Yesterday, CHAP formally found that the 5 buildings on W. Preston Street that the Greek Church has proposed to demolish are intact enough to still be considered historic. This is a positive step towards finding a preservation solution.
Baltimore’s Greek community has a rich heritage that is worthy of respect and what we’re asking the church to do is do the same for the Mount Vernon community that it has been part of for 90 years.
Jack Danna, of the Mount Vernon-Belvedere Association, gestures towards the representative of the Greek Orthodox Cathedral in the audience. (Fern Shen)
After word spread that the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Annunciation wanted to tear down a set of 1890s rowhouses in Mount Vernon, the response from the public was forceful.
By mid-morning, 156 people had sent in letters or emails to oppose the demolition, the city’s preservation chief, Eric Holcomb, said at a hearing today.
Soon afterwards, following impassioned pleas to spare the five buildings from the wrecking ball, the Commission for Historical and Architectural Preservation (CHAP) handed opponents a key victory.
By a unanimous voice vote, they decided that the houses at 35-43 West Preston Street “contribute to the character” of the historic Mount Vernon District, an important determination the commissioners will take into account when they consider the church’s request to demolish the buildings.
Recently the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Annunciation announced that it is seeking to demolish five adjacent rowhouses on Preston Street in the Mount Vernon neighborhood across the street from the church. Below is a little information about why these rowhouses (number 35-43 West Preston Street) are quite special architecturally and historically, and why Baltimore Heritage has joined the neighborhood association and people across the city in calling on the church to be a good neighbor and work to find a solution that preserves the buildings.
The city’s preservation commission is scheduled to hold a hearing on this issue on Tuesday, December 13, 2022.
Architectural and Historic Significance
Although the houses are rowhouses like thousands of others in Baltimore, they are one of only two rows like them anywhere in the city. They were constructed between 1891 and 1893 in a row that contains ten houses total and, along with the 1000 block of North Calvert Street, are a signature step in Baltimore’s movement from Victorian style houses towards Colonial Revival. They were designed by noted Baltimore architect John Appleton Wilson, who not coincidentally also designed the houses on Calvert Street.
Photo by Baltimore Heritage boardmember Lashelle Bynum
If you look closely at them, you’ll notice a few unusual and wonderful things. First, they are not the classic Baltimore red brick that so many other rowhouses are made from. They are tan color that likely was intended to make these houses stand out from their older red brick neighbors. They are also grouped in pairs, with the front doors next to each other by twos. These give the houses a more classically symmetrical feel and also make them appear wider than they in fact are. And finally, if you look at the doorways, on each side is a classical Ionic column formed from rounded brick, a feature that architectural historian Fred Shoken says may be unique to this row.
Dr. Esther Richards lived at 41 West Preston St
In addition to these unusual architectural features, the buildings are part of an unusual history around early women doctors at Johns Hopkins. Dr. Elizabeth Hurdon, a gynecologist, was the first woman hired by Hopkins in 1897. She lived at 31 W. Preston (not proposed for demolition) with Dr. Florence Sabin, who was the first woman hired faculty at Hopkins Medicine and the first woman elected to the National Academy of Sciences. From 1927 to her death in 1956, Dr. Esther Richards lived a few doors down at 41 W. Preston (which is slated for demolition). Dr. Richards was a Hopkins trained psychiatrist and professor.
Current Status and Next Steps
Photo by Baltimore Heritage boardmember Lashelle Bynum
Since the mid-1990s, the Greek Church has owned the five buildings they are now proposing to demolish. They have been vacant for many years, but the front facades remain in remarkably good condition. The back portions of the houses, however, are in serious disrepair, including a mature sumac tree that is growing through the back portion of one of them. We are working with the Church to get a look inside, and will go in with the knowledge that there have been many, many rowhouses in the city that were in as bad a shape or worse and were successfully rehabbed and put back into productive use. One thing we are blessed with in Baltimore is a deep bench of architects and contractors who have loads of experience with buildings just like these.
The city’s Commission for Historical and Architectural Preservation (CHAP) is scheduled to hear this issue on Tuesday, December 13, 2022. This is called a “Part 1 Hearing,” and in it CHAP will determine whether the houses continue to contribute to the Mt. Vernon Historic District. In other words, they will decide whether they are in good enough condition to still be deemed “historic.” If the CHAP commission does in fact deem them “historic,” which we highly anticipate they will, and if the Church continues to seek only a demolition solution, there will be a second “Part 2 Hearing” in the future where the CHAP commission will decide whether to grant approval to the demolition proposal.
Last week, Baltimore Heritage had its annual Preservation Celebration and we are delighted we could once again gather in person! We handed out 14 awards to groups and individuals doing fabulous work celebrating and preserving our city’s history and buildings. We gave out 6 micro-grants to 6 very worthy community projects. We conducted our organization’s annual meeting and welcomed a few new board members. And we said a big thank you to our wonderful volunteers. They make historic preservation possible in Baltimore. All the while, we ate delicious food from Trinacria and drank wine from Spirits of Mt. Vernon! Thank you to everyone attended.
Award Winners:
Sonia Eaddy and Nicole King For tireless advocacy in historic Poppleton
CASA For the restoration of the 1921 Belnord Theater
Award winners Nicole King (left) and Sonia Eaddy (right) at the celebration!
Lillie Carroll Jackson Civil Rights Museum For developing a Baltimore Civil Rights history school curriculum
Baltimore City Department of General Services and
Carroll Museums, Inc. For the restoration of the interior of the Phoenix Shot Tower
The Peale For the restoration of The Peale
Friends of Patterson Park and
Baltimore City Department of Recreation and Parks For restoration of the historic superintendent’s house in Patterson Park
Nia Redmond For creating the East Baltimore Historical Library
Meadow Development Group For restoration of The Eleanor at 3400 Auchentoroly Terrace
Jubilee Baltimore For rehabilitation of the Odell’s Building at 19-21 East North Avenue
Bree Jones For advancing equitable renewal in historic West Baltimore
Volunteer of the Year – Richard Messick For enhancing Baltimore’s historic places through years of research, publishing, and tour guiding
Pitch Party Winners
$1000: St. Mark’s Lutheran Church For exterior lighting
Diana Bailey, Executive Director of the Maryland Women’s Heritage Center, receiving her microgrant check from Baltimore Heritage Executive Director Johns Hopkins
$750: Laurel Cemetery Memorial Project For new cemetery signage
$750: Greater Baltimore Urban League For a new history exhibit
$500: Maryland Women’s Heritage Center For a new electronic exhibit
$500: Carroll Museums, Inc. For a new Shot Tower sign
Baltimore Heritage is thrilled to share the news that the Eaddy family and all of the advocates in Poppleton have won. The city just announced that it will not evict the Eaddy family (they will get to continue to own their homes), and that the City is selling the Sarah Ann Street alley houses to non-profit developer Black Women Build for $1 each. Black Women Build has already started thinking through their rehab and eventual sale, with the former tenants getting first priority. This has been 20 years in the making and is a huge victory. A big thank you and congratulations to the Eaddy family and Organize Poppleton for their sustained campaign to save these historic homes. We’ll share more later, but here is a wonderful Baltimore Brew article.
Baltimore’s annual unconference on people, places, and the past will be held in-person at the Baltimore Museum of Industry on Friday, September 23, 2022!
What is Bmore Historic?
Bmore Historic is a participant-led unconference for people who care about public history and historic preservation in and around Baltimore. This includes historians, preservationists, museum professionals, archivists, librarians, humanities scholars, students, volunteer activists, Main Street board members, educators, and anyone interested in exploring the intersections between people, places, and the past in Baltimore and Maryland.
Unconferences are events run by participants. Attendees set the agenda for what’s discussed, lead the sessions and workshops that fill the schedule, and create an environment of innovation and productive discussion.
Past, in-person Bmore Historic unconferences have been structured around four session blocks: two in the morning and two in the afternoon. We usually have between four to six sessions in each of the time blocks for a total of twenty sessions throughout the day. Learn more about Bmore Historic or read our introduction to unconferences.
