Branches of Baltimore History

The Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Annunciation (Map) 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. Cassell also designed the First Church of Christ, Scientists and the Stafford Hotel. 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.

The Charlcote House (Map), 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 Baltimore’s 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 is surrounded by an iron fence.

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

Benjamin Henry Latrobe (1764-1820)

1. Basilica of the Assumption

Maximilian Godefroy (1765-1840)

1. Battle Monument
2. First Unitarian Church
3. Saint Mary’s Chapel (600 N. Paca Street)

Robert Cary Long, Sr. (1770-1833)

1. Baltimore’s Peale Museum
2. Davidge Hall (with Latrobe’s influence and possibly Godefroy’s design)
3. Old Saint Paul’s Church (walls retained after building burned down in 1854)

Robert Mills (1781-1855)

1. Washington Monument

Richard Upjohn (1802-1878)

1. Old Saint Paul’s Church (walls retained from Robert Cary Long, Sr.’s design)

Robert Cary Long, Jr. (1810-1849)

1. Lloyd Street Synagogue
2. Green Mount Cemetery entrance and mausoleum
3. Franklin Street Presbyterian Church
4. Saint Peter the Apostle Church (11 S. Poppleton St.)
5. Jerome Bonaparte Townhouse

John Rudolph Niernsee (1814–1885)

1. Green Mount Cemetery hilltop chapel (with James Crawford Neilson)
2. Grace and St. Peter’s Church (with James Crawford Neilson)
3. Emmanuel Episcopal Church (with James Crawford Neilson)
4. Camden Station (with James Crawford Neilson)
5. Saint John the Evangelist Roman Catholic Church (with James Crawford Neilson)
6. Johns Hopkins Hospital (with James Crawford Neilson)
7. Clifton Park (with James Crawford Neilson)

James Crawford Neilson (1816-1900)

1. Green Mount Cemetery hilltop chapel (with J. Rudolph Niernsee)
2. Grace and St. Peter’s Church (with J. Rudolph Niernsee)
3. Emmanuel Episcopal Church (with J. Rudolph Niernsee)
4. Camden Station (with J. Rudolph Niernsee)
5. Saint John the Evangelist Roman Catholic Church (with J. Rudolph Niernsee)
6. Johns Hopkins Hospital (with J. Rudolph Niernsee)
7. Clifton Park (with J. Rudolph Niernsee)

E. Francis Baldwin (1837-1916)

1. Saint Leo the Great Roman Catholic Church
2. B & O Roundhouse (B & O Railroad Museum)
3. Buildings at 10,12,14 and 16 East Chase Street (with Bruce Price)
4. Saint Ann’s Catholic Church (E. 22nd St. & Greenmount Ave.)
5. Mount Royal Station & Train Shed (with Josias Pennington)
6. Maryland Club (with Josias Pennington)
7. B & O Warehouse at Camden Yards (with Josias Pennington)

Josias Pennington (1854-1929)

1. Mount Royal Station & Train Shed (with E. Francis Baldwin)
2. Maryland Club (with E. Francis Baldwin)
3. B & O Warehouse at Camden Yards (with E. Francis Baldwin)

George A. Frederick (1842-1924)

1. City Hall
2. Moorish Tower (Druid Hill Park)
3. Palm House Conservatory (Druid Hill Park)
4. Mount Royal entrance to Druid Hill Park (possibly with John H. B. Latrobe)
5. Edgar Allan Poe Monument
6. Hollins Market
7. Cylburn House

Charles E. Cassell (1842-1916)

1. Severn Building
2. First Church of Christ, Scientists
3. Chamber of Commerce Building (17 Commerce St.)
4. Stewart’s Department Building
5. Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Annunciation
6. Stafford Hotel

Henry F. Brauns (1845-1917)

1. Northern District Police Station
2. Mount Royal Pumping Station
3. The Lorraine Park Cemetery gatehouse

Daniel H. Burnham (1846-1912)

1. Continental Trust Building

William Rutherford Mead (1846-1928)

1. Munsey Building (designed by McKim, Mead and White)

Charles Follen Mckim (1847-1909)

1. Munsey Building (designed by McKim, Mead and White)

Stanford White (1853-1906)

1. Lovely Lane Methodist Church
2. Garrett House (interior renovation, 1893)
3. Munsey Building (designed by McKim, Mead and White)

James Bosley Noel Wyatt (1847-1933)

1. Clarence M. Mitchell, Jr. Courthouse (with William G. Nolting)
2. Garrett Office Building (with William G. Nolting)
3. Mercantile Trust and Deposit Company Building (with Joseph Evans Sperry)

William G. Nolting (d. 1926)

1. Clarence M. Mitchell, Jr. Courthouse (with J. B. Noel Wyatt)
2. Garrett Office Building (with J. B. Noel Wyatt)

Thomas Dixon (d. 1886)

1. Mount Vernon Place United Methodist Church (with Charles L. Carson)

Charles L. Carson (1847-1891)

1. Equitable Building (with Joseph Evans Sperry)
2. Mount Vernon Place United Methodist Church (with Thomas Dixon)
   
3. Baltimore Hebrew Congregation Synagogue
4. Goucher Hall of the Women’s College of Baltimore
5. Central Savings Bank (N. Charles St. & E. Lexington St.)
   

Joseph Evans Sperry (1854-1930)

1. Equitable Building (with Charles L. Carson)
2. Eutaw Place Temple
3. Bromo-Seltzer Tower
4. Brewer’s Exchange
5. Mercantile Trust and Deposit Company Building (with J. B. Noel Wyatt)

Joseph C. Hornblower (1848–1908)

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

John Rush Marshall (1851–1927)

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

Otto G. Simonson (1862-1922)

1. Maryland Casualty Building (Hampden)

Kenneth MacKenzie Murchison (1872 – 1938)

1. Pennsylvania Station

Clyde N. Friz (1867-1942)

1. Central Library of the Pratt Library system (1933)
2. Standard Oil Building
3. Scottish Rite Masonic Temple (with John Russell Pope)

John Russell Pope (1874-1937)

1. Baltimore Museum of Art
2. Charlcote House
3. Scottish Rite Masonic Temple (with Clyde N. Friz)

39° 17′ 5.96″ N 76° 37′ 14.82″ W

The B & O Warehouse at Camden Yards (Map) 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 the world.  In 1905, construction on the 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.

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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.

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(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 (Map) 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.

39° 17′ 25.24″ N 76° 36′ 44.90″ W

The Seventh Baptist Church (Map) is located at 1916 Saint Paul Street.  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 1840’s 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.

39° 18′ 40.65″ N 76° 36′ 54.48″ W

The Alexander Brown Building (Map) stands at 135 E. Baltimore Street.  Built in 1901 by Alex. Brown & Sons, the first investment firm in America, the structure is one of few that survived Baltimore’s Great Fire of 1904. The company’s former headquarters (now Chevy Chase Bank) 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.

39° 17′ 22.71″ N 76° 36′ 44.84″ W

The McKim Free School (Map) was established in 1821 with a $600.00 endowment provided by 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 Howard and William Small 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 Old Friends’ Meeting House is just around the corner.  The two buildings combine to form the McKim Community Association campus.

39° 17′ 27.72″ N 76° 36′ 4.04″ W

[Source]

This banner, the largest battle flag in existence (1914), measures 36 by 29 feet. It was made by Mrs. Mary Young Pickersgill and her two nieces. The material was cut at Mrs. Pickersgill’s home, “No. 60 Albemarle Street, Old Town” (Pratt and Albemarle Streets, Baltimore), and carried to a nearby brewery, where it was sewed together. During the bombardment it was pierced by a number of shots.  The flag was restored at the National Museum, Washington, D. C., where it is considered one of the most precious possessions of that institution.

[Source]

By 1873, when the banner was hung from a third-story window at the Boston Navy Yard, the great rectangle had been squared off. Some of the trimmings patched holes in the flag; others served as souvenirs.