Erected in 1879 as an investment property for Arunah Shepherdson Abell, founder of The Baltimore Sun, the Abell Building was designed by famed Baltimore architect George Frederick—architect for Baltimore's City Hall, Hollins Market, and the Old Baltimore City College. Abell spared no expense in constructing the cast-iron framed, masonry façade building and worked to ensure that tenants included multiple, prominent businesses. Though the building quickly became known for its lavish construction, its ornate exterior belied the hard reality that workers within its walls faced. The corner of West Baltimore and Eutaw Streets made an ideal location for local industry along a main streetcar line, just a few blocks from a B&O Railroad station and close to the Baltimore harbor. The grandeur of the building's construction, its two hydraulic elevators, and its imposing size invited immediate recognition and praise in local and national publications. In late nineteenth century Baltimore, as across the country, most skilled professions had declined as craftsmen were replaced by machines that could produce more goods more quickly. Wages for the masses of largely immigrant, unskilled workers who came to cities like Baltimore seeking work in industries remained low and working conditions were unregulated and woefully unsafe. One of the industries that attracted thousands of workers to Baltimore was the clothing or needle trade. In the years following the Civil War, demand for ready-to-wear garments skyrocketed and Baltimore's garment district boomed in response. Strouse Brothers, one of Baltimore's largest clothing manufacturers operated out of this building in the late nineteenth century and was a prominent player in Baltimore's growing needle trade. Strouse ran what was then called an "inside shop"—a multistory factory outfitted with new machines and the latest in manufacturing technology—where workers (largely women) worked long hours to keep the factory's machines running, often earning barely enough to survive. While larger clothing manufacturers escaped the criticism directed to sweatshops by local reformers, producers like Strouse, even when unionized (the United Garment Workers organized in Baltimore in the 1890s), often sent piecework out to sweated workers in small shops or set up their own small, outside sweatshops to avoid paying higher wages or complying with worker demands for better conditions and shorter hours. When the clothing industry slumped after WWI, many of the gains achieved by Baltimore's garment unions eroded as the pursuit of ever-shrinking profits led many manufacturers to once again increase their reliance on sweatshops. Despite the fact that union strikes eventually brought new gains, Baltimore's once thriving garment trade was in sharp decline by the 1930s. Though there are still a small number of women sewing coats and uniforms in various downtown clothing shops, Baltimore's days as a center of ready-to-wear garment production are long gone. Luckily, this handsome brick building weathered the decline of the garment industry and years of neglect. PMC property group acquired the building in 2005 and it now houses well-appointed apartments that feature high ceilings, large windows, and a bit of Baltimore history.
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Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church is Maryland’s mother church of the AME Church. It is one of the foundational churches in the AME Connection. After meeting on Saratoga Street for almost 100 years, Bethel AME moved to 1300 Druid Hill Avenue in 1911.
In April 1815, preachers Daniel Coker, Henry Harden, and Richard Williams led about two hundred members of the Lovely Lane and Strawberry Alley Meeting Houses and the African Church on Sharp Street to separate from the Methodist Episcopal Church. Calling themselves “The African Methodist Bethel Society,” the group arranged to occupy the former German Lutheran Church on Fish Street (now Saratoga), and created a rent-to-own agreement with its owner. The brick church was built in 1762 and enlarged in 1785. It had three stories in front and two in the rear, with a pulpit, pews and galleries inside. Bethel Church was founded there on April 23 or June 3, 1815. The African Bethel School operated in the church basement to educate Black children. The school hosted exhibitions to celebrate Bethel’s milestones, such as its founding anniversary, and demonstrate its students’ talents.
Coker and the church trustees registered incorporation papers for the “African Methodist Bethel Church or Society in the City of Baltimore” at the Baltimore court house on April 8, 1816. The next day, six delegates traveled from Baltimore to Philadelphia. The assembled delegations established the African Methodist Episcopal Church and ordained Richard Allen to be its first bishop.
Bethel became the owner of its church building on March 7, 1838. The building, however, required work. The church and its land flooded when Jones Falls did – hence “Fish Street” – which caused damage and inconvenience. A flood in June 1838 destroyed Bethel’s school library, which held a thousand books. In addition, the congregation outgrew the building by the early 1840s. Construction on a new church began in August 1847. The Romanesque style church was consecrated on July 9, 1848.
In 1909, the Baltimore City Council condemned the church in order to widen Saratoga Street. The Bethel congregation had to find a new home and purchased the church formerly used by St. Peter’s Protestant Episcopal Church at Druid Hill Avenue and Lanvale Street. Built in 1868, the church was in the middle of thriving West Baltimore. The move placed Bethel closer to its congregants – half of the city’s Black population lived in the neighborhood by 1904 – and among two other relocated Black churches, Sharp Street Memorial and Union Baptist. The opening services took place on January 8, 1911.
Over its history, Bethel has led action to address causes affecting Black Baltimoreans through mutual support, education, benevolent societies, and organizing. Bethel’s members assisted people escaping slavery, an effort that took place within a larger network of African Methodists. During the Civil War, Bethel hosted special lectures for the US Colored Troops and held fundraisers to support soldiers and their families. At the start of World War I, the congregation expanded to 1,500 members as a result of Black migration from rural areas into the city. Members were active in the Civil Rights Movement and other political causes, including the denouncement of the Vietnam War. In the 1970s, church members established a women’s counseling center and supported Black liberation in South Africa. Contemporary lay ministries using Bethel Church as a base have addressed the needs of women, the homeless, senior citizens, pregnant teenagers, and drug and alcohol addicts.
Today, Bethel A.M.E remains a bastion in Baltimore’s African American community dedicated to community enrichment and spiritual guidance.
Laurel Cemetery was incorporated in 1852 as Baltimore’s first nondenominational cemetery for African Americans. The location chosen was Belle Air Avenue (now Belair Road), on a hill long used as a burial ground for free and enslaved servants of local landowners. Laurel quickly became a popular place of burial for people across Black Baltimore’s socioeconomic spectrum, including the graves of 230 Black Civil War veterans, members of the United States Colored Troops (U.S.C.T.). After its creation, Laurel Cemetery was known as one of the most beautiful and prominent African American cemeteries in the city.
Serving as the commemorative center for the African American community in the late 1800’s, annual parades and Memorial Day gatherings to honor and decorate the graves of the Black Civil War veterans occurred regularly at Laurel Cemetery, which was also the resting place of many prominent members of Baltimore’s African American population. Historical records show that in 1894, Frederick Douglass traveled to Laurel Cemetery to speak on the occasion of the unveiling of a monument honoring Bishop Daniel Alexander Payne, who served as the sixth Bishop of the African Methodist Episcopalian (A.M.E.) church, and was a founder and former president of Wilberforce University.
The decline of Laurel Cemetery started in the early decades of the twentieth century. In 1911, the remains of the Civil War veterans were removed and reinterred at Loudon Park National Cemetery to accommodate the expansion of Belair Road. In 1920, Elmley Avenue was created and row houses were built along the newly constructed street on the southern boundary of the Cemetery. In 1930, a portion of the grounds were sold for the construction of a gas station, and the offices of the Laurel Cemetery Company were moved offsite. This highly contested sale drove a wedge between the private owners of the cemetery and the deed holding descendants of the interred.
By the 1930s the site had become overgrown and garbage-strewn, and the owners of the cemetery failed to uphold their duties in maintaining the property. In May of 1948, members of the Belair Edison Improvement Association called for the demolition of Laurel Cemetery, which declared bankruptcy in 1952. Legislation passed in 1957 by Maryland Lawmakers provided the legal justification for the sole shareholder of the now defunct Laurel Cemetery Company to sell the land to the McKamer Realty Company for $100 in 1958.
Although the McKamer Realty Company was founded for the express purpose of purchasing the cemetery by two employees of the Baltimore Law Department, an internal review by the Mayor’s office found no evidence for a conflict of interest and the sale went through, netting thousands of dollars in profits for the owners upon selling the rezoned property. A series of lawsuits seeking justice for the disenfranchised descendants failed to prevail in the courts and thus, after being in existence for 106 years, Laurel Cemetery was leveled. Some the remains of those buried at Laurel were sent to cemeteries in Arbutus in Baltimore County and an estimated 350 remains were reburied at the new Laurel Cemetery in Carroll County. Unfortunately, this new site has also not been maintained.
In February of 1962, the former site of Laurel Cemetery became the new location of Two Guys Department Store. Today it is the site of the Belair-Edison Crossing Shopping Center, and home to several businesses. The Shopping Center is a heavily traveled and highly valued local establishment – most recently sold to a Florida based-business in 2014. However, many current patrons and nearby residents have no knowledge of the site’s former purpose and significance.
The Maryland Center for History and Culture (MCHC) collects, preserves, and interprets the history, art, and culture of Maryland. Originally founded as the Maryland Historical Society in 1844, MCHC inspires critical thinking, creativity, and community by exploring multiple perspectives and sharing national stories through the lens of Maryland.
As the oldest continuously operating nonprofit cultural institution in the state, MCHC houses a collection of 7 million books, documents, manuscripts, and photographs, and 350,000 objects in its museum and library located in Baltimore. MCHC also serves as a leading center of Maryland history education for people of all ages.
In January 1844, a group of Maryland residents gathered in the offices of the Maryland Colonization Society at the Baltimore City Post Office and established the Maryland Historical Society. They proposed collecting the "remnants of the state’s history" and preserving their heritage through research, writing, and publications. By the end of the first year, the Maryland Historical Society (MdHS) had 150 members. The group quickly outgrew their rooms at the post office and their fireproof safe at the Franklin Street Bank could not hold the growing number of documents and artifacts donated to the institution.
The new committee started work on a grand home for Baltimore’s new cultural institution, including space for an art gallery. They hired Robert Carey Long, Jr., who designed the Athenaeum, a four-story "Italian palazzo" style building with a unique feature for the preservation-minded historical society: fireproof closets.
Membership and donations increased during the 1850s after the society settled in the Athenaeum. Visitors came out for art exhibitions and donated paintings and statues to the society collections. Baltimore philanthropist, George Peabody donated to support the creation of an index of Maryland records in the London Public Record Office and, in 1867, established the society’s first publications fund. Additionally, the MdHS continued its work protecting state history and late in the nineteenth century the state transferred government records into their care.
Like many historical societies around the country, the Maryland Historical Society saw major changes around the turn of the century. Education became an important part of the group’s mission in many historical societies and women gained full membership. Annie Leakin Sioussat and Lucy Harwood Harrison were among the first female members of the Maryland Historical Society and spent decades volunteering their time and services. In 1906, the MdHS launched the Maryland Historical Magazine, a quarterly journal featuring new research and writing on Maryland history.
MdHS moved into its current home at 201 West Monument Street in 1919 soon after the end of World War I. The new building, the former residence of Baltimore philanthropist Enoch Pratt with a state-of-the-art fireproof addition, came as a gift from Mary Washington Keyser, whose husband, H. Irvine Keyser, had been an active member of the society for forty-three years.
As their predecessors had done after the Civil War, MdHS leaders started an effort to collect "the relics" of the recent Great War. In 1920, the state legislature formed a committee including former governor and historical society president Edwin Warfield. This group comprised the Historical Division of the state’s War Records Commission and served as the "official organ" of the federal government in collecting and compiling the military records of those Marylanders who served in World War I. The society initiated a similar agreement during World War II.
The society began expanding the Monument Street facility in 1953 and, in 1968, added the Thomas and Hugg building named after William and John Thomas. Designed by a local firm, Meyer, Ayers & Saint, the new building includes exhibition space, an auditorium, work rooms, storage space, and "to supplement the present Confederate Room--a Civil War Union Room." In 1981, the society added the France-Merrick Wing to the Thomas and Hugg Building.
Perhaps no other object in the holdings of the Maryland Historical Society attracts more visitors than the original manuscript of Francis Scott Key’s Star-Spangled Banner. In 1953, Mrs. Thomas C. Jenkins purchased the document from the Walters Art Gallery for $26,400, the same price the gallery had paid for it in 1933 at a New York auction. Jenkins provided additional funding for its display in a carved marble niche. She had previously donated Key family portraits and a room for their display. One hundred forty years after Key penned his famous verse, state and local dignitaries gathered to rededicate this American icon on September 14, 1954.
A newly renovated and expanded Maryland Historical Society opened in November 2003, amidst much fanfare and publicity. The facility now includes the Beard Pavilion and the Carey Center for Maryland Life which features nearly generous exhibition space for museum and library exhibitions, and new storage space for museum collections. In keeping with the founders’ passion for telling Maryland’s story, the society’s leadership, staff, and volunteers carry out today’s mission, securing the institution’s respected place among contemporary cultural organizations. As it has for the past 164 years, the Maryland Historical Society remains the one of the premier institutions for Maryland history.
In 2020, the Maryland Historical Society changed its name to the Maryland Center for History and Culture.
The Meetinghouse is the oldest surviving house of worship in Baltimore. Among those who worshipped here were Elisha Tyson, Johns Hopkins, Moses Sheppard, Phillip E. Thomas and the Tyson, Ellicott and McKim families.
In 1775, Patapsco Meeting, in what was then Baltimore County recorded that they wished to move their Meeting to Baltimore Town. By 1781, at the cost of $4,500, a new Meetinghouse had been erected at Fayette Street (then Pitt) and Aisquith Street (then Smock Alley). Designed by George Matthews, it has separate men’s and women’s entrances into a plain and spacious room with a high vaulted ceiling. Sliding wood paneling partitioned the room for Men’s and Women’s Business Meetings. It could be raised for Meetings for Worship or larger gatherings. There soon was a need to provide for the educational needs of the children of Friends. By 1784, Meeting records document the establishment of a committee to oversee a school which became what is now Baltimore Friends School. Baltimore Yearly Meeting was so well attended by the end of the century that in 1772 a thirty-acre tract of pasture land was purchased to accommodate the annual influx of Friends. By 1817, when the first gas lamp was slit at the corner of Baltimore & Holiday Streets, Baltimore had emerged as a center of trade and industry, and the need for a second Meetinghouse to the west resulted in the construction of Lombard Street Meeting in 1807. Restoration of this meetinghouse is 1967 cost about $50,000, through the joint efforts of the City of Baltimore and the McKim Community Association, Inc. under the leadership of mayor Theodore McKeldin and Philip Myers. The historic building was then administered and maintained by the Peale Museum, and leased to McKim for programs.
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First established in 1847 by a group of prominent businessmen, the Eutaw Savings Bank spent its first decade operating out of the Eutaw House Hotel located on the same site as the Hippodrome Theater. In 1856, the Eutaw Savings Bank purchased a lot across the street on the corner of Eutaw and Fayette Street from the estate of Michael F. Keyser, a director of the Eutaw Savings Bank who died in 1855. The bank demolished the grand old mansion that occupied the corner to make way for a "more modern and beautiful edifice" designed by Baltimore architect Joseph F. Kemp in an Italian Renaissance Revival style and built at a cost of around $22,000.
The Building Committee of the Board of Directors for the bank praised their own work with the statement that, "for neatness, convenience, and durability, it is at its cost unequaled by any other banking house in our city." Within a few years, the reportedly "popular and thriving" bank had outgrown their building and decided to purchase a lot directly across Eutaw Street. Their new brownstone bank, later adapted for use as part of the France-Merrick Performing Arts Center in 2004, opened in 1889.
The Baltimore Equitable Society (still operating in Baltimore City under the name Baltimore Equitable Insurance) purchased the building in 1889 and maintained offices in the building for over 114 years, until 2003. Founded in 1794 as the first fire insurance company in Baltimore, the "Baltimore Equitable Society for Insuring of Houses from Loss By Fire" was modeled after The Philadelphia Contributorship, a fire insurance company founded by Benjamin Franklin, among others. The Baltimore Equitable Society remains the oldest corporation in Maryland, and the nation's fourth oldest fire insurance company.
The Baltimore Equitable Society endured many challenges over the decades, from the War of 1812, the Civil War, economic depressions and other calamities. The Great Baltimore Fire of 1904 resulted in a loss of $1.5 million but the firm still paid all of its policyholders' claims in full, with an officer of the bank later explaining, "we were hit hard, but are still strong." When the Great Depression caused other banks and insurance companies to close down, the Baltimore Equitable Society actually thrived, increasing assets by 23% and even opened a Fire Museum in the second floor of its building. After the 1968 riots that led to the loss of buildings due to fire, some insurance companies refused to cover homes and businesses in the City of Baltimore. However, the Society continued insuring properties within the City regardless of the perceived increased risk.
Although the Baltimore Equitable Society left the building in 2003, it remains a handsome reminder of Baltimore's early financial history on the West Side. Looking at the first floor windows, you can still read the words "Baltimore" and "Insurance" painted in gold on its lower panes, the remnants of a "Baltimore Equitable Insurance" sign and inside the decorative wood work and grand tall windows remain in excellent shape.
While few remember the slogan of the Emerson Bromo-Seltzer Company—"If you keep late hours for Society's sake Bromo-Seltzer will cure that headache"—the iconic Bromo-Seltzer Tower has been a Baltimore landmark since its construction in 1911.
While few remember the slogan of the Emerson Bromo-Seltzer Company—"If you keep late hours for Society's sake Bromo-Seltzer will cure that headache"—the iconic Bromo-Seltzer Tower has been a Baltimore landmark since its construction in 1911. At fifteen stories, the tower made the Bromo-Seltzer factory the tallest building in the city. The tower boasted a four-dial gravity clock that was the largest in the world (bigger, even, than London's Big Ben) and an illuminated, rotating 51-foot blue steel bottle. The iconic design immediately secured the tower's spot as a favorite of city residents and visitors alike. Ship captains traveling up the bay reportedly used the bottle as a beacon to guide them toward the Light Street docks and the removal of the blue bottle in 1936 is still a sore point with many Baltimoreans. The tower was built by Captain Isaac Emerson, a chemist, and inventor of the headache remedy and alleged hangover cure, Bromo-Seltzer. Emerson was a wealthy and well-regarded Baltimorean, known as a generous philanthropist and world traveler. He had been a lieutenant in the Navy during the Spanish-American war and a post-war visit to Florence's tower on the Palazzo Vecchio provided the inspiration for the design of this tower created by local architect Joseph Evans Sperry. Though the factory was torn down in 1969, the 289-foot tower survived several threats of demolition and in 2007 philanthropists Eddie and Sylvia Brown worked with Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts to transform the structure into 33 artists' studios. The tower is open once a month for public 91Ƶ and while much has changed visitors can still ride the 1911 Otis elevator to the clock room on the 15th floor and view the still-functioning clock works.
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In contrast to the high-end shopping at Stewart's or Hochschild-Kohn's on Howard Street, West Lexington Street offered goods of all kinds at affordable prices thanks to a row of five-and-tens from Read's Drug Store down to Kresge's on the other side of Park Avenue.
McCrory's at 227-229 West Lexington stands out with a colorful early twentieth century tile facade built over a structure that likely dates back to late nineteenth century. John Graham McCrorey started the chain in Scottsdale, Pennsylvania in 1882 and soon expanded with locations across the country. Noting McCrorey's reputation as a smart and thrifty businessman, in 1887 The New York Times reported that he had legally changed his name, dropping the e, because he did not want to pay the cost of the extra gilt letter on his many store signs. McCrory's on Lexington Street opened in the late 1920s and was one of over 1,300 McCrory's outlets operating around the country by the 1950s.
The more modest Kirby-Woolworth Building east of McCrory's began as two buildings put up by two close competitiors - Frederick M. Kirby and the H.G. Woolworth & Co. In retrospect, the reunion of the two buildings feels inevitable as Kirby and Woolworth pioneered the five-and-ten cent store business together in the 1870s and early 1880s, opening a store together in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania in 1884 before parting ways in 1887. The two buildings came up side by side on Lexington Street in 1907 and likely combined into a single structure after the merger of H.G. Woolworth & Company and F. M. Kirby & Company in 1912.
Schulte United Five and Dime offers a unique façade with shining gold eagles and incised lettering along the top of the building. The building began as the Eisenberg Underselling Store, later known as the Eisenberg Company, with the determined motto that they offered "prices that are irreproachable everywhere." By 1928, 600 employees worked for the Eisenberg Company at several locations throughout the city. Within a few years, however, Schulte United – established by David A. Schulte, a "tobacco store potentate," who decided to enter the five-and-dime business in 1928 with the ambitious goal of investing $35,000,000 in 1,000 stores around the country – purchased the store on Lexington Street.
When Samuel Posner moved his successful dry goods business to the corner of Lexington and Howard, architect Charles E. Cassell's gorgeous and ornate white Renaissance Revival building—complete with roaring lions and majestic wreaths and fluted columns—made a grand addition to the growing row of department store "palaces" on Howard Street in 1899.
The building played a prominent role in Baltimore's turn-of-the-century transition from smaller, specialized retailers to large, purpose-built department stores. Like many department stores across the country, Stewart's strove to provide a wide range of high quality goods to America's rising middle class and lured customers with its open layout, enticing displays, large plate glass windows, and by being, among other things, the first Howard Street store to install air conditioning in 1931.
Though the Stewart's name, etched in block letters at the building's crest, is still visible today, the store's ownership history is a bit less permanent. Within little over a year of the store's opening, The Baltimore Sun reported that Samuel Posner had sold the business to Louis Stewart and the Associated Merchants' Company (AMC), most likely as a result of financial difficulties resulting from high construction costs. Louis Stewart's turn at the helm of store was brief, too: in 1916 Stewart's was absorbed into a new firm, the Associated Dry Goods corporation (ADG), which consolidated several major U.S. retailing chains, including Lord & Taylor and J. McCreery's.
Many Baltimoreans have fond memories of shopping at Stewarts and recall making day-long excursions to the store. Stewart's, according to local columnist, Jacques Kelly, had "...an excellent men's furnishing department – ties and sweaters" and a wonderful selection of "... china and silver" and "yard good (dressmaking materials)." A high-class store with an elegant interior, Stewart's boasted two restaurants—the Georgian Tea Room and Cook Works—both popular with shoppers, as were the delicious vanilla marshmallow treats sold at the store's candy counter.
Stewart's opened their first suburban outlet on York Road in Towson in 1953 and several other suburban stores shortly thereafter. When the flagship store at Howard and Lexington closed in 1979, Stewart's held a week-long closing sale that brought in thousands of bargain-hungry shoppers. Stewart's was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1999 and in 2007 Catholic Relief Services opened their offices in the first floor of the building.
Up near the top of this handsome Neoclassical brick building at the corner of Fayette and Paca Streets is a stone entablature reading "1801 Baltimore General Dispensary 1911"—a visible reminder of this building's important past.
Doors opened at the Baltimore General Dispensary on Fayette Street in February 1912 and is the only surviving building designed for Baltimore's oldest charity,
The Baltimore General Dispensary was formed in 1801 on West Lexington Street to provide medical care to Baltimore's poor residents. In its first year, the dispensary saw a little over 200 patients. Before official incorporation in 1808, over 6,000 Baltimore residents had sought help from the charity.
A second dispensary joined the first in 1826 and by the late nineteenth century the charity had established fifteen additional locations many affiliated with local hospitals. While the building is no longer owned by the group, the charitable work of the Baltimore Dispensary continues through a grant-making foundation providing funds to area hospitals for medicine in their outpatient departments.
Considered a model of its kind, this building featured a large dispensary center on the first floor; however, due to the racial segregation enforced in many local institutions at that time, the dispensary was separated for black and white patients. The rooms on the second floor for surgical and medical aid, including physical exams given by doctors, allowed the charity's poor patients a rare measure of privacy.
Davidge Hall, on the University of Maryland Medical School Campus, is the oldest medical facility building in the nation. The red brick structure is named after the school's founder and first dean, John Beale Davidge. It was designed by architect Robert Carey Long, Sr. Constructed in 1812 on land purchased from Revolutionary War Hero John Eager Howard, the building was near the western edge of the growing city of Baltimore and offered medical students and teachers an excellent view of the harbor. In 1814, observers reportedly witnessed from the building's white-columned porch the "bombs bursting in air" during the British attack of Fort McHenry. Although large by early nineteenth century standards, this beautifully restored Classical Revival style building was by no means luxuriously outfitted. Heated by gas stoves close to the ceiling, Davidge Hall was cold, dark, and dank in the winter, frequently filled with noxious odors from the primitive embalming that took place in the anatomy lab and reeked of fumes from chemical experiments performed in the lower lecture hall. Though the practice of medicine has changed and improved over the years and the building has been updated, Davidge Hall has retained many original details and remains an iconic part of the medical school campus. Astoundingly, all of the nearly 20,000 students educated by the University of Maryland School of Medicine to date have passed through this exquisite building's doors. In 1974, Davidge Hall was placed on the National Register of Historic Places, and in 1997, the U.S. Department of the Interior named the building a National Historic Landmark. The building is currently used for special events and houses a collection of medical artifacts, including paintings, antique medical instruments, and a mummified human.
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Designed by noted Scottish American theatre architect Thomas Lamb, the Hippodrome Theatre opened in 1914 as one of the first theatres in the United States to operate both as a movie house and a vaudeville performance venue. Local theatre impresarios Marion Pearce and Philip Scheck (who owned six theatres and exclusively distributed Hollywood films), commissioned the theater on the site where the nineteenth century luxury hotel Eutaw House (1835) once stood.
The original theatre seated 3,000 people and visitors entered the grand building through glorious doors that featured stained glass transoms, opening into red carpeted rooms adorned with painted gold plasterwork and heavy crimson curtains. The Hippodrome's opening night featured a screening of the film "The Iron Master," vaudeville acts, a man juggling a barrel with his feet, and a group of four performing elephants. Pearce and Scheck operated the theatre until 1917, when it was sold to the Lowe's Theatre Chain, who held it until 1924.
By 1920, around 30,000 people visited the theater every week—one of the most well-attended theaters in the city. After a prosperous decade, in which the theatre often featured three shows a day, declining attendance put the Hippodrome into receivership in 1931. L. Edward Goldman purchased the property, plus debts, for a mere $14,000 and hired Philadelphian, Isidor "Izzy" Rappaport, to manage the ailing venue.
During Rappaport's tenure, the Hippodrome saw a second golden age. Rappaport, who later bought the Hippodrome himself, oversaw the installation of a grand new marquee , outfitted the theatre with new seats, and brought in numerous notable acts, such as Frank Sinatra, Bob Hope, Jack Benny, and many others, securing its reputation as one of America's premier vaudeville houses. The lure of new, high-paying gigs in Las Vegas along with the arrival of television and televised variety shows in the 1950s, however, brought the demise of many vaudeville houses across the country and the Hippodrome held its final live show in 1959. Business continued to decline in the 1970s and 1980s and though it had become the last operating movie theatre on the west side of Baltimore's downtown, the Hippodrome shut its doors in 1990.
Fortunately, this landmark theater has been reborn, reopening in 2004 as the France-Merrick Performing Arts Center, combining new construction with the preservation and reuse of the Western National Savings Bank, the Eutaw Savings Bank, and the original Hippodrome Theatre. The Performing Arts Center has brought the Hippodrome back as a state-of-the-art showcase featuring touring Broadway shows and much more.
Built in the late 1800s, the Mayfair Theatre, originally known as the Auditorium, was once considered one of the finest showhouses in Baltimore, if not the country. Though the building's ornate white stonework façade and grand marquee readily identify it as a theatre, the building and the site have a wide and varied history. Before the Mayfair theatre was constructed, this site was the home of the Natatorium and Physical Culture Society (a spa and swimming school), a Turkish bath house, and, remarkably, an indoor ice rink (one of only six in the country at the time).
During its heyday, the theatre became well known for its many vaudeville acts and plays—including Spencer's Tracey's 1929 performance in Excess Baggage—and for what the Baltimore Sun called its "beautiful and cozy interior," which was painted in rich golds, dramatic reds, and creamy whites all lit by hundreds of lights clustered on crystal chandeliers. The walls inside the theatre were frescoed in Byzantine and Renaissance styles and the private boxes had velvet, olive-colored drapes. The theatre's reception room had luxurious red carpeting, a telephone, and a maid. During intermission, a Hungarian orchestra played in the theatre's palm garden and ice water was served to "ladies" in the audience. The theatre seated 2,000 and had 30 exits, making it easy to evacuate in case of fire.
The building's life as a concert hall and live theatre venue came to an end in 1941 when it was converted to a first-run movie house; the building's name was changed that same year. In time, the post-war exodus of residents from cities all over the country and the growth of suburban multiplexes in the 1950s relegated this grand structure to showing Grade B horror and action movies. The theatre's last movie was shown in 1986.
Unfortunately, after years of neglect, the building's roof collapsed in 1998. In the late 2000s, plans to turn the building into apartments and retail space failed to get started. Then, in September 2014, a two-alarm brought further damage to the Mayfair and gutted the adjoining New Academy Hotel. The demolition of the damaged New Academy Hotel revealed serious structural problems with the Mayfair Theatre. The city decided to tear down much of the old theatre but they kept the facade and is seeking a developer for the site who can preserve the remains of the once-great Mayfair Theatre.
Long before places like Sports Authority or Dick's Sporting Goods opened their doors, Little Joe's on the northwest corner of Howard and Baltimore was selling everything from camping equipment and fishing gear to bikes and saddles. In addition, Little Joe's (named for its proprietor, Joe Wiesenfeld, who was just shy of 5 feet) sold a variety of "sundries" and toys, including electric trains and, for a short time, cars and auto-related accessories. By the turn of the century, Wiesnefeld, who opened a bike shop at the corner of Baltimore and Paca Streets in the early 1890s, had expanded his business and moved the shop to this location. In 1909 Wiesenfeld opened an auto annex on West German Street , where his staff repaired and sold cars.
Wiesenfeld's goal on opening Little Joe's Sporting Goods was to sell everything that the multiple department stores in the area didn't and for years he did just that, offering the neighborhood access to goods that would otherwise not have been readily available. This location of Little Joe's was closed in 1925.
Guilford began in 1780 when the property was confiscated from British land-owners and given to Revolutionary War veteran Lieutenant-Colonel William McDonald. McDonald gave Guilford its name to commemorate the battle of Guilford Court House, North Carolina. His son William, better known as “Billy,” inherited the estate and in 1852 built the Guilford Mansion.
The Italianate design of the mansion was a collaboration of British-born architect Edmund Lind and American William T. Murdock. The 52-room wood house was built over walls of masonry and was imposing in size and rich finishes. A solid walnut staircase rose with a grand sweep in a spiral ascent to the square turret. The drawing-room, library, billiard and reception rooms and great dining room all opened on to a main hall and had exposure to wide verandas shadowed by magnolia trees and draped in wisteria. The main hall itself was as wide as the driveway, paved in marble and lighted with stained-glass windows.
The mansion once stood where Wendover Road now meets Greenway. The entrances of the 300 acre Guilford estate were marked by imposing gates that were guarded by stone lions, reported to be copies of the lions of the Louvre. Frescoes on either side of the drive entrance depicted knights ready for conflict. Gates stood at York Road near present-day Underwood Road, Charles Street at University Parkway and Charles Street just south of Cold Spring Lane. Billy McDonald was an enthusiastic horseman and at Guilford he stabled his renowned mare, “Flora Temple.” The mare was housed at the Guilford estate in stalls that were kept in magnificent style as a suite of four apartments. Above her head was a stained glass window with her portrait.
In 1872, Arunah S. Abell, founder of The Sun, purchased Guilford from McDonald’s heirs. A.S. Abell had a home in the City and several country estates but he spent much time at Guilford living there for 35 years. On August 12, 1887, the New York Times reported that A. S. Abell celebrated his 81st birthday. “Mr. Abell passed the day quietly and pleasantly at his country seat, Guilford, surrounded by his children and grandchildren, who had tastefully arranged in the rooms of the beautiful mansion, particularly Mr. Abell’s private room, many lovely flowers.” Eight months later Arunah S. Abell died.
Just outside the limits of Baltimore City, on a piece of land jutting out into the Patapsco River, Maryland’s first steel plants were built. In 1887, the Maryland Steel Company purchased an area of agricultural marshland called Sparrows Point. Four years later in 1891, the steel mill opened and made the first steel ever produced in Maryland. While the mill manufactured steel for many different purposes, its main focus was on making steel for shipbuilding. One of the most important ships ever built at the Sparrows Point shipyard was the SS Ancon. The Ancon, built between 1901 and 1902, was one of “two of the first cargo steamers of a large size ever constructed in this country,” according to the January 1902 edition of Marine Engineering. It was also the first ship to officially pass through the Panama Canal in 1914, which was a massive turning point in world trade.
In 1916, Bethlehem Steel bought the steel plant. During Bethlehem Steel’s ownership, Sparrows Point would become a pivotal steel manufacturer. In the 1930s and ‘50s, the plant produced steel beams used in the Empire State Building, the Golden Gate Bridge, and the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. During World War II, Bethlehem Steel plants produced about one fifth of the entire Navy at the time. Sparrows Point, along with the nearby Bethlehem-Fairfield Shipyard, helped build “Liberty” cargo ships for the United States’s Emergency Shipbuilding program during the war. The Sparrows Point and Bethlehem-Fairfield Shipyards built two of the first 14 Liberty ships ever launched. At its height in the 1950s, the complex at Sparrows Point was the largest steel plant in the world and employed 33,000 workers.
The plant also had a lot of influence in the history of civil and workers’ rights in Baltimore. In 1890, 84 Hungarian and African American workers at the mill unsuccessfully went on strike due to poor work conditions. For years, workers at the plant called for unionization and better treatment. Eventually, Bethlehem Steel set up the Employee Representation Plan (ERP) at Sparrows Point. However, the ERP did not actually help the workers much, and acted more as a way to stop them from forming labor organizations. This struggle continued until 1941, when Bethlehem Steel allowed its workers to form their own union. Even with unionization, they continued to face workers’ issues until the steel plant closed down in 2012.
Alongside the problems with labor rights, African American workers also encountered racism at Sparrows Point. While the plants were not segregated, the workers and their families were placed in totally separate communities based on their race. African American housing was often of lower quality than the white housing. One exception to this was the thriving African American enclave of Turner Station. Among the most notable people who lived in Turner Station was , whose cancer cells were the source of the first immortal human cell line. Lacks moved to Turner Station in 1941 so that her husband, Day Lacks, could work at Sparrows Point. In 1941, Executive Order 8802 was passed, banning racial discrimination in defense industries, which included Sparrows Point. Later on, the Consent Decree in 1974 was signed. This helped to ensure equal pay and opportunity for the plant’s non-white workers. In 2001, after a long period of financial downfall, Bethlehem Steel declared bankruptcy. After this, Sparrows Point would be owned by four different steel companies before it was liquidated in 2012.
Today, the area is still a large industrial hub, hosting distribution centers for companies like Under Armour and Amazon. However, most of what remained of the huge steel plant has been demolished. Though its importance in American history is often overlooked, the people who worked and lived near the plant still carry on its monumental memory.
In the middle of East Lexington Street stands a building that sticks out from the rest. Carved into its brick wall is the face of a horned figure looking out over the street. Today, this building houses Fred W. Frank Bail Bonds, but it was once the meeting hall for a chapter of the Grand United Order of Odd Fellows.
The Odd Fellows is a male only, non-religious organization that originated in early 1700s London. The fraternity was formed on the basis of social equality, limiting the power of the Catholic Church over the British government, and advocating for civil liberties. In 1819, Thomas Wildey founded the first Odd Fellows organization in America, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows (IOOF), in Baltimore. However, the group refused to accept any black men who wished to become members or even form separate all-black lodges as part of the IOOF. African American men interested in Odd Fellowship, led by Peter Ogden, instead partnered with the English Grand United Order of Odd Fellows (GUOOF).
The first GUOOF lodge in America was established for the Philomathean Lodge, No. 646 in New York City. Over the following years, the GUOOF became one of the most important all-black mutual aid societies in America. It helped provide its members, and the public in general, with social inclusion and financial aid to cover “the costs of burial, sickness, disability, and widowhood.” Along with this, it was also heavily involved in the early civil rights efforts, especially in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Another notable aspect of the GUOOF is their inclusion of women, which is not seen in many similar fraternities. In 1858, the organization founded the Household of Ruth. This was designed to allow women to be involved in the Order’s practices and public service. Because of the Household of Ruth, both the membership and the public service capabilities of the Order increased.
Relatively little is known about the activities of the Grand Order of Odd Fellows lodge on 214 East Lexington Street. What is known is that, based on the Sanborn Maps of Baltimore, the hall was founded sometime before 1890. There is also mention of them in several articles from the early 1900s by the newspaper The Baltimore Afro-American about the meeting hall and its activities. Among the most important Baltimorean Odd Fellows from the lodge were John H. Murphy Sr., founder of The Baltimore Afro-American; Harry S. Cummings, a lawyer and Baltimore's first black city councilman; and Dr. Edward J. Wheatley, one of the city’s most prominent physicians at the time. However, by 1929 (and possibly earlier) the local GUOOF chose to move their meeting place elsewhere. Today, the only two active Grand United Order of Odd Fellows lodges in Maryland are Union Friendship Lodge #891 in Temple Hill, which is the oldest active GUOOF lodge in America, and Sandy Spring Lodge #6430. These lodges serve as meeting places for multicultural education, discussion, and understanding within their communities.
The research and writing of this article was funded by two grants: one from the Maryland Heritage Areas Authority and one from the Baltimore National Heritage Area.
On Beechwood Drive, leading up to the Rawlings Conservatory in Druid Hill Park stands a small historical marker. Erected in 1992, it sits where the main clay tennis courts in Druid Hill Park once stood. It was at these courts that one of the earliest Civil Rights protests in America took place: a tennis match. On Sunday, July 11th, 1948, a group of black and white tennis players gathered at two of the “whites only” clay courts to play. The game was organized by the civil rights activist group the Young Progressives of Maryland. At the time, African American tennis players had to go to separate courts in the park to play tennis. These courts were crumbling and in much worse condition than the “whites only” ones. However, this ban on interracial tennis matches was not written in any law. Instead, it was an informal city policy enforced by the police. Because of this, the Young Progressives saw the courts as a good target for a protest. The Young Progressives had already held multiple interracial matches at the clay courts protesting segregation. However, these matches were often on Sundays during church services, so few people noticed them. For the July 11th match, the Young Progressives wanted to draw a larger crowd. They posted a flier reading “KILL JIM CROW! DEMAND YOUR RIGHTS! Organize to smash discrimination in recreational facilities.” They also sent a letter to the superintendent of the Bureau of Recreation telling him their plan to hold an interracial tennis match at the park. Their attempts at drawing a crowd on July 11th were more than successful. Hundreds of people had come to the clay tennis courts to support the Young Progressives. The Park Police were also at the courts waiting for the players to start. The players included four men and four women, with two African Americans and two whites in each group. The men were the first to try and start a game. However, as soon as they went to serve the ball, they were immediately told to leave or be arrested. The players refused to leave, and sat down on the courts. The police had to carry them off the court in order to arrest them. The women then attempted to play, but they too were arrested. Along with the players, many people in the crowd and later outside the Northern Police Station were also arrested for disorderly conduct. In total, 22 people were arrested in relation to the protest. Those who were arrested were accused of violating park rules, disturbing the peace, and/or conspiracy to unlawfully assemble. Only 7 people charged with disturbing the peace served out a jail sentence. All of the other charges were dropped because what the protesters had done was not actually illegal. This case was an important first step in Maryland’s long Civil Rights movement. It was the first time in Maryland history that both Blacks and Whites protestors appeared in court together claiming that Jim Crow laws violated their rights. Today, the tennis courts are still a regularly visited spot in Druid Hill Park. However, the courts that were in use when the Young Progressives played their match in 1948 were removed in 1989. All that stands as a reminder of the old clay courts is the historical sign near the Rawlings Conservatory. The sign, entitled “Playing for Civil Rights,” is specifically dedicated to the events of June 11th, 1948, including a short explanation of the protest and why it happened. This is meant to ensure that the courage shown by the activists on that day will never be forgotten. The research and writing of this article was funded by two grants: one from the Maryland Heritage Areas Authority and one from the Baltimore National Heritage Area.
The white two-story house at 2702 Elsinore Ave was once the home of Violet Hill Whyte, the first African-American police officer in the Baltimore City Police Force. It was through her service as an officer and a social worker that Whyte became a beloved and well-respected pillar of her community. Violet Whyte (born Violet Hill) was born in Washington, D.C. on November 18th, 1897 and moved to Baltimore as a young girl. After graduating from Douglass High School and Coppin State College, Hill became a public school teacher. She taught grammar for 6 years until she got married and had children with George Sumner Whyte, who was the principal of Public School No. 111 at the time. In the following years, Violet Whyte became a prominent social worker in her community. She became a member of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) in 1931 and continued to serve in many different roles with the WCTU until 1976. Before becoming an officer, she was also a member of the Civic League advisory board and the Negro State Republican League, the executive secretary of the Parent-Teacher Federation, and president of the Intercity Child Study Association. On December 3, 1937, Whyte was appointed an officer of the Baltimore Northwestern District Police Force. At the time, the Baltimore Police Department had never allowed an African American to become a police officer. However, on June 1st, 1937, William P. Lawson replaced Charles D. Gaither as Baltimore Police Commissioner. In his first six months, Lawson decided to end the BPD’s policy of barring African Americans from becoming police officers. The station where Whyte was assigned to work served one of the largest police districts in Baltimore. Two days after her appointment, she arrested murder suspect Violet Key. The next day, over 100 Baltimoreans crowded into the station to celebrate her induction as an officer. The crowd showered her with floral arrangements and congratulations as she formally accepted her post.
Whyte worked incredibly hard. She handled homicide, abuse, assault, narcotics and robbery cases. Once, she went undercover in order to arrest the members of a narcotics gang. She even worked up to 20 hours on some days. She handed out food and gifts during holidays, and inspired local children to stop skipping school. This dedication to helping the community through both law enforcement and charity led her to be described as a “one-woman-police-force and a one-woman-social-worker combined.” In 1965, she was promoted to sergeant. Two years later in October 1967, she was promoted again to the rank of Lieutenant, a first for both African Americans and women in the BPD. Finally, on December 3rd, 1967, Whyte retired from the police force 30 years to the day after she was appointed. She never missed a day of work. Even after retiring, she volunteered at the Western District Station to organize charity events. She also continued to be involved in many other community and charity organizations. On July 17th, 1980, after a lifetime of service, Violet Hill Whyte passed away at the age of 82. A historical sign at the corner of N Payson St and W Franklin St honors the massive impact Whyte had on the city of Baltimore. Violet Hill Whyte Way near the University of Maryland, Baltimore campus was also named after her.
Augusta T. Chissell was one of the most influential activists in the women’s suffrage movement in Maryland. She lived in the red painted row house at the corner of Druid Hill Ave and McMechen St. Through her tireless participation in important civil rights organizations, she was able to give women of color a voice in the movement. Born in Baltimore in 1880, Augusta Theodosia Lewis briefly worked making hats for friends before she married Dr. Robert Garland Chissell in the 1910s. Robert Chissell was a prominent physician and an executive committee member for the Maryland Medical, Dental, and Pharmaceutical Association. By 1917, the Chissells had moved into the house at 1534 Druid Hill Ave. At that point, Augusta was already heavily involved in advocating for civil rights for African Americans. She was one of the founding members of the Baltimore branch of the NAACP, and was its first vice-president in 1912. Beyond this already impressive achievement, she also established herself as one of the most important African American activists in the women’s suffrage movement. White women’s suffrage activists often excluded the voices and interests of women of color. This led many African American women to form their own suffrage organizations. One of these organizations was the Progressive (or sometimes Colored) Women’s Suffrage Club (PWSC), which Chissell’s friend, Estelle Young, founded in 1915. The PWSC stressed the importance of women of all races being given the right to vote. Yet another group was the DuBois Circle, which was (and still is) a group of prominent women of color from Baltimore and Washington D.C. that met to discuss arts such as literature and music. More importantly, it was involved in supporting suffrage and other rights for women of all backgrounds. It did this mainly through academically supporting community youth, especially through scholarships. Chissell’s next door neighbor, Margaret Hawkins (1532 Druid Hill Ave), was the Circle’s first president when it was founded in 1906. Chissell served in important roles in both of these groups. She was an officer in the PWSC, as well as a member of the Dubois Circle’s Executive Committee from 1921 to 1935, and its Executive Secretary from 1930 to 1940. She also dedicated her time to serving with the Women’s Cooperative Civic League, which organized grassroots efforts to bring about change by spreading awareness about a variety of issues affecting Baltimore. They did this mainly by handing out pamphlets and organizing committee fundraisers to get Baltimoreans interested and involved in supporting their cause. They also organized a flower mart in West Baltimore. Chissell served as the chair of the Flower Mart committee in the 1930s, as well as of the indoor flower show committee. She was a networker and a prominent member in her community. Because of this, she had connections with many other important African American women’s rights activists. She would even invite Hawkins, Young, and other activists to her house for meetings and organizing events. Once the 19th Amendment was adopted into the Constitution in 1920 securing a woman’s right to vote, Chissell continued to be an advocate for other fundamental women’s issues. For instance, she wrote a weekly column in the Afro-American called “A Primer for Women Voters.” The column focused on giving advice and answering questions about voting for women of color. She was also involved with the Women’s Auxiliary of the Baltimore Urban League, serving as its president in 1936. During Chissell’s time as president, the Women’s Auxiliary focused heavily on getting white women involved with combating racial inequity. Her involvement with many different activist groups led the Afro-American to describe her as a “go-getter” in 1931. Augusta Chissell passed away on May 14th, 1973 around the age of 92. Her devotion to social justice and humanitarianism never wavered throughout her long life. Up until her death, she continued to be an important part of the NAACP and the DuBois Circle. Because of the sheer influence and scope of her work, Chissell was inducted into the Maryland Women’s Hall of Fame in March 2019. Later that year, the Maryland Women’s Heritage Center dedicated a historical marker to both Chissell and her neighbor, Margaret Hawkins. The marker was placed in the front yard of 1534 Druid Hill Ave, Chissell’s home for much of her nearly 60 years of activism. The research and writing of this article was funded by two grants: one from the Maryland Heritage Areas Authority and one from the Baltimore National Heritage Area.
The Home of the Friendless at 1313 Druid Hill Ave opened as a refuge for orphaned boys in 1870. An earlier institution, the Home of Friendless Vagrant Girls was established in 1854 on Pearl Steet. By 1860, it had moved to a new building on Druid Hill Ave. Five years later an adjoining lot was purchased for the construction of a boy’s home—today’s 1313 Druid Hill Ave.
The orphanage only accepted white children. Between 1870 and 1931, 200 children, half of whom were foreign born, lived here each year. By 1931, the rise of welfare programs, social services, and new approaches to childcare decreased the need for orphanages. The National Register of Historic Places states, “The size of the building, the segregation of boys and girls, the racial make-up of the institution and its urban setting are representative of orphanages prior to concepts of civil rights, gender equality and foster care. By the early twentieth century, reformers called for child care facilities in cottage settings far from urban centers.” The institution left the Marble Hill neighborhood for northwest Baltimore and eventually merged with the Woodbourne Center, which still operates today.
The federal Works Progress Administration then occupied the building until Baltimore City bought it in 1938 to create the Druid Hill Health Center. Notably, this was Baltimore’s first public health center for African Americans. Various health services were offered until 1961. The city’s Department of Housing then owned the building until 1992. It has been vacant since then.
The Marble Hill Community Association has been demanding that the city stabilize this deteriorating building for several years. In 2021, the building sustained damage from torrential rains. Falling debris became a hazard to pedestrians and traffic. In response, the city said it will stabilize the building.
*The research and writing of this article was funded by two grants: one from the Maryland Heritage Areas Authority and one from the Baltimore National Heritage Area.
In 1885, Baltimore City set out to build the most beautiful Courthouse in the country. Fifteen years, and $2.2 million later ($56 million adjusted for inflation), that goal was realized. On January 6, 1900, the Baltimore Sun reported that the City of Baltimore had built a “temple of justice, second to no other in the world.” The building, which is a magnificent exemplification of Renaissance Revival architecture, continues to stand as a monument to the progress of the great city of Baltimore, and to the importance of the rule of law. Today, this main building in the Baltimore City Circuit Court complex is referred to as the Clarence M. Mitchell, Jr. Courthouse in honor of the local lawyer and nationally respected civil rights leader. Most of the original splendor of this massive building can still be enjoyed, including the granite foundation, marble facades, huge brass doors, mosaic tiled floors, mahogany paneling, two of the world’s most beautiful courtrooms, domed art skylights, gigantic marble columns, and beautifully painted murals. In addition, the Courthouse is home to one of the oldest private law libraries in the country, and to the Museum of Baltimore Legal History. The exterior foundation of the Clarence M. Mitchell, Jr. Courthouse was built from granite quarried in Howard County, while the exterior walls are crafted from white marble quarried in Baltimore County. The Calvert Street exterior façade is especially outstanding, as it displays eight of the largest monolithic columns in the world, each weighing over 35 tons and measuring over 35 feet in height. The interior of the building is even more impressive. Among the many historic spaces, the Supreme Bench Courtroom is one of the finest. The circular courtroom is like no other in the world. It is surmounted by a coffered dome resting upon sixteen columns of Sienna marble from the Vatican Quarry in Rome. Inscribed upon the frieze around the base of the dome are the names of Maryland’s early legal legends. Other fascinating rooms include the Old Orphans Courtroom (which houses the Museum of Baltimore Legal History); the Ceremonial Courtroom, and the Bar Library (described as one of the most elegant interior spaces in Baltimore, with its paneled English oak walls and barrel-vault ceiling punctuated by forty art glass skylights). Also noteworthy for its artistic beauty are the two domed stained-glass skylights above the stairs in Kaplan Court which depict the goddesses of Justice, Mercy, Religion, Truth, Courage, Literature, Logic and Peace. In addition, the courthouse has six original murals from world renowned artists depicting various civic and religious scenes. Those murals include: Calvert’s Treaty with the Indians; The Burning of the Peggy Stewart; Washington Surrenders His Commission; Religious Toleration; The Ancient Lawgivers; and The British Surrender at Yorktown.
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Built in 1868, the Sellers Mansion (801 North Arlington Street) is a three-story Second Empire brick house with a mansard roof that rivaled its outer suburban contemporaries in size, quality of craftsmanship, and attention to detail. Its carved stone lintels, patterned slate roof, original roof cresting, and its two classically detailed porticoes (one of which still retains its elegantly carved wooden columns and capitals) identified this household as one of taste and affluence. Although carefully restored in the 1960s and adapted to a variety of community uses through the early 1990s, the mansion currently stands vacant and in an advanced state of deterioration. The windows are missing, wood trim is rotting, and exterior masonry is deteriorating. The roof has failed in a number of places. The mansion occupies a prominent corner of Lafayette Square in West Baltimore and is at the center the Old West Baltimore National Register Historic District. This district, with over 5000 contributing structures, is one of the largest predominately African American historic districts in the country. The mansion is the only remaining detached private residence on the Square, and one of the first residences constructed there. It is owned by St. James Episcopal Church, also located on Lafayette Square. The Church has expressed an interest in restoring the building. The building was included on the 2006 inventory of endangered buildings by Preservation Maryland. With advanced deterioration, work will need to begin soon if the building is to be preserved.
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Named after Sir Walter Scott's 1814 novel Waverly, Waverly Terrace reflects the wealth of Franklin Square’s residents in the 1850s. The Baltimore Sun praised architect Thomas Dixon’s four-story row as "much handsomer than any yet finished in this city."
Matching the area’s current diversity today, residents in the early 1860s included both Confederate sympathizers (Miss Nannie, Miss Virginia, and Miss Julia Lomax, charged with disloyalty by Union troops) and African Americans (Lloyd Sutton drafted for the U.S. Colored Troops).
Since 1857, Lafayette Square has been Baltimore’s height of fashion. Situated atop a ridge in an area once noted for its fine country villas and breadth-taking panoramic views of the waterways, rolling hills and public landmarks of the bustling nineteenth-century city, the Square was a favorite outlying destination of Baltimore’s leisure and laboring classes. The popularity of the site, fueled by a desire to enjoy the area’s fresh air and fine vistas on a permanent basis, led to the creation of the Lafayette Square Company for promoting the Square as a fashionable place to live. The drive to develop the area around the Square for residential use came to a halt soon after it had begun, however, for in 1861 the City turned the Square over to the federal government for military use during the Civil War. After the war and minus the green fields and majestic oaks—its main attractions prior to 1861—Lafayette Square reverted back to the city and development efforts resumed. Construction proceeded rapidly under the direction of the Lafayette Square Association (a second organization, incorporated in 1865), which, in 1866, enticed the congregation of the Episcopal Church of the Ascension to relocate from downtown to the Square with an offer of a free corner lot. By 1880, Lafayette Square had been developed to a great extent and ornamented with many buildings of grand proportions. The Church of the Ascension (1867-9, now St. James), many imposing residences, including Matthew Bacon Sellers’ impressive brick mansion (1868-9), Grace Methodist Church (1871-6, now Metropolitain), and, perhaps most conspicuous of all, the new State Normal School (1875-6, demolished), set the scale for subsequent building projects in the neighborhood. Although designed in keeping with the Square’s other Gothic revival buildings, the former Bishop Cummins Memorial (1878, now Emmanuel Christian Community) and Lafayette Square Presbyterian (1878-9, now St. John’s A.M.E.) outdid the more conservative-looking churches of the neighboring congregations in both architectural variety and decorative daring and exuberance, signaling that architectural tastes, even within the prevailing Gothic revival style, were susceptible to swift and dramatic change. Lafayette Square changed dramatically between 1910 and 1930. Built-out by 1910 and starting to show its age, the Square could not compete with the new residential developments such as Ten Hills (begun 1909) and Hunting Ridge (1920s) that offered detached, single-family houses and all the modern amenities of the early twentieth century. Between 1910 and 1930, all but two households on the Square had changed hands, and a new generation of residents had emerged, 95% of which African American, whose numbers and diverse backgrounds brought a renewed vitality to the Square. The Square’s new residents worked as maids, chauffeurs, cooks, and laborers, but also as dentists, physicians, attorneys, and schoolteachers. They benefited from close proximity to the neighborhood’s major commercial, retail, and entertainment districts, being just a few minutes’ walk from the shops and other attractions of Druid Hill and Pennsylvania Avenues. In the short time between 1928 and 1934, four African American congregations moved to Lafayette Square. Metropolitan led the charge with a ceremonial march from Orchard Street in 1928, followed by St. John’s A.M.E. in 1929 (from Lexington Street), St. James Episcopal in 1932 (from Park Avenue and Preston Street), and Emmanuel Christian Community in 1934 (from Calhoun). The spacious sanctuaries, the classrooms, and other amenities of the four grand churches suited the needs of these growing congregations, whose active ministries transformed Lafayette Square into a spiritual center for West Baltimore’s African American community. The old State Normal School, vacated in 1915 and later converted to school district offices, received a new lease on life in 1931 as the home of the George Washington Carver Vocational-Technical High School, the first school in Maryland to provide vocational training for African American students.
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Franklin Square Park is one of the oldest parks in the city, with its origins in the estate of Dr. James McHenry, who lived at a home known as Fayetteville located near Baltimore and Fremont Streets in the early 1800s. Born in Ireland, James McHenry arrived in Philadelphia in 1771, settling in Baltimore with his family the next year. During the Revolutionary War, McHenry joined the Continental Army, becoming a secretary and friend to General George Washington. After the war, McHenry served as the Secretary of War to George Washington and John Adams, before retiring to Baltimore in 1800 and continuing to live quietly at his home until his death in 1816. James and Samuel Canby, successful development speculators from Wilmington, Delaware, purchased 32 acres of land from the heirs of Dr. James McHenry in 1835 with the goal of developing the estate. Two years later, they offered two-and-a-half acres of land to Baltimore for the nominal sum of $1 with city's promise that they would maintain the land as a public park forever. The City Council accepted but made a condition of their own by offering to erect a "handsome iron railing, six feet high" and a paved sidewalk around the park when the James and Samuel could build eight or more "three-story brick houses, to cost at least $10,000 apiece." The park was an enormous success, as on a single Sunday in the spring of 1850 when over 3,300 locals came for a visit. The Sun reported, "At almost every hour of the day, numbers may be seen promenading through the walks." The grand Waverly Terrace on the east side of the square was completed in 1851 at a cost of $160,000 offering, according the Baltimore Sun, a rowhouse block "much handsomer than any yet finished in this city, and displaying the pure Italian style of architecture." The Aged Women's and Aged Men's Homes, built in 1849 and 1864, located at the site of the present day Franklin Square Elementary/Middle School and a handful of churches began to fill the blocks around the park.
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Union Square began as part of Willowbrook, the John Donnell Federal-period estate, which he purchased in 1802 from Baltimore merchant and later Mayor Thorowgood Smith. In 1847, the Donnell family heirs donated the two-and-a-half-acre lot in front of the manor house to the City of Baltimore to be designated as a public park. Beginning in the 1850s, the Donnell family started to work with a number of speculative builders to develop the neighborhood.
In 1867, the Donnells left Willowbrook (now the site of Steuart Hill Academic Academy), and the house was given to the Sisters of the Good Shepherd. The building served as a convent and home for wayward girls until its demolition in the mid-1960s. The oval dining room was removed from the mansion and recreated in the Baltimore Museum of Art where it remains a part of the American Decorative Arts wing.
This demolition sparked a renewed awareness of historic places and their importance to the community, as residents organized to form the Union Square Association and received historic district designation for the area in 1970.
"As much a part of me as my own two hands," is how Henry Louis Mencken described his house at 1524 Hollins Street and his personality can be seen in everything from the parquet floors to the garden tiles. In 1880, Mencken was brought by his parents as an infant to the house and lived there until his death at the age of 75. Much of Mencken's writing, reading and thinking was done in the second floor front study, with its view of Union Square and the surrounding neighborhood. It was here where Mencken's "councils of war" were held over various government actions to suppress books and where Mencken convinced the famous lawyer Clarence Darrow to defend John Scopes in the Scopes Monkey Trial. It was also in this room where Mencken wrote the newspaper columns and books that made him, in the words of journalist Walter Lippmann, "the most powerful personal influence" in America. The house was a central feature of the former City Life Museums, and since its closing in 1997, the Friends of the H.L. Mencken House have cared for the building.
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Druid Hill Park was established on the eve of the Civil War by Baltimore Mayor Thomas Swann on October 19, 1860. Much of the park started as part of "Auchentorlie," the estate of George Buchanan, one of the seven commissioners who founded Baltimore City in 1729.
Later renamed "Druid Hill," the City of Baltimore purchased the property from then owner Lloyd Rogers in 1860. The purchase was paid for thanks to a one-cent park tax on the nickel horse-car fares.
Founded in 1839, City College is the third oldest public high school in the United States. Through an act of the Baltimore City Council in 1866, the school became known as "The Baltimore City College." It relocated a number of times in buildings downtown during its early years and moved to its current building at 33rd St. and The Alameda in 1928.
At a cost of nearly $3 million raised largely by the alumni association, the Gothic stone building that now houses City College was designed by the architecture firm of Buckler and Fenhagen. This same firm, which is the precursor to the current Baltimore firm of Ayers Saint Gross, also designed the mausoleum at Green Mount Cemetery where Bromo Seltzer founder Isaac Emerson is buried, Shriver Hall at Hopkins University, and many public schools throughout Maryland.
Originally all male and all white, City College began admitting African Americans in 1954 after the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court case. The school began admitting women (against the wishes of a majority on the alumni board at the time) in 1978 after undergoing a massive restoration project. In 2003 on the building's 75th anniversary, the City College Alumni Association successfully had it added to the National Register of Historic Places and led an effort to keep cellular telephone transmitters from being installed on the building's tower. In 2007, the alumni successfully had it added to Baltimore's own historic landmark list, and won a historic preservation award from 91Ƶ for their multi-year effort.