Monument City Blog

The Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Annunciation stands at the corner of Maryland Avenue and West Preston Street in Charm City. Designed by the prolific Charles E. Cassell, the amphitheatrical building is a unique mixture of architectural practices. Built in 1889, the structure was originally occupied by the Associate Congregational Church. In 1937 the Greek Orthodox community purchased the building for its growing congregation. Cassell also designed the First Church of Christ, Scientists and the Stafford Hotel.

The Charlcote House, located in the north Baltimore neighborhood of Guilford, was designed by John Russell Pope, the acclaimed American architect. Pope also designed the Jefferson Memorial in Washington D.C., as well as the Baltimore Museum of Art. in 1914 construction began on the Charlcote House, the stately mansion created for James Swan Frick, the son of William Frederick Frick, an important lawyer for the B&O Railroad, the Consolidated Coal Company and the Consolidated Gas Company. The nearly 100 year-old Classical Revival style building is situated just west of the Guilford Reservoir and slightly north of Sherwood Gardens.

This semi-chronological and ongoing list aims to clarify and organize information about some of America’s prominent early architects and the Baltimore buildings that continue to memorialize them.

Benjamin Henry Latrobe (1764-1820)

• Basilica of the Assumption
• Spring House of Dairy

Maximilian Godefroy (1765-1840)

• Battle Monument
• First Unitarian Church
• Saint Mary’s Chapel
• Carriage Gates at Westminster Burying Ground

Robert Mills (1781-1855)

• Washington Monument

Robert Cary Long, Sr. (1770-1833)

• Baltimore’s Peale Museum
• Davidge Hall (possibly Latrobe or Godefroy’s design)

Robert Cary Long, Jr. (1810-1849)

• Franklin Street Presbyterian Church
• Lloyd Street Synagogue
• Green Mount Cemetery Gatehouse
• Mount Calvary Church
• Saint Alphonsus Church
• Saint Peter the Apostle Church
• Fence, Washington Mounument
• Sexton House and Fence, Basilica of the Assumption

Richard Upjohn (1802-1878)

• Old Saint Paul’s Church

Thomas U. Walter (1804-1887)

• Eutaw Place Baptist Church

John Rudolph Niernsee (1814-1885)

• Johns Hopkins Hospital
• Green Mount Cemetery Chapel (with J. Crawford Neilson)
• Grace and St. Peter’s Church (with J. Crawford Neilson)
• Emmanuel Episcopal Church (with J. Crawford Neilson)
• Asbury House (with J. Crawford Neilson)
• Camden Station (with J. Crawford Neilson)
• YMCA Building (with J. Crawford Neilson)
• Clifton Park Mansion (1852 additions with J. Crawford Neilson)

James Crawford Neilson (1816-1900)

• Saint John the Evangelist Church
• Green Mount Cemetery Chapel (with J. Rudolph Niernsee)
• Grace and St. Peter’s Church (with J. Rudolph Niernsee)
• Emmanuel Episcopal Church (with J. Rudolph Niernsee)
• Asbury House (with J. Rudolph Niernsee)
• Camden Station (with J. Rudolph Niernsee)
• YMCA Building (with J. Rudolph Niernsee)
• Clifton Park Mansion (1852 additions with J. Rudolph Niernsee)

William H. Reasin (1816-1867)

• Engine House No. 6 (with Samuel B. Wetherald)
• Lloyd Street Synagogue (1861 additions)
• Baltimore Cemetery Gatehouse (with Thomas P. Chiffelle)
• Trinity Episcopal Church

William Howard

• McKim Free School (with William F. Small)

William F. Small

• McKim Free School (with William Howard)

N. G. Starkwether

• First and Franklin Presbyterian Church

Edmund George Lind (1829-1909)

• Memorial Episcopal Church
• Charles Street Masonic Lodge
• Sharp Street United Methodist Church
• Peabody Institute (with William T. Murdoch)
• Peabody Library
• Baltimore Hebrew Cemetery Gatehouse
• Enoch Pratt House (4th floor addition)

Thomas Dixon (1819-1886)

• Mount Vernon Place Methodist Church (with Charles L. Carson)
• City Jail Warden’s House (with James Dixon & Thomas Balbirnie)
• Westminster Church (with James Dixon & Thomas Balbirnie)
• Sheppard-Pratt Gatehouse (with James Dixon)

Jackson C. Gott (1829-1909)

• Maryland Penitentiary
• Charles Street Streetcar Barn

Charles H. Latrobe (1833-1902)

• Patterson Park Pagoda
• Patterson Park Casino Building

John Murdoch (1833-1907)

• Brown Memorial Presbyterian Church (with Nathaniel Henry Hutton)
• Bethel A.M.E. Church (with Nathaniel Henry Hutton)

Nathaniel Henry Hutton (1834-1907)

• Brown Memorial Presbyterian Church (with John Murdoch)
• Bethel A.M.E. Church (with John Murdoch)

E. Francis Baldwin (1837-1916)

• B&O Warehouse at Camden Yards (with Josias Pennington)
• Mount Royal Station & Train Shed (with Josias Pennington)
• Maryland Club (with Josias Pennington)
• Fidelity Building (with Josias Pennington)
• Christ Episcopal Church (with Bruce Price)
• 12-16 East Chase Street (with Bruce Price)
• Saint Leo the Great Roman Catholic Church
• Saint Ann’s Catholic Church
• B&O Roundhouse

Bruce Price (1845-1903)

• Christ Episcopal Church (with E. Francis Baldwin)
• 12-16 East Chase Street (with E. Francis Baldwin)

Josias Pennington (1854-1929)

• Maryland Club (with E. Francis Baldwin)
• Fidelity Building (with E. Francis Baldwin)
• Mount Royal Station & Train Shed (with E. Francis Baldwin)
• B&O Warehouse at Camden Yards (with E. Francis Baldwin)
• Druid Hill’s Public Bath Building (wit Hall P. Pennington)

George A. Frederick (1842-1924)

• Baltimore City Hall
• Moorish Tower (Druid Hill Park)
• Palm House Conservatory (Druid Hill Park)
• Superintendent’s House (Druid Hill Park)
• Maryland House (Druid Hill Park)
• Council Grove Station (Druid Hill Park)
• Latrobe Pavilion (Druid Hill Park)
• Main Entrance (Druid Hill Park)
• Mount Royal Entrance (Druid Hill Park)
• Main Entrance (Patterson Park)
• Saint Thomas Aquinas Church
• Edgar Allan Poe Monument
• Cylburn Mansion
• Hollins Market
• Abell Building

George Archer (1848-1920)

• George Graham House
• Denny and Mitchell Building
• Friends Gospel Mission (1010 Light St.)
• Schloss Building

Edward Hughes Glidden, Jr.

• Furness House
• Latrobe Building
• Sydenham Hospital
• Washington Apartments
• Marlborough Apartments (1901)

Charles E. Cassell (1842-1916)

• Stafford Hotel
• Severn Building
• First Church of Christ, Scientists
• Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Annunciation
• Chamber of Commerce Building (1904 rebuild)
• Hotel Junker
• Brexton Hotel
• Stewart’s Department Building

Henry F. Brauns (1845-1917)

• Northern District Police Station
• Mount Vernon Pumping Station
• Eastern Avenue Pumping Station (1912)
• The Lorraine Park Cemetery Gatehouse
• Brown’s Arcade

Daniel H. Burnham (1846-1912)

• Continental Trust Building

McKim, Mead & White

• Munsey Building

Stanford White (1853-1906)

• Lovely Lane Methodist Church
• Garrett House (interior renovation, 1893)
• Munsey Building (designed by McKim, Mead & White)

James Bosley Noel Wyatt (1847-1933)

• Clarence M. Mitchell, Jr. Courthouse (with William G. Nolting)
• Fifth Regiment Armory (with William G. Nolting)
• Garrett Office Building (with William G. Nolting)
• Saint Michael and All Angels Church (with Joseph Evans Sperry)
• Mercantile Trust Building (with Joseph Evans Sperry)

William G. Nolting (d. 1926)

• Clarence M. Mitchell, Jr. Courthouse (with J. B. Noel Wyatt)
• Fifth Regiment Armory (with J. B. Noel Wyatt)
• Garrett Office Building (with J. B. Noel Wyatt)

Charles L. Carson (1847-1891)

• Madison Avenue Temple (Baltimore Synagogue)
• Goucher Hall of the Women’s College of Baltimore
• Enoch Pratt Library Branch 3
• Enoch Pratt Library Branch 6
• Central Savings Bank
• Mount Vernon Place Methodist Church (with Thomas Dixon)
• Equitable Building (with Joseph Evans Sperry)
• Charles Street Masonic Lodge (1893 additions)
• Lovely Lane Methodist Church (supervising architect)
• Evergreen Mansion (1885 additions)

Joseph Evans Sperry (1854-1930)

• Eutaw Place Temple
• Bromo-Seltzer Tower
• Brewer’s Exchange
• Enoch Pratt Library Branch 7
• Saint Mark’s Lutheran Church
• Latrobe Hall at Johns Hopkins University
• Equitable Building (with Charles L. Carson)
• Saint Michael and All Angels Church (with J. B. Noel Wyatt)
• Mercantile Trust Building (with J. B. Noel Wyatt)
• Charles Street Masonic Lodge (1893 and 1908 additions)
• First Unitarian Church (1893 additions)

Louis L. Long

• Saint Michael’s Church
• Saint Ignatius Church

Joseph C. Hornblower (1848–1908)

• U.S. Custom House (with John Rush Marshall)

John Rush Marshall (1851–1927)

• U.S. Custom House (with Joseph C. Hornblower)

George C. Haskell (1852-1925)

• Hampden Grace M. E. Church
• Trinity English Lutheran Church

T. Buckler Ghequiere (1854-1910)

• Mount Calvary Church (1885 additions)
• Old Saint Paul’s Parish House

Otto G. Simonson (1862-1922)

• Fish Market Building (with Theodore Wells Pietsch)
• Maryland Casualty Building (with Theodore Wells Pietsch)

Theodore Wells Pietsch (1868-1930)

• Saint Philip and James Church
• Zion Lutheran Church (tower and parish hall)
• Fish Market Building (with Otto G. Simonson)
• Maryland Casualty Building (with Otto G. Simonson)
• Fallsway Fountain Monument
• Industrial Building

Kenneth MacKenzie Murchison (1872-1938)

• Pennsylvania Station

Thomas White Lamb (1871-1942)

• Hippodrome Theatre (1914)

Clyde N. Friz (1867-1942)

• Standard Oil Building
• Enoch Pratt Central Library (1933)
• Scottish Rite Masonic Temple (with John Russell Pope)

John Russell Pope (1874-1937)

• Baltimore Museum of Art
• Charlcote House
• University Baptist Church
• Scottish Rite Masonic Temple (with Clyde N. Friz)

Laurence Hall Fowler (1876-1971)

• Evergreen Mansion (20th century additions)
• War Memorial Building
• Castalia (Calvert School Headmaster’s Estate)

Philip H. Frohman (1887-1972)

• Cathedral of the Incarnation

The B&O Warehouse at Camden Yards is located along the right field boundary of Oriole Park. A former structure of the B&O Railroad, the narrow building was part of Baltimore’s Camden Station. Early in the 19th century when trade with the western interior United States threatened Charm City’s historic port economy, a plan was hatched to build a railway connecting Baltimore to the Ohio River. In 1856, Camden Station was completed, the complex becoming one of the first commercial railway lines in America.

In 1905 construction of the E. Francis Baldwin and Josias Pennington designed warehouse was finished by James Stewart and Company, it’s unique design necessary so it could squeeze between Eutaw Street and the station’s pre-existing railroad tracks. Today the structure contains offices for the Orioles’ staff, businesses and restaurants. At 1,116 feet, the Warehouse at Camden Yards is the longest building in America east of the Mississippi.

The state reptile of Maryland, the diamondback terrapin, lives in brackish waters and swampy regions along the eastern coast of North America.  During the 18th and 19th centuries, the diamondback flourished in the tributaries of the Chesapeake Bay, providing an abundant food source to the developing area.  Originally slave labor food, the 5 to 7 inch long terrapins became a delicacy during the 1900′s, eventually fetching high prices in America’s finest restaurants.

[Source]

Chesapeake colonists ate terrapin prepared Native-American fashion, roasted whole in live coals. Abundant and easy to catch, terrapin were so ample that landowners often fed their slaves and indentured servants a staple diet of terrapin meat. Later, in the 19th century, the turtle was appreciated as gourmet food, especially in a stew laced with cream and sherry. Subsequently, tremendous retail demand and heavy fishing of the terrapin nearly depleted its supply, and protective laws were enacted.

[Source]

(1869) Barnum’s Hotel at the corner of Calvert and Fayette (dubbed the best hotel in the United States by Charles Dickens) holds a dinner for 17th U.S. President Andrew Johnson that features 90 items of Maryland cuisine, from elk to turtle.

Baltimore’s Equitable Building was designed by architects Charles L. Carson and Joseph Evans Sperry.  The structure, located at 10 N. Calvert Street, was completed in 1891, and is the oldest building in Monument Square.  Built on the former site of Barnum’s Hotel, the Equitable was considered the city’s first skyscraper and contained Turkish baths in the basement.  The ten-story building is adjacent to Charm City’s two courthouses and the Battle Monument.  It’s exterior survived the Great Fire of 1904.

Seventh Baptist Church	Seventh Baptist Church	Eutaw Place Baptist Church	University Baptist Church

Started in 1845, the Seventh Baptist congregation once met in a meeting house on Calvert Street in Downtown. Richard Fuller, a man known for his controversial 1840s stance on slavery in the scriptures, was once head of the group. The organization changed locations and affiliations several times, and in 1897 the North Avenue district was chosen for the church’s expansion. The Seventh Baptist Church building is located at 1916 Saint Paul Street. The Seventh Metro Church, a reformation of the Seventh Baptist congregation, uses the structure today.

The Eutaw Place Baptist Church was established in 1867 to handle the surplus of Seventh Baptist Church members. The building was designed by Thomas Walter in the Gothic Revival style. Walter, the fourth architect of the U. S. Capitol building, offered his services for free. The Bolton Hill property was donated by Hiram Woods. The historic building is now occupied by the City Temple of Baltimore (Baptist).

Charles Village’s University Baptist Church sits near the top of Clover Hill on the Homewood campus of Johns Hopkins University. Founded in 1917 by forty members of the Eutaw Place Church, University Baptist was established for Johns Hopkins and the surrounding community. The building was conceived by John Russell Pope, architect of the Jefferson Memorial and the Baltimore Museum of Art.

The Alexander Brown Building stands at 135 E. Baltimore Street. Built in 1901 for Alex. Brown & Sons, the first and oldest continuously operational investment firm in America, the structure is one of few that survived Baltimore’s Great Fire of 1904. Damaged stone on the building’s facade is striking evidence of the devastating event. The company’s former headquarters is an important monument to Charm City’s financial significance during the 19th century. The building is also the first in U. S. history to be entirely heated by electricity. In 1997 renovation was completed on the interior, restoring the century old bank to its original layout. The Gustave Baumstark designed stained glass ceiling was cleaned during the process.

The McKim Free School was established in 1821 with a $600.00 endowment provided by merchant John McKim. The Baltimore Quaker died in 1819, leaving detailed instructions for his two sons, Isaac and William, to carry out. The McKim brothers hired the design team of William Key Howard, son of John Eager Howard, and William F. Small, who trained under Benjamin Henry Latrobe for two years, to create the Greek Revival style building located at 1232 E. Baltimore Street. Opening in 1833, the school was Charm City’s first free school, offering much needed education to disadvantaged children. The Friends Meeting House, the oldest religious building in Baltimore, is just around the corner. The two buildings combine to form the McKim Community Association campus.

The Eutaw Place Temple was built in 1892, and is located at 1307 Eutaw Place in Bolton Hill.  Temple Oheb Shalom erected the stunning structure after moving north from their original downtown location on Hanover Street.  Established in 1853, the congregation provided an alternative to the orthodox and radical reform groups that dominated Charm City’s 19th century Jewish population.  Designed by Joseph Evans Sperry, the synagogue is defined by its Byzantine style.  Sperry also designed Baltimore’s Emerson Bromo-Seltzer Tower and the Brewer’s Exchange.  After moving to a larger facility in 1960, Temple Oheb Shalom sold the Eutaw Place Temple to the Prince Hall Masons.  The masonic group utilize and maintain the building today.  The Francis Scott Key Monument stands in front of the temple.