Baltimore is an American center for cast iron buildings, although the number left standing in Baltimore is dwindling. A century ago, there were more than 100 of them. By 1962, the city was down to 36 buildings with full cast iron fronts. Today, there are only 9 of these left, and an additional 13 with cast iron storefronts.
The three houses at 606, 608, and 610 Cathedral Street are all that remain of the elegant nineteenth-century townhouses that once lined this block off West Mount Vernon Place. The Walters Art Museum has acquired the three townhouses. The Museum has not publicly indicated how the townhouses fit into its ongoing planning for museum expansion.
Built during the 1820s, the row of houses on the 300 block of Saint Paul Place (1820s Houses) was erected in the aftermath of the War of 1812 and constituted some of the oldest buildings in Baltimore. Mercy Hospital demolished the buildings in 2007 to construct a new building on the site.
The 200 block of West Lexington Street is in the heart of the “Superblock” redevelopment area on the City’s West Side. The south side of the street is an intact block of historic buildings, a rare occurrence in this part of old downtown.
On the east side of the 400 block of Park Avenue stand numbers 405-411, four paired, three-story stuccoed brick townhouses whose elliptical blind arches above the doorways and some of the windows resemble those on architect Robert Mills’s now-demolished Waterloo Row.
