up and rushed him to the hospital where he later died from one of his broken ribs piercing his heart. Laying on his deathbed he made his children promise they would never sell the Ouija board.
The company’s headquarters remained at the Harford, Lamont, and Federal factory until 1948, when the company relocated. In the Spring of 2009, two years of coordinating with Baltimore Maryland’s Mayor’s office paid off, and this iconic building became the first public landmark in Maryland acknowledging its Ouija history.