Union Square is a neighborhood located in the Soweboarea of Baltimore.[2] It dates to the 1830s and includes a historic district of houses and commerce buildings.
A 2.5-acre (10,000m2) public space at the west side of the neighborhood, Union Square Park dates from 1847 and contains the community's signature structure, a Greek Revival Pavilion (1850) with fluted iron columns. Other features include the H. L. Mencken Memorial Fountain (1976) and curved walkways with park benches. Throughout the year, there are many impromptu events in the Square, including neighborhood dinners, outdoor movies, tag sales, Easter egg hunts, Halloween pumpkin carvings, and various other parties.
Hollins Market
A vital part of the community, Hollins Market was built in the Italianate style in 1838 at the east side of the neighborhood and is Baltimore's oldest home to food merchants.
H. L. Mencken HouseSowebohemian Arts Festival
Mencken House
The H. L. Mencken House is located at 1524 Hollins Street. Baltimore's famous son, Henry Louis Mencken, lived here from 1883 until his death in 1956. More details in History section (below).
Arts festival
An annual event - the Sowebohemian Arts Festival - is held in the streets around Hollins Market on the Sunday afternoon of the Memorial Day weekend.
Other highlights
Also in the Union Square Historic District, attractions include annual events such as the Union Square Christmas Cookie Tour plus the Black Cherry Puppet Theater, the Enoch Pratt Free Library No. 2 Branch (1886), and Sowebo Arts, Inc.
The Union Square-Hollins Market Historic District is a dense area of rowhouses and commercial structures located approximately 10 blocks west of the Inner Harbor in Baltimore. The district contains approximately 1,321 buildings with about 31 structures which do not contribute to the district. There are two major features in the district: Union Square Park, a speculative park and housing development of the 1840s, and Hollins Market, an Italianate style market house built in 1838 and 1864. The remainder of the district developed after 1830 mainly as housing for workers in nearby industries and consist of low scale, two and three story brick vernacular dwellings while larger, high-style rowhouses surround the park.[3]
On the Square and on nearby streets, spacious three-story rowhouses predominate. Most are pre- and post-Civil War Italianate in style, but there are many examples of Early Victorian Greek Revival and Late Victorian Romanesque Revival. A majority of the homes have ten- to fourteen-foot ceilings, tall distinctive windows, wood floors, and plaster walls. Exteriors are brick and mortar facades with attractive cornices and marble steps. On the side streets and alleys there are an additional variety of charming two-story and two-story-with-attic rows. House prices range from $40,000 to $400,000.
Schools
Southwest Baltimore Charter School
Opened in August 2005, the Southwest Baltimore Charter School (SBCS) is located at 31 South Schroeder Street. Its K – 4 enrollment serves a diverse population in southwest Baltimore City. SBCS accomplishments include increases in reading performance across all grade levels and student performances at Taste the Arts, a Young Audiences Gala and fundraiser.
Steuart Hill Academy (Baltimore City School #4)
Steuart Hill Academy is located at 30 South Gilmor Street directly across the street from Union Square Park. The school was originally named Steuart Hill Elementary as a pre-K –6 school. The school's playground was torn down in 1999 and the school went without a playground for 4 years until awareness was brought to the attention of the city by a group of the students. In 2002 these students were presented a grant from the Department of Parks and Recreation for $1 million. This money was used to rebuild their playground and several other Baltimore City playgrounds as well. In 2002, Steuart Hill Academy enrolled as a pre-K – 8 school.
Boundaries
The District is bounded by South Fulton Street to the west and South Schroeder Street to the east, with north and south borders of West Baltimore and West Pratt Streets. Union Square proper, just west of the Market, is bounded by S. Stricker and S. Gilmore Streets from the east and west respectively, and by Hollins and W. Lombard Streets to the north and south. The area is built on a grid street system which conforms to the original 1818 layout of the area. Zip Code: 21223.
History
Origins
Begun during the influx of English, Irish and Germanimmigration of the 1830s, the Union Square / Hollins Market Historic District is a dense area of rowhouses that includes Federal, Greek Revival and Italianate architectural styles. To the west, Union Square Park contains an ornate fountain and Greek Revival pavilion, and forms one of the two open spaces preserved in the neighborhood. Hollins Market, in the east, is an Italianate-style market house built in 1838 and expanded in 1864, and is the oldest city market still in operation.
A large part of the neighborhood is built on the former estate of merchant-shipper Thorowgood Smith (1744–1810). Smith was Baltimore's second mayor, from 1804 to 1808, filling the vacancy caused by the resignation of James Calhoun (Calhoun Street passes through the Union Square neighborhood). In 1799, Smith built his summer home, Willow Brook, in the Palladian style popular in mid-18th century England and the United States. At the time, the property was on the outskirts of the city. Across town, next door to the Shot Tower (1828), Smith's principal residence is restored as the Circa 1790 Home, open to the public, and maintained by the Women's Civic League.
Upon the death of the childless Smith, the villa with twenty-six acres passed to his wife, the former Mary Blaikley Stith (1750–1822) and then to a nephew, merchant and privateer John Donnell.
Donnell was responsible for parceling out the first plots of land for the construction of homes. Three sons of John Donnell leased grounds around the park, laid out specifications for houses, and graded and paved streets bordering the Square in the 1840s.
Dubbed “Millionaire’s Row,” the portion of Stricker Street facing the Square featured the Italianate residences of bankers, investors, and factory owners. Other variations of the Italianate style lined the blocks leading up to and surrounding the square. Less ornate homes were put up in groups on side and alley streets, but all shared many identical features such as cornices, marble steps, and iron work. Developers and homeowners attempted to build the most economic dwellings possible, so they crammed narrow rowhouses along every road, avenue and alley in the district. Common brick was often used on side walls, with hard surface English brick on the front. The largest rooms were typically the front parlors and master bedrooms – smaller rooms were placed to the rear.
Ceiling medallions, cornices, staircase millwork, and fireplace designs were individualized features, chosen from home order catalogs. Most of the wrought or cast ironwork in the neighborhood was made in the Hayward, Bartlett, and Co. Factory near the B&O Yards to the south of the neighborhood. The buildings were brick and low-scale – no more than three stories except for some commercial buildings. Evenly spaced doorsteps, windows, and doors, as well as continuous rooflines create the visual rhythms for which Baltimore rowhouses are noted. Although residential construction ended in the 1880s, commercial building continued into the early 20th century.
The two-and-one-half acres for the park was approved for that use and donated by the Donnells in 1847. The park is one block square, bordered by Lombard, Stricker, Gilmor, and Hollins streets. The landscape of Union Square – with its walkways, pavilion, fountain, and wrought iron lamps – recalls Victorian Era Baltimore. Architect John F. Hoss designed the iron Greek-style pavilion with fluted columns in 1850 – it covers a natural spring that was once accessible by steps and, at one time, supplied water to the B&O Railroad. The source of the name “Union Square” is uncertain but probably reflects the patriotic sentiment of this time before the Civil War. Fog scenes of the Square, lights agleam over wet pavements and barren limbs, were often featured in local landscape artistry.
Willow Brook, the estate house, was acquired in 1864 by Emily Caton McTavish, granddaughter of Charles Carroll (a signer of the Declaration of Independence), and daughter of General Winfield “Old Fuss and Feathers” Scott (a hero in the War of 1812 and unsuccessful Whig presidential candidate in 1852). Within a year, she donated it to the Roman Catholic Church as a school for delinquent girls, under the administration of the Congregation of the Good Shepherd. Additions and renovations changed the original structure over the next 100 years until the school closed in 1965, the property was sold, and the buildings were dismantled. Willow Brook's interior oval drawing room had long enjoyed national acclaim and, still intact, it was moved to the Baltimore Museum of Art for public and permanent display. Steuart Hill Elementary School was constructed on the site. The area was designated a National Register Historic District in 1967, two years after Willow Brook was razed.
The original iron urns in the park were smelted down during World War II for the war effort. Economic decline occurred in the mid-20th until extensive rehabilitation began during a renaissance in the 1960s and 1970s. The Square benefitted from new lighting, shrubs, pink sidewalks, and cast iron benches installed during the 1970s.
Hollins Market
The city's oldest market structure still in use, Hollins Market is part of the Baltimore public market system that began in 1763. In 1835, the City granted a petition of piano manufacturer Joseph Newman and “others” to erect a market house at their own expense. Banker George T. Dunbar donated the land which, at that time, was on the western fringe of the city. The doors opened in September 1836 and the market soon became very successful, but the fragile structure blew down in a windstorm two years later. Newman organized the effort to quickly rebuild and re-open the market by the end of 1839. The market was named for John Smith Hollins (1786–1856), an estate owner in West Baltimore and one-term mayor of the city from 1852 to 1854. In 1863, the City Council appropriated $23,000 to erect the high-ceilinged Italianate red brick edifice as an addition to the old market house. As this was during the divisive time of the Civil War, the council refused to consider any bid for the market's construction that did not come from “parties... known to be thoroughly and unconditionally Union Men.”
By 1900, Hollins Market stretched from Poppleton to Carey Streets, with 160 inside and 180 outside stalls. Over the years, an assortment of West Baltimore butchers, various European and Asian immigrants with vendor traditions, and African-American merchants have all sold and purchased meats, farm-fresh produce, baked goods, and home-produced wares. Somewhat smaller today, the traditions and diversity of the market and the quality of goods still holds true. The 1990 Barry Levinson film “Avalon” depicts Hollins Market in its heyday.
Hollins Market, at 26 South Arlington Street, is open Monday through Saturday from 7:00a.m. to 6:00p.m. It is closed on Sunday.
Malachai Mills
At 1504 W. Baltimore Street is the residence of Malachai Mills, a free-born African-American businessman in the early and mid-19th century. Mr. Mills was a prominent cabinetmaker and carpenter, providing furnishings and carpentry for many of the early homes in the neighborhood. Bill Adler of the Union Square neighborhood is at the head of a preservation effort to revitalize this valuable structure as a “historic life museum” and as a preservation, fine arts, or urban studies field site for local universities.
Designated a National Historic Landmark in 1985, this Italianate brick row house at 1524 Hollins Street was the home of one of Baltimore's most famous citizens – noted Baltimore Sun journalist and author Henry Louis Mencken lived here from 1883 until his death in 1956. Mencken wrote of his home: “I have lived in one house in Baltimore for nearly 45 years. It has changed in that time, as I have – but somehow it still remains the same.... It is as much a part of me as my two hands. If I had to leave it I’d be as certainly crippled as if I lost a leg.”[4]
After his death on January 26, 1956, his home was bequeathed to the University of Maryland. In 1983 the City of Baltimore acquired the H. L. Mencken House from the University, in exchange for the Old Pine Street Station. With period furniture, his restored second-floor office, and backyard gazebo, the H. L. Mencken House opened as part of the City Life Museums and a center for theatrical, literary and musical events. Although the City Life Museums closed in 1997, a $3 million donation from retired naval commander Max Hency allowed the organization to begin renovating the house, and it opened to the public in 2019, though only by prior reservation.[5][6]
Celebrating History
The park and fountain – as well as parts of Stricker, Hollins and Lombard streets – were transported back to the 1850s when Union Square played the title role in the lush 1997 movie adaptation of Henry James's biting novel Washington Square from acclaimed director Agnieszka Holland.
The excitement continued in 1997 as the community celebrated the sesquicentennial of Union Square with a re-dedication of the park including the placement of a stone tablet commemorating the event at the foot of one of the pavilion columns. The celebration was highlighted with concerts and a marching band performance, and the dedication of a new park at Pratt and Gilmor streets.
Demographics
As of the census[7] of 2000, there were 5,420 people living in the neighborhood. The racial makeup of Union Square was 30.2% White, 63.4% African American, 0.0% Native American, 3.0% Asian, 1.1% from other races, and 2.3% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.1% of the population. 38.0% of occupied housing units were owner-occupied. 34.9% of housing units were vacant.
49.5% of the population were employed, 7.4% were unemployed, and 43.7% were not in the labor force. The median household income was $30,765. About 14.9% of families and 27.5% of the population were below the poverty line.
Related Research Articles
Federal Hill is a neighborhood in Baltimore, Maryland, that lies just to the south of the city's central business district. Many of the structures are included in the Federal Hill Historic District, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970. Other structures are included in the Federal Hill South Historic District, listed in 2003.
Charles Village is a neighborhood located in the north-central area of Baltimore, Maryland, USA. It is a diverse, eclectic, international, largely middle-class area with many single-family homes that is in proximity to many of Baltimore's cultural amenities. Nearby are the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Homewood campus of The Johns Hopkins University, Olmstead's Wyman Park, the weekly Waverly Farmers Market, and the arts district, Station North. Homes are Baltimore brick and stone row houses, many dating from the 1890s. Running from downtown north is the historic boulevard, Charles Street, where Baltimore's Easter Promenade once took place.
Sowebo is a community-chosen name for a historic area in the southwest of the city of Baltimore.
Power Plant Live! is a collection of bars, restaurants and other businesses in the Inner Harbor section of downtown Baltimore, Maryland. It was developed by The Cordish Companies and opened in phases during 2001, 2002, and 2003. The entertainment complex gets its name from the nearby "Power Plant" building, three blocks south on municipal Pier 4 on East Pratt Street facing the Inner Harbor, which was also later re-developed by Cordish.
Pigtown is a neighborhood in the southwest area of Baltimore, bordered by Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard to the east, Monroe Street to the west, Russell Street to the south, and West Pratt Street to the north. The neighborhood acquired its name during the second half of the 19th century, when the area was the site of butcher shops and meat packing plants to process pigs transported from the Midwest on the B&O Railroad; they were herded across Ostend and Cross Streets to be slaughtered and processed.
Reservoir Hill is a historic neighborhood in the city of Baltimore, Maryland, United States. It is located south of Druid Hill Park, north of Bolton Hill, east of Penn-North, and west of Jones Falls. It is bounded by Druid Park Lake Drive, the Jones Falls Expressway, North Avenue, and McCulloh Street. It is contained in the 21217 ZIP code.
Upton is a neighborhood in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. The neighborhood is in the western section of the city, roughly between Fremont Avenue and McCulloh Street, extending from Dolphin Street to Bloom Street. Its principal thoroughfare is Pennsylvania Avenue.
Hollins Market is the name of the oldest existing public market building in the city of Baltimore, Maryland. It is a contributing property to the Union Square-Hollins Market Historic District.
Otterbein is a small neighborhood of historic rowhouses in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Otterbein is immediately southwest of, and in close walking distance to, the Inner Harbor. The neighborhood is very compact, entirely located between Hanover Street and Sharp Street, and between Barre Street and Henrietta Street. It is in small parts of zip codes 21201 and 21230. It is named for Old Otterbein Church, located immediately north of the neighborhood.
Medfield is a neighborhood located in north Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America. It is located to the north of the trendy Hampden neighborhood and south of affluent Roland Park neighborhood. Its unofficial boundaries are Coldspring Lane to the north; Jones Falls Expressway to the west; Falls Road/Hickory Avenue to the east; and West 41st Street to the south.
The H. L. Mencken House was the home of Baltimore Sun journalist and author Henry Louis Mencken, who lived here from 1883 until his death in 1956. The Italianate brick row house at 1524 Hollins Street in Baltimore was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1985. Mencken wrote of his home: "I have lived in one house in Baltimore for nearly 45 years. It has changed in that time, as I have—but somehow it still remains the same.... It is as much a part of me as my two hands. If I had to leave it I'd be as certainly crippled as if I lost a leg."
Otterbein Church, now known as Old Otterbein United Methodist Church, is a historic United Brethren church located in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. The first "German Reformed" church was built to serve the German Reformed and some Evangelical Lutheran immigrants, and later entered the Brethren strain of German Reformed Protestantism in the later Church of the United Brethren in Christ.
Oakenshawe Historic District is a national historic district in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. It comprises 334 buildings which reflect the neighborhood's development during the period 1890 to about 1926. The neighborhood evolved in two stages on the 19th century Wilson estate. The first phase of growth is represented by frame houses dating from 1890 to about 1910 reflecting vernacular interpretations of the Victorian Gothic and Italianate styles. The second stage of development began in the World War I era, when several developers transformed the property by constructing a neighborhood of brick "daylight" rowhouses in revival styles popular at the time.
Franklin Square Historic District is a national historic district in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. It is a 19th-century rowhouse neighborhood developed along a strict grid street pattern. A one square block, two and a half acre public park, Franklin Square, is a focal point for the area and the most elaborate rowhousing surrounds the square. The district contains approximately 1,300 buildings of which approximately 1,250 contribute to the significance of the historic district.
The Clinton Avenue Historic District in Albany, New York, United States, is a 70-acre (28 ha) area along that street between North Pearl and Quail streets. It also includes some blocks along neighboring streets such as Lark and Lexington.
The Knox Street Historic District is primarily located along one block of that street in the Park South neighborhood of Albany, New York, United States. Its contributing properties are several groups of attached rowhouses. The area was recognized as a historic district and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2008.
Patterson Park is a neighborhood in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Named for the 137-acre park that abuts its north and east sides, the neighborhood is in the southeast section of Baltimore city, roughly two miles east of Baltimore's downtown district.
Hollins–Roundhouse Historic District is a national historic district in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. It is a primarily residential area characterized by 19th century rowhouses. The neighborhood is historically significant due to its association with the development of rail transportation in Maryland. Additional historical significance comes from the neighborhood's association with ethnic immigration to Baltimore. During the 1840s and 1850s the area was a center of settlement for Baltimore's German and Irish communities, many of whom immigrated to the United States to work in the rail industry. Later, from the 1880s to the 1920s, the neighborhood became established as the center of Baltimore's Lithuanian immigrant community. Because of the large Lithuanian population in the area north of Hollins Street, the area became known as Little Lithuania. A few remnants of the neighborhood's Lithuanian heritage still remain, such as Lithuanian Hall located on Hollins Street.
Hollins Market is a neighborhood in the Sowebo area of Baltimore. It takes its name from the Hollins Market, the oldest public market building still in use in Baltimore City, which is located in the heart of the neighborhood.
Midtown-Edmondson is a mixed-use neighborhood in western Baltimore City developed mostly between the 1880s and the 1910s. The neighborhood is mainly composed of residential rowhouses, with a mixed-used business district along Edmondson Avenue, and industrial warehouses and buildings dotted along the CSX railroads that bound its western edge.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
