Category Archives: Southeast Baltimore

Behind the Scenes Tour of Bars and Brothels of Fell’s Point

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Eighteenth-century visitor John David declared Fell’s Point “a place remarkable for its commerce of various kinds, for here ships land their cargoes and their crews wait not even for the twilight to fly to the polluted arms of the harlot.” Please join us and architectural historian Ms. Sherri Marsh Johns on a short walking tour of some of the notorious bars and brothels (and other possibly more reputable places) of historic Fell’s Point.

Tour Information

Date: Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Time: 5:30 to 6:30 PM (or a tad later)
Place: Meet in front of 1629-31 Aliceanna Street, about ½ block west of Broadway
This is the old Captain’s Hotel. Park at meters on the street.
Cost: $10
Registration: Click Here to Register.
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Pente Family: 100 Years in Little Italy

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John Pente with daughter Margaret and son-in-law Al celebrate over 100 years in Little Italy.

Sadly, Little Italy’s John Pente passed away earlier this week at age 100. Mr. Pente was a lifelong resident of Little Italy and Baltimore Heritage’s first honoree in the Centennial Homes program. Mr. Pente’s family moved into the house on High Street in 1904, and Mr. Pente lived there almost his entire life. His grandfather settled along President Street in Baltimore as an immigrant from Abruzzi, Italy in the 1890s when “Little Italy” was more German and English than Italian.  The area became known as “Little Italy” in the 1920s after the first Italian restaurant opened then. As part of Baltimore’s growing Italian community in the area, the Pente family found work where they could and carried on a family tradition as musicians in various local Italian bands. As a volunteer with St. Leo’s Church, the Sons of Italy, and the ambassador for the Little Italy Film Festival (which projected from a window on his second floor), John Pente was an active participant for decades in helping neighborhood grow and prosper. Part of this remarkable man’s legacy is certainly the Little Italy neighborhood that he took such good care of. Click here to download a brief profile of the Pente Family by Cristina Ambroselli for our Centennial Homes program.

The Baltimore Sun ran a nice article on Mr. Pente in today’s paper.  Also, WYPR will re-broadcast an interview with Mr. Pente from 2009 when he helped launch the Centennial Homes program.  The interview will air on Friday, July 30, between 9:15 and 9:30 a.m. A viewing will be held at Zanino’s Funeral Home in Highlandtown on Friday between 2:00 and 9:00 p.m. and a funeral mass will be held at St. Leo’s Church in Little Italy on Sunday at 10:00 a.m.

Behind the Scenes Tour of the Lloyd Street Synagogue

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Restoration of the Lloyd Street Synagogue 2008, courtesy JMM

Did you know that Baltimore is home to one of the oldest synagogues in the nation? Built in 1845 at the center of the historic Jewish community of East Baltimore, the Lloyd Street Synagogue was the first synagogue erected in Maryland and today it is the third-oldest standing synagogue in the country. Please join us for a tour of this rare restored landmark with preservation architect John Srygley, AIA, and the staff of the Jewish Museum of Maryland (also celebrating its 50th anniversary this year).

Tour Information

Note: We are holding two identical tours. The first starts with a reception at 5:00 and the tour at 5:30, and the second starts with a reception at 6:00 and the tour at 6:30.

Date: Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Time: 5:00 p.m. reception; 5:30 to 6:30 tour
6:00 p.m. reception; 6:30 to 7:30 tour
Place: Jewish Museum of Maryland, 15 Lloyd Street (Baltimore, MD 21202)
We’ll walk next door to the Lloyd Street Synagogue after meeting at the Museum.
Free parking is available in a lot across from the Museum. It is a brick lot in front of the Museum entrance.
Cost: $15 (includes wine and cheese reception)
Registration: Click Here to Register!

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Behind the Scenes Tour of B’nai Israel Synagogue

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Image courtesy Monument City

With its Moorish-Revival architecture and deep roots in Baltimore’s Eastern European Jewish community, the B’nai Israel Synagogue is a magnificent historic building with a congregation that has played a central part of the fascinating story of immigration and change in East Baltimore. Please join us for a tour of the synagogue with B’nai Israel historian Fred Shoken and other members of the congregation.

We are also partnering with the neighboring Jewish Museum of Maryland for a tour of the Lloyd Street Synagogue in a two-part exploration of Jewish heritage in Baltimore. Stay tuned for the announcement of the Lloyd Street Synagogue tour shortly.

Tour Information

Dates: Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Time: 5:45 PM: Kosher wine and cheese reception
6:00 to 7:00 PM: tour
Place: 27 Lloyd Street (Baltimore, MD 21202)
Parking is available along nearby streets
Cost: $15 (includes wine and cheese reception)
Registration: Click Here to Register
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Baltimore Building of the Week: Italianate Conversions

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Finishing up our series on Italianate rowhouses is this week’s post focuses on Italianate conversions in older neighborhoods such as Federal Hill and Fells Point,

Image courtesy Jack Breihan

The Italianate style, with its consistent cornice line, made for uniform and stately rows of identical houses. In older federal and Greek Revival style rowhouse neighborhoods, however, it had the opposite effect. The imposing cornices reminiscent of the palaces of the Renaissance – and the full-height top storey beneath them – proved so popular that Baltimoreans either tore down their old dormered or Greek Revival rowhouses or converted them to the Italianate style. The result is a romantic jumble of differing rooflines that lends a peculiar charm to older neighborhoods like Fells Point and Federal Hill.

Image courtesy Jack Breihan

Baltimore Building of the Week: Baltimore’s Columnar Monuments

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This week’s Baltimore Building of the Week is not, in fact, a building. Instead, it is three of Baltimore’s notable “Columnar Monuments.” Both the Battle Monument and Mount Vernon’s Washington Monument have also been featured on the Monument City website. Visitors can take a tour of the Shot Tower’s ground floor exhibit, sound and light show, and informational video are available with appointment at 10:30 AM on Saturday or Sunday. The Washington Monument is open for visitors Wednesday to Friday 10 AM to 4 PM and Saturday and Sunday 10 AM to 5 PM up until Memorial Day.

Battle Monument, Image courtesy Jack Breihan

Battle Monument, Image courtesy Jack Breihan

Completed during the 1820s, two of these towering structures established Baltimore’s distinction as “the Monumental City.” Maximilian Godefroy’s Battle Monument, depicted on the City flag, commemorated the Defenders who died beating off the British attack in 1814. It combines Egyptian and Roman themes, including a giant set of fasces. A gigantic Roman Doric column, Robert Mills’ Washington Monument portrays the Father of Our Country, dressed in a toga, performing what its builders considered his most heroic act. (What was it? answer next week!) The contemporary Phoenix Shot Tower was a monument to Baltimore’s growing industrial sector; it manufactured lead shot for the Chesapeake Bay duck-hunting industry.

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Baltimore Building of the Week: 9 North Front Street

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Staying in the historic Jonestown neighborhood for another week in our Baltimore Building of the Week series, Dr. John Breihan shares an exceptional example of the characteristic federal row house: 9 North Front Street. Read on then click here for an additional photo of 9 North Front Street from the interesting Monument City project.

Image courtesy Jack Breihan

Image courtesy Jack Breihan

The federal style of architecture was popular during Baltimore’s most vigorous period of growth, from the 1790s to the 1850s, when Baltimore vaulted into second place among American cities. The new residents were mostly housed in 1, 2, and 3½-story dormered brick row houses, less ornate than their Georgian predecessors. They are to be found all around the bustling harbor, from Fells Point through Little Italy and Jonestown to Federal Hill. A good example is 9 N. Front Street, the home of Baltimore’s second mayor, Thorowgood Smith, built in 1790. It was saved from deterioration by the Women’s Civic League during the 1970s. Other federal row houses preserved for public use include the Mother Seton House, the Star-Spangled Banner Flag House, and the Edgar Allen Poe House.

Baltimore Building of the Week: Carroll Mansion

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This week’s featured Baltimore Building of the Week from Dr. John Breihan is the Carroll Mansion built in 1811 at 800 East Lombard Street. If you enjoy this post be sure to support Carroll Museums, follow their blog, become a fan on Facebook,  or follow @CarrollMuseums on Twitter.

Image courtesy Jack Breihan

The years just before and after 1800 saw Baltimore’s greatest expansion. With it came a new style of architecture – called “Regency” in Great Britain and “Federal” here. Although still using Flemish bond brickwork and gabled roofs with dormer windows, the Federal style was lighter than Georgian, with moldings less deeply inscribed and gables less steep.  Shallow decorative panels adorned exterior walls, and entrances were often marked by elegantly slim columns. A leading example is the town mansion of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, signer of the Declaration of Independence and one of the young republic’s richest men.  When not residing in this house along the Jones Falls, Carroll lived at his country house, Doughoregan Manor in what is now Howard County. After Carroll’s death his house was put to a number of uses, causing increasing dilapidation until it was saved by the City of Baltimore.  It is now lovingly tended by the Carroll Museums, Inc.

Baltimore Building of the Week: Fells Point Wooden Houses

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We are staying in Fell’s Point for the fourth entry in our Baltimore Building of the Week series with Dr. John Beihan to take a look at the eight remaining wooden houses on Aliceanna Street, South Ann Street, South Bond Street, South Register Street, and the pair below at 612-614 South Wolfe Street,

Image courtesy Jack Breihan, 2009

Few of Baltimore’s earliest buildings were as grand as Mt. Clare or the Captain Steele House. Most were tiny 1½-story wood clapboard houses with steep roof lines and small dormers. Apprehensive of fire, a  City ordinance of 1799 decreed that all  houses be constructed of brick. About a half-dozen pre-1799 wooden houses survive in Fells Point. This pair on Wolfe Street was once proposed as a museum, but currently it is endangered by inadequate maintenance and lack of a useful function.

For more on wooden houses in Fells Point, be sure to read Stacy Patterson’s article “Early Wooden Houses in Fell’s Point” or see a few of the homes in person following our interactive map.

Baltimore Building of the Week: Captain Steele House

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The third entry in our Baltimore Building of the Week series by Dr. John Breihan is on the Captain John Steele House built ca 1788 at 931 Fell Street,

Image courtesy Jack Breihan, 2009

Baltimore’s growth came after the American Revolution. In comparison to Boston or Philadelphia, there are few buildings here in the Georgian style. A notable exception is the Captain Steele House in Fells Point, built just after the Revolution with the dormer windows and high-relief moldings characteristic of English Georgian architecture. It was lovingly restored and adapted for modern living by the Hepner family.

John Steele and his partner, Captain Thomas Lambdin, a resident of 802 S. Ann Street, operated a shipyard in Fells Point. The honorary title “Captain” was awarded to the shipbuilders, such as Lambdin and Steele, even if they did not command a ship.