Baltimore City Historic District Ordinance 18-118 - 3/27/2018

Description

Situated within the historic retail core of Baltimore City and on a street grid that largely remains from the original settlement of the area, the proposed Howard Street Commercial historic district demonstrates distinctive characteristics of modestly scaled 19th-and early 20th century commercial architecture. The proposed Howard Street Commercial district comprises 1 ½ city blocks northwest of the Inner Harbor and immediately adjacent to (west of) the Central Business District and south of the Mount Vernon historic district. Howard Street continues to serve this area as the primary thoroughfare for public transit, as the light rail tracks replaced the historic streetcar route.

The district is comprised of two- to four-story commercial structures, most of which date to the 19th and early 20th centuries. The buildings in this district are primarily brick, many with large commercial windows on the upper stories, and highly decorative metal cornices. The earliest buildings along Park Avenue are two stories with a dormer on the gable roof, and modified storefronts on the first story. There are several 20th-century buildings in the Moderne and Art Deco styles that retain the scale of the older commercial buildings.

Significance

The proposed Howard Street Commercial local historic district is home to a cohesive group of modestly scaled commercial structures at the northern end of Baltimore’s historic retail district. The proposed district is part of the larger Market Center National Register Historic District, which is home to large department stores, banking centers, theaters and restaurants. The Howard StreetCommercial Historic District represents the smaller, specialized retailers in buildings that transitioned from primarily residential to commercial use at the turn of the 20th century.

Howard Street became the major thoroughfare through the retail district and was home to a variety of commercial and manufacturing enterprises housed primarily in residential structures. In the late 19th century, the 400 block was home to a number of stables and laundries, as well as furniture manufacturing and upholstery operations that were located on the first floors, with residential quarters on the uppers floors. In the early to mid-20th century, the majority of the buildings in the 400 block of North Howard Street were redesigned for primarily commercial use or completely replaced with modest, purpose-built commercial structures intended to serve as shops and showrooms. By the early 20th century, this block of Howard Street was home to music stores, piano showrooms, furniture stores, and later automobile showrooms.

The Howard Street Commercial district is unique in the larger retail center because it is primarily composed of smaller, one- to four-story buildings, with decorative cornices, metal bay windows, and first-floor storefronts. The commercial district represents a distinct collection of modest commercial structures that contributed to the larger retail district on Baltimore’s West Side.