Ten Hills

Baltimore City Historic District Ordinance 01-183 06/19/01

Description

Ten Hills MapIn 1909 developer Charles Steffey laid out Ten Hills keeping the natural and picturesque ambience intact. With curving streets, diverse mature vegetation, wonderful vistas, and diverse array of suburban architecture, Ten Hills exemplifies a picturesque suburban neighborhood. Lining the streets are houses built between 1910 to the 1990's. The first houses, built in the 1910's, tend to be the largest ranging in styles of Colonial, English Tudor, Spanish Colonial, Greek Revival, and Arts and Crafts. By the 1920's the houses tended to be slightly smaller, but of bungalows, foursquares, and cottages all decorated with wonderful stylistic detailing. After WWII, houses were sporadically built on infill lots ranging in types and styles: Modern, Colonial Revival, split level, cape cods, and ranch houses. This wonderful array of residential houses placed within the original naturalistic street design of Steffey makes Ten Hills one of Maryland's most beautiful suburbs.

Significance

Charles H. Steffey, a well-known Baltimore realtor and developer envisioned Ten Hills as a suburban neighborhood retaining the area's natural and country landscapes. Steffey visualized the former estate as a grand suburban community with natural beauty, winding streets and attractive homes, and consequently hired civil engineers Augustus Bouldin and Company to design and develop a landscape and street plan. Steffey and his team worked closely with each new lot owners' architect and builder (following deed covenant design guidelines), to build an aesthetically diverse residential neighborhood.

The majority of the original homes are large (five to six bedrooms) built on large lots and of solid construction with gracious appointments that characterized the emerging suburban styles of American architecture during the first two decades of the 20th Century. The first homes were built in 1910 and twenty-six were constructed by 1912. Throughout the next eight decades the neighborhood slowly grew into a mature City suburb retaining its suburban characteristics.