Tudor Arms Apartments on University Parkway is one of the few cooperative housing apartments in Baltimore. It is composed of two buildings, which sit within the Roland Park Historic District. The first of the two apartment buildings, which is five-stories tall, replaced a popular tavern at the site known as Biddy Rice’s Saloon. After purchasing the site from the Roland Park Company in January 1911, the Wentworth Apartment Company would begin constructing the first building, at a cost of $100,000 at the time. The company’s secretary, J.G. Valiant, would be the building’s renting agent.

Two renowned architects, Clyde Nelson Friz and Edward Hughes Glidden, worked together on the building’s architecture, with brick and stone in the style of Tudor Revival, and terra cotta trimmings. The building opened to residents in 1912 with the name Tudor Hall. This “high-class apartment,” as it was described at the time, had a working elevator (which remains in operation), steam heat, hardwood floors, and other amenities. The nearby concrete bridge over Stony Run had only been built four years earlier, which is still intact. A train, part of the Maryland and Pennsylvania railroad, would run underneath the bridge until January 1958 when it stopped operating there.

Friz and Glidden partnered again for the second building, named Essex Arms, which had the same architectural style as the first building. It opened to residents in 1922. The building’s landlord, Guilford Realty Company, later purchased the building from the Wentworth Apartment Company. The apartments were available to rent on a month-to-month basis. On February 25, 1929, the Baltimore City Council unanimously voted to rename the dirt road to the south of the apartment building from “Tudor Hall Avenue” to “Tudor Arms Avenue.” The name is still used to this day.

In May 1947, three residents, Marie Codd, Nora Quillen, and Ralph Quillen purchased the buildings from the landlord, planning to make Essex Arms and Tudor Hall into a cooperative housing corporation, naming it Tudor Arms Apartments. This came to pass in October 1947.

Some residents challenged this and sued the newly-established cooperative. However, the highest court in Maryland, the Court of Appeals, ruled in favor of the cooperative, and against the tenant challengers, in the case of Tudor Arms Apartments v. Shaffer. The ruling, which reversed a circuit court decision, held that those who bought cooperative apartment units were the owners indefinitely, as long as they exercised “good behavior.” Their decision would later be cited by courts in Maryland, Illinois and Massachusetts in cases involving other housing cooperatives, such as Greenbelt Homes and Village Green Mutual Homes.

Sometime after the founding of the Tudor Arms housing cooperative, likely in either the late 1940s or 1950s, a bridge connecting Essex Arms and Tudor Hall would be constructed, signifying that both buildings were one community. Specific building names would later be dropped. The terms “North Building” and “South Building” would be used in their place. Over the years, Tudor Arms has been the home to many prominent residents. This has included epidemiologist Wade Hampton Frost, historical scholar Kent Roberts Greenfield, sculptor Ephraim Keyser (and his wife Fannie), music educators Grace Harriet Spofford and Elizabeth Coulson, Theo Lippman (father of Baltimore writer Laura Lippman), and former Maryland State Senator Jill P. Carter.

In the late 1960s, the Tudor Arms Board opposed plans by the Baltimore Department of Recreation and Parks to change neighboring Wyman Park into a recreation space, wanting it to be “natural,” instead. To justify their decision, they cited their support for Johns Hopkins University’s purchase of 31 acres of the park for university development in 1961, which included the creation of San Martin Drive.

In recent years, residents have honored the apartment community’s history with “Tudor Arms Day” in August 2024 and “Tudor Arms Day 2” in April of this year. This included a guided tour to historical spots of note, multiple tri-fold historic display boards, a self-guided scavenger hunt, an unveiling of a painting commissioned by residents of the North Building, and other activities.

501 West University Parkway, Baltimore, MD 21210

The Washington Apartment House at the northwest corner of Charles Street and Mt. Vernon Place is a one of the finest Beaux Arts apartment houses in Baltimore. After the controversial construction of The Severn in 1895, many Mt. Vernon residents were suspicious of new "skyscrapers." Just a month after the Great Baltimore Fire of 1904, the Baltimore Municipal Arts Society successfully pushed the Maryland State Legislature to pass an "Anti-Skyscraper Bill" prohibiting the construction of any building (other than churches) over seventy feet high within one block of the Washington Monument. William F. Cochran, the developer of the Washington Apartments, built right up to the limit of 70 feet before suing to erect an 8 foot addition. His lawsuit failed, reinforcing the restriction that became known as Maryland's first zoning law and was one of the earliest zoning laws in the United States.

William Cochran was born to privilege–his grandfather, Alexander Smith, had amassed a fortune as a carpet manufacturer in Yonkers, New York. Cochran moved to Baltimore in 1902 after marrying Annie Lorraine Gill. Despite his comfortable position among the local high society, he found his personal wealth troubling, explaining in an address on the "Passing of the Idle Rich" at Westminster Church, "The joy of having abundance is terribly mitigated when one is confronted with the sight of and appeals from people living under the opposite conditions. It seems all wrong."

While Cochran was vocal about his socialist ideals, he also sympathized with in the wealthy Mt. Vernon residents who sought to control the character of their neighborhood's development. He explained his purchase of the property at 700 Washington Place, remarking, "A strong desire of property holders on Mt. Vernon Place to control the kind of building to be erected on this site led me to purchase it to prevent anyone from building a skyscraper." Cochran bought the vacant mansion, built for Edward McDonald Greenway in 1835, in April 1905 for $160,000 and soon starting planning for a modern apartment house that could meet with approval from the neighbors.

The architect Cochran selected for the job was Edward H. Glidden, a Cleveland native, who arrived in Baltimore around the same time as Cochran. Glidden had already started a career that led him to become one of the city's foremost architects for apartment buildings with projects including the Stork Apartment House (1903) at Park and Monument, the Marlborough Apartments (1906) on Eutaw Place, Homewood Apartments (1910) at Charles and 31st Street, The Latrobe, Canterbury Hall and Tudor Hall Apartments. Glidden even lived at Homewood Apartments at the time of his death in 1924.

Washington Apartments went up quickly in 1906 at a cost of $300,000. Its six stories included 28 luxurious apartments and 29 rooms for servants. Measuring 69 feet and 8 inches tall, the building stood just under the recently instituted 70-foot height limit. Less than a year after completion, however, Cochran sought a permit application to build one more story, eight feet tall and set back twenty feet, to contain additional rooms for servants. The permit was denied and Cochran went to court, lost, then lost again on appeal in June 1908 with an important decision that affirmed the ability of the city to regulate building heights.

700 Washington Place, Baltimore, MD 21202