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Photo credit: MHT Files, n.d.

Locust Point Historic District

Inventory No.: B-5223

Date Listed: 12/26/2012

Location: Baltimore, Baltimore City

Category: District

Period/Date of Construction: 1845-1928

Resources: 115 (98 contributing, 17 non-contributing)

Description: The Locust Point Historic District is a dense urban residential area of two dozen city blocks located in southeast Baltimore. It is comprised primarily of two- and three-story brick rowhouses reflecting the area's development as a center of transportation and industry during the period from the 1840s through the 1920s. Its narrow, grid-patterned streets are lined with unbroken rows of workers' housing, both company-built and speculative, representing the range of forms and stylistic details characteristic of the period. The residential area is encircled on three sides by the multiple rail lines of the former Baltimore & Ohio Railroad as those lines extend north of Fort Avenue to serve the array of former coal and passenger lines built on the northern side of Whetstone Point. The rail lines then head south again, crossing Fort Avenue to reach the Locust Point Marine Terminal and then traveling west along the southern boundary of Whetstone Point to McComas St., Winans Cove, Ferry Bar, and the Port Covington Yards. The earliest surviving houses date to the late 1840s/early 1850s when the B&O was developing its Locust Point coal wharves and building its rail lines, and when several early industries established themselves on this undeveloped land to take advantage of the rail and port connections. The Baltimore and Cuba Mining and Smelting Co. built several groups of two-story gable-roofed houses for their workers on Cuba and Andre Streets before 1851, some of which are still standing. A few other groups of similar early worker housing can be seen on the southeast corner of Beason and Cooksie Streets and the east side of Hull Street, just north of Fort Avenue. Later in the 1850s a long row of three-story gable-roofed houses were built on the west side of Hull Street, north of Beacon, presumably for local factory managers and/or owners. After the North German Lloyd line and the B&O Railroad established the immigrant pier on Pier 9 in 1868, Locust Point became Baltimore's immigration center. Those who did not board the B&O trains to take them west stayed in the area, providing a labor force for both the B&O and other companies' coal operations as well as for the many new steam-powered factories springing up along the waterfront. Local builders, many of them German, erected rows and rows of mainly two-story Italianate-style houses for this workforce in the 1880s, particularly in the blocks directly north of Fort Avenue and east of Decatur Street, with three-story versions erected along parts of Hull Street. The remainder of the housing in Locust Point was built in the 1890s and early 1900s in the then-popular Neoclassical style. Three small groups of porch-front houses built in 1928 complete the area's historical housing resources. Neighborhood amenities surviving in the district include several churches, commercial buildings, meeting halls, a firehouse, and a former library. The district retains a high degree of integrity, with intact streetscapes conveying its historic character. The period of the district's historic significance, 1845-1928, begins with the B&O Railroad's extension of its lines through the area, spurring initial residential development, and ends in 1928, at which point the district had substantially achieved its historic and present form and appearance.

Significance: The Locust Point Historic District is historically significant for its association with the history of transportation, industry, and immigration in Baltimore. The area developed when the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad extended a spur line in 1845 from its Mount Clare facilities to a new coal pier being developed at Locust Point. The railroad facilities, and their close connection to a deepwater terminal, quickly attracted industry to the area, and both factory owners and local builders began erecting rows of two-story houses for the employees. A key event for the history of the neighborhood was the 1868 opening of an immigration pier at Locust Point, the result of an agreement between the president of the B&O Railroad, John Work Garrett, and the North German Lloyd line, headquartered in Bremen. Although many of the German immigrants brought through train passage to the Middle West, many also stayed and settled in the neighborhoods near the docks--either in Locust Point or nearby Riverside. The earliest surviving, modest housing dates to 1848, having been built for employees of the Baltimore and Cuba Mining and Smelting Co. But as more and more industries near the rail lines and the new deepwater port, blocks filled with two-story brick rowhouses in the 1880s, 1890s, and early 1900s. An important local feature is the still surviving German Reformed Church (1887) and its adjoining German Immigrant House, testament to the many immigrants arriving in Baltimore in the later 19th century. The district derives architectural significance for its extensive and cohesive collection of brick rowhouses reflecting the variety of architectural forms and stylistic influences that characterized working-class housing in Baltimore during the period. Surviving rowhouses are mainly Italianate and Neoclassical in style, built between the 1880s and the early 1900s, but the district also includes examples of late Federal and Greek Revival designs of the mid-19th century.

District Resources (115) (98 contributing, 17 non-contributing)

From associated listing in National Register nomination form. C = Contributing, NC = non-contributing, blank = not evaluated.

Address	Status	Resource Name and MIHP (if any)
1300-1334 Andre Street (Block 2005)	C
1336-1358 Andre Street (Block 2005)	C
1301-1333 Andre Street (Block 2006)	C
1335-1365 Andre Street (Block 2006)	C
1400-1464 Andre Street (Block 2021)	C
1401-1463 Andre Street (Block 2022)	C
1515-1519 Beason Street (Block 2004)	C
1531-1535 Beason Street (Block 2004)	C
1625-1633 Beason Street (Block 2005)	C
1514-1538 Clement Street (Block 2004)	C
1600-1624 Clement Street (Block 2005)	C
1626-1634 Clement Street (Block 2005)	C
1331-1341 Clement Street (Block 2018)	C
1401-1421 Clement Street (Block 2019)	C
1423-1431 Clement Street (Block 2019)	C
1515-1525 Clement Street (Block 2020)	C
1134-1158 Cooksie Street (Block 1982)	C
1201-1215 and 1200-1214 Cooksie Street (Block 1989/1991)	C
1303-1311 Cooksie Street (Block 2004)	C
1313-1329 Cooksie Street (Block 2004)	C
1341-1349 Cooksie Street (Block 2004)	C
1401-1441 Cooksie Street (Block 2020)	C
1438-1452 Cooksie Street (Block 2020)	C
1615-1623 Cuba Street (Block 1990/1992)	C
1637-1641 Cuba Street (Block 1990/1992)	C
1301-1317 Deactur Street (Block 2003)	C
1400-1410 Decatur Street (Block 2018)	C
1412-1458 Decatur Street (Block 2018)	C
1401-1427 Decatur Street (Block 2019)	C
1429-1447 Decatur Street (Block 2019)	C
1022-1032 Fort Avenue (Block 2015)	C
1104-1120 and 1122-1132 Fort Avenue (Block 2016)	C
1200 E. Fort Avenue (Block 2017)	C
1330-1350 Fort Avenue (Block 2018)	C
1400-1420 Fort Avenue (Block 2019)	C
1428-1442 Fort Avenue (Block 2019)	C
1500-1522 Fort Avenue (Block 2020)	C
1600-1624 Fort Avenue (Block 2021)	C
1626-1648 Fort Avenue (Block 2021)	C
1700-1708 Fort Avenue (Block 2022)	C
1431-1439 Fort Avenue (Block 2035/36)	C
1501-1521 Fort Avenue (Block 2035/36)	C
1230-1244 E. Fort Avenue and 1312-1316 E. Fort Avenue	C	B-5189 -- Row Houses - 1200-1300 block of East Fort Avenue
1111-1133 Haubert Street (Block 1981)	C
1143-1157 Haubert Street (Block 1981)	C
1223-1249 Haubert Street (Block 1988)	C
1300-1316 Haubert Street (Block 2003)	C
1301-1309 Haubert Street (Block 2003)	C
1400-1432 Haubert Street (Block 2019)	C
1401-1425 Haubert Street (Block 2019)	C
1425-1437 Haubert Street (Block 2019)	C
1434-1446 Haubert Street (Block 2019)	C
1128-1130 Hull Street (Block 1981)	C
1146-1158 Hull Street (Block 1981)	C
1121-1123 Hull Street (Block 1982)	C
1125-1129 Hull Street (Block 1982)	C
1131-1143 Hull Street (Block 1982)	C
1218 Hull Street (Block 1988)	C
1224-1236 Hull Street (Block 1988)	C
1238-1250 Hull Street (Block 1988)	C
1201-1213 Hull Street (Block 1989/1991)	C
1231-1241 Hull Street (Block 1989/1991)	C
1243-1251 Hull Street (Block 1989/1991)	C
1306-1324 Hull Street (Block 2003)	C
1301-1339 Hull Street (Block 2004)	C
1341-1359 Hull Street (Block 2004)	C
1404-1418 Hull Street (Block 2019)	C
1430-1452 Hull Street (Block 2019)	C
1401-1431 Hull Street (Block 2020)	C
1445-1449 Hull Street (Block 2020)	C
1451-1459 Hull Street (Block 2020)	C
1300 Hull Street; 1421-1425 Beason Street (Block 2003)	C
1500-1550 Latrobe Park Terrace (Block 2035/36)	C
1401-1447 Lowman Street (Block 2018)	C
Northwest corner of Decatur and Beason Street (Block 1987)	C	German Immigrant House
Northwest corner of Decatur and Beason Street (Block 1987)	C	Christ's German Reformed Church
1400-1416 Reynolds Street (Block 2022)	C
1401-1417 Reynolds Street (Block 2022)	C
1419-1477 Reynolds Street (Block 2022)	C
1448-1476 Reynolds Street (Block 2022)	C
1301-1319 Richardson Street (Block 2005)	C
1321-1345 Richardson Street (Block 2005)	C
1400-1448 Richardson Street (Block 2021)	C
1423-1455 Richardson Street (Block 2021)	C
Southside of Fort Avenue	C	Latrobe Park
1448-1474 Stevenson Street (Block 2016)	C
1453-1475 Stevenson Street (Block 2016)	C
1200-1214 Towson Street (Block 1989/1991)	C
1300-1332 Towson Street (Block 2004)	C
1336-1348 Towson Street (Block 2004)	C
1400-1450 Towson Street (Block 2020)	C
1437-1459 Towson Street (Block 2021)	C
1461-1471 Towson Street (Block 2021)	C
1400-1422 Woodall Street (Block 2015)	C
1424-1460 Woodall Street (Block 2015)	C
1433-1475 Woodall Street (Block 2015)	C
1462-1474 Woodall Street (Block 2015)	C
1425-1475 Woodall Street (Block 2016)	C
1450 Beason Street (Block 1988)	NC
1624 Beason Street (Block 1992)	NC
1642-1644 Beason Street (Block 1992)	NC
1400 Clement Street (Block 2003)	NC
1440 Clement Street (Block 2003)	NC
1132 Cooksie Street (Block 1982)	NC
1216-1222 1/2 Cooksie Street (Block 1989)	NC
1224-1248 Cooksie Street (Block 1991)	NC
1601 Cuba Street (Block 1992)	NC
1300-1318 Decatur Street (Block 2002)	NC
1321-1329 Decatur Street (Block 2003)	NC
1318 Fort Avenue (Block 2018)	NC
1200-1206 Hull Street (Block 1988)	NC
1215-1223 Hull Street (Block 1989)	NC
1338 Hull Street (Block 2003)	NC
1301-1339 Lowman Street (Block 2002)	NC
NE corner Fort Avenue and Porter Street (Block 2015)	NC