On Oct. 26, 1918, Baltimore health commissioner Blake decided to allow churches, retail stores, movie houses, theaters, poolrooms, and lodges to reopen with limited hours. Churches could hold services from 5:00 am to 3:00 pm. Movie house and theater owners protested the restricted hours–which prohibited them from showing matinees–but to no avail. At noon on Saturday, November 2, the closure order was removed.

Baltimore’s excess death rate for the epidemic period was only 559 per 100,000, better than that of many of its East Coast counterparts. Washington, DC, for example, only 40 miles to the southwest, experienced a death rate of 608 deaths per 100,000 people, despite a similar lag in response to its epidemic.

Boston and Philadelphia, two cities devastated by influenza in the fall of 1918, experienced excess death rates of 710 and 748 deaths per 100,000 people, respectively.