Author: Eli

Eli Pousson started as a Field Officer at Baltimore Heritage in partnership with the National Trust for Historic Preservation in October 2009. Prior to moving to Baltimore, Eli worked for the DC Office of Historic Preservation and completed graduate work in anthropology and historic preservation at the University of Maryland College Park. Eli continues to work with the Lakeland Community Heritage Project and other heritage organizations in Prince George’s County, Maryland.

September CHAP Hearing Update: Mount Vernon Place Restoration Master Plan

This post is the first is a monthly series discussing the hearing agenda for the Baltimore Commission for Historical and Architectural Preservation.

Washington Monument, Detroit Publishing Company/LOC 1906

On September 13 at 1:45 PM, the Baltimore Commission for Historical and Architectural Preservation will hold a public hearing on the Mount Vernon Place Draft Restoration Master Plan. The plan was commissioned by the Mount Vernon Place Conservancy, a nonprofit established in 2008 to establish a public-private partnership with the City of Baltimore to restore and maintain Mount Vernon Place. Following a competitive process in 2009, MVPC selected Philadelphia landscape architecture firm OLIN to create the Mount Vernon Place Restoration and Revitalization Master Plan. The Master Plan is designed to serve as “the guiding document informing the fundraising and restoration of Mount Vernon Place to be completed before its bicentennial in July 2015.” The plan addresses a wide range of issues including the restoration of existing historic fabric, pedestrian access & safety, landscaping, lighting and infrastructure. You can download a PDF copy of the summary of the Mount Vernon Place Restoration and Revitalization Master Plan here.

Additional items on the agenda for September 13 include concept design reviews in the Fells Point Historic District and a hardship appeal proposing the installation of vinyl windows in the Mount Royal Terrace Historic District. The full agenda appears below.
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Baltimore Building of the Week: Greenaway Cottages

This week’s edition of the Baltimore Building of the Week takes us to North Baltimore at the edge of Roland Park to appreciate an autumn photo of the Greenaway Cottages designed by architect Charles E. Cassell (ca 1838-1916) in 1874.

Image courtesy Jack Breihan

These three cottages along 40th Street epitomize the Victorian Gothic style: polychrome stone and tile, steeply gabled roofs, deliberately asymmetric plan. Originally identical, the three cottages have each been altered over the years in different ways. They were built in 1874 as summer retreats for various branches of the wealthy Greenaway family – who made their way north when they wished to flee from the heat of their mansion on Mount Vernon Place. The cottages are currently owned and well maintained by Roland Park Place.

Baltimore’s Hebrew Orphan Asylum Matters: Last week to vote!

This Place Matters: Baltimore's Hebrew Orphan Asylum

Over the last week, we have partnered with the Jewish Museum of Maryland, the Coppin Heights CDC, Coppin State University, with additional support from Preservation Maryland, the Association of Rosemont Community Organizations, and Temple Oheb Shalom to share the story of Baltimore’s Hebrew Orphan Asylum and get out the vote for the “This Place Matters Community Challenge.” A small group of the over 800 people who have voted to support the Hebrew Orphan Asylum gathered this morning to declare that this place matters. As the oldest Jewish orphanage in the United States and a tremendous potential asset to the communities of West Baltimore, the Hebrew Orphan Asylum is an important building for many people throughout the region. In order to win, however, we have to get the word out, tell the story of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum, and let people know this place matters. Please vote to help us win $25,000 for the preservation of this rare Baltimore building then share the story with all of your friends and neighbors. Thank you for your generous support!

This Place Matters: Baltimore's Hebrew Orphan Asylum

Baltimore Building of the Week: Victorian Gothic Churches

This edition of the Baltimore Building of the Week series features two Victorian Gothic Churches that should be familiar to Baltimore Heritage members from our Mt. Vernon Open Houses during our 50th Anniversary Celebration and our February Behind the Scenes Tour of First and Franklin.

Mt. Vernon Place Methodist Church, courtesy Jack Breihan

These highly visible churches represent another Victorian style originating in Europe, known here as Victorian Gothic. Like the contemporary Second Empire style, the Victorian Gothic shows off modern industrial materials like polished marble, encaustic tiles, and structural iron. Unlike the Second Empire, Victorian Gothic buildings tend to be deliberately asymmetrical in plan. Completed in 1872, the Mount Vernon Place Methodist Church marked a change in style for Methodists, who had previously worshiped in simple, classical buildings. Not so here! The polychrome exterior combines brown sandstone with a greenish “serpentine” stone and polished marble. At about the same time and only a few blocks away on West Madison Street, First Presbyterian (now merged with the congregation of the Franklin Street Presbyterian) added a radically asymmetric pair of steeples to a pretty antebellum Gothic Revival sanctuary. The steeples, built mostly of iron, are hard-edged and dramatic–anything but pretty.

First and Franklin Street Presbyterian Church, courtesy Jack Breihan