Baltimore City Historic District Ordinances 62 6/11/76; 59 5/14/84; 705 5/13/91
Certified for Tax Incentives 6/9/80

Description

The Mount Royal Terrace Historic District presently includes the 1900-2300 blocks of Mount Royal Terrace, the 600 block of Reservoir Street, the 600 block of Lennox Street, and 2001-2031 Park Avenue. The expanded historic district includes the 600 block of Reservoir Street and 2001 Park Avenue. The district is made up of large individual houses, duplexes, small row house groupings and a few apartment houses. The proposed expansion is exclusively row house groupings.

Mt. Royal Terrace is well landscaped with steep front lawns and tree lined paths. The architecture ranges from intricate Queen Anne Style houses to Georgian Revival mansions to simple 1920's porch front row houses. In particular, the 600 block of Reservoir Street is predominantly influenced by Queen Anne. The house at 2100 Mount Royal Terrace is exceptional for its porches, conical tower, and unusual roofline. Many excellent Queen Anne style duplexes are located in the 2100 block of Mount Royal Terrace. They feature intricate brick and terra cotta decoration, dutch gables, finials, circular bays, stained glass transoms, decorative wrought iron, wood bracketed porches and slate mansard roofs.

Many houses in the 1900-2000 blocks of Mount Royal Terrace are noticeable for their bowed fronts, second floor balconies and porches creating an eclectic streetscape. The house at 2132 Mount Royal Terrace and the apartment building at 2220 Mount Royal Terrace represent the latter stages of development on the terrace. Also included in the district are some row houses on Lennox Street that feature excellent brickwork, multi-paned transom windows, some original wood double doors and small hooded windows. Both Reservoir and Lennox Streets are more urban in appearance than the terrace, although Lennox Street terminates on a small park at the end of the street.

Significance

Mount Royal Terrace is significant as a major approach to Druid Hill Park. The houses were built to take advantage of terraced landscape and the view overlooking the Jones Falls Valley. Many of the houses feature second floor porches embellished with excellent woodwork and often highlighted by slate roofs and cresting. The duplex houses with Dutch gables are quite rare in
Baltimore. The 2100 block of Mount Royal Terrace is perhaps the best example of this type of dwelling in the city.

The Georgian Mansions of the district are unique in this part of Baltimore, but the style was first used in Reservoir Hill for the Booth-Epstein mansion that once stood on upper Eutaw Place. The architectural detailing on the buildings of this area represent the work of craftsman in brick, terra cotta, and woodworking. Although the Mount Royal Reservoir no longer exists, it influenced the development of the district with the crescent shaped street configuration of the lower part of the district and the terraced landscaping. The Lennox Street houses in this district originally formed an important vista to the Reservoir.