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Photo credit: MHT Files, n.d.

Brewers Hill Historic District

Inventory No.: B-5169

Date Listed: 12/22/2014

Location: Roughly bounded by S. Conkling Street, Eastern Avenue, S. Haven Street and Dillon Street, Baltimore, Baltimore City

Category: District

Period/Date of Construction: 1870-1940

Architect/Builder: Builders: Philip C. Mueller Building Co.

Boundary Description: Roughly bounded by S. Conkling St., Eastern Ave., S. Haven St., and Dillon St.

Resources: 113 (98 contributing, 14 non-contributing)

Description: The Brewers Hill Historic District comprises a 26-block area in the eastern section of Baltimore, Maryland, bounded by S. Conkling Street on the west, Eastern Avenue on the north, the rear lot lines of S. Haven Street on the east, and Dillon Street on the south. The district is primarily residential, characterized by two-and three-story rowhouses constructed between ca. 1870 and ca. 1940. The city blocks at the northern edge of the district include commercial uses, with two- and three-story Italianate and classical revival-style buildings with storefronts on the ground level and residences above. These buildings date from c. 1870 to the mid-1890s, but most of the storefronts have been modernized. Most of the residential development in the community took place between 1907 and 1914, and is exemplified by two-story brick rowhouses exhibiting classical revival detailing. Several noteworthy early twentieth century factory buildings are still extant at the eastern edge of the district.

Significance: The Brewers Hill Historic District is historically significant for its association with a number of prominent late 19th and early 20th century businesses--namely the meat packing industry, the brewing industry, and the nearby Crown Cork & Seal Factory, an important factor in the city's local dominance of the brewing and bottling trade. The district gains additional historic significance for its association with the city's rich history of immigration, as the home of predominantly first- and second-generation German immigrants who worked in the local businesses. Until 1918, the area comprising the historic district was located outside the political boundaries of Baltimore City (in Baltimore County) and thus could have stockyards, dairies, butchering yards, and meat-packing plants that were not allowed in residential city neighborhoods. Two of the early owners and developers of land in the northern section of the district were the butchers William Schluderberg and Thomas Kurdle, who later formed the nationally distributed Esskay Meat Products Company. The block after block of classical-revival-style rowhouses built mainly between 1907 and 1914 are architecturally significant, representing a type of housing associated with a working-class immigrant community in the period. Almost all of the houses were built by one family of second-generation German buildings--The Mueller Family--whose father, a native of Bavaria, arrived in Baltimore in 1852 and began building houses in the eastern section of the city. His five sons operated a large-scale building operation where they bought and developed the land, sold the ground rents they created, and also provided mortgages for their buyers through the two family-run building and loan associations. They built high-quality, but low-cost two-story rowhouses, called at the time "marble houses" because of the marble trim used for lintels, sills, basements, and steps. Each house had stylish stained glass door and first-floor window transoms. After working in East Baltimore, the Mueller family built several distinguished rowhouse communities in the northern sections of the city in the 1920s. The district's period of significance, ca. 1870 to ca. 1940, extends from the construction date of the earliest resources in the community to the World War II era, by which point the physical development of the neighborhood was substantially completed.

District Resources (113) (98 contributing, 14 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)
601-617 S. Conkling Street (Block 6433)	C
621-639 Conkling Street (Block 6433)	C
701-743 S. Conkling Street (Block 6443)	C
801-821 S. Conkling Street (Block 6453)	C
823-843 S. Conkling Street (Block 6453)	C
901-919 S. Conkling Street (Block 6463)	C
921-925 S. Conkling Street (Block 6463)	C
620-628 S. Dean Street (Block 6433)	C
621-629 S. Dean Street (Block 6434)	C
700-708 S. Dean Street (Block 6443)	C
710-716 S. Dean Street (Block 6443)	C
701-719 S. Dean Street (Block 6444)	C
800-818 S. Dean Street (Block 6453)	C
801-819 S. Dean Street (Block 6454)	C
900-908 S. Dean Street (Block 6463)	C
3911 Eastern (was 3915-17) Avenue (Block 6426)	C
3701 (3701-3705) Eastern Avenue (Block 6425a)	C
3707-3709 Eastern Avenue (Block 6425a)	C
3711-3713 Eastern Avenue (Block 6425a)	C
3715-3717 Eastern Avenue (Block 6425a)	C
3719-3721 Eastern Avenue (Block 6425a)	C
3723-3725 Eastern Avenue (Block 6425a)	C
3727 Eastern Avenue (Block 6425a)	C
3729 Eastern Avenue (Block 6425a)	C
3731-3733 Eastern Avenue (Block 6425a)	C
3815 Eastern Avenue (Block 6426)	C
3817-3819 Eastern Avenue (Block 6426)	C
3821-3825 Eastern Avenue (Block 6426)	C
3827 Eastern Avenue (Block 6426)	C
3903-3905 Eastern Avenue (Block 6426)	C
3907 Eastern Avenue (Block 6426)	C
3919 Eastern Avenue (Block 6426)	C
3929-3931 Eastern Avenue (Block 6426)	C
4001 Eastern Avenue (Block 6427)	C
4003-4013 Eastern Avenue (Block 6427)	C
4015 Eastern Avenue (Block 6427)	C
4017-4021 Eastern Avenue (Block 6427)	C
4023 Eastern Avenue (Block 6427)	C
4025-4027 Eastern Avenue (Block 6427)	C
600-620 S. Eaton Street (Block 6434)	C
626-634 S. Eaton Street (Block 6434)	C
601-621 S. Eaton Street (Block 6435)	C
627-635 S. Eaton Street (Block 6435)	C
700-718 S. Eaton Street (Block 6444)	C
701-719 S. Eaton Street (Block 6445)	C
800-820 S. Eaton Street (Block 6454)	C
801-821 S. Eaton Street (Block 6455)	C
600-620 S. Fagley Street (Block 6435)	C
626-634 S. Fagley Street (Block 6435)	C
600-618 S. Fagley Street (Block 6436)	C
611 S. Fagley Street (Block 6436)	C
626-634 S. Fagley Street (Block 6436)	C
627-635 S. Fagley Street (Block 6436)	C
601-641 S. Fagley Street (Block 6437)	C
700-720 S. Fagley Street (Block 6445)	C
701-719 S. Fagley Street (Block 6446)	C
800-820 S. Fagley Street (Block 6455)	C
801-821 S. Fagley Street (Block 6456)	C
900-908 S. Fagley Street (Block 6465)	C
901-909 S. Fagley Street (Block 6466)	C
3600-3612 Fait Avenue (Block 6443)	C
3700-3728 Fait Avenue (Block 6444)	C
3800-3828 Fait Avenue (Block 6445)	C
3900-3926 Fait Avenue (Block 6446)	C
3601-3613 Fait Avenue (Block 6453)	C
3701-3729 Fait Avenue (Block 6454)	C
3801-3829 Fait Avenue (Block 6455)	C
3901-3927 Fait Avenue (Block 6456)	C
3734 Fleet Street (Block 6425a)	C
3607 Fleet Street (Block 6433)	C
3600-3610 Foster Avenue (Block 6433)	C
3700-3728 Foster Avenue (Block 6434)	C
3800-3828 Foster Avenue (Block 6435)	C
3900-3926 Foster Avenue (Block 6436)	C
3601-3611 Foster Avenue (Block 6443)	C
3701-3729 Foster Avenue (Block 6444)	C
3801-3829 Foster Avenue (Block 6445)	C
3901-3929 Foster Avenue (Block 6446)	C
4015 Foster Avenue (Block 6447)	C
501-505 S. Grundy Street	C
700-718 S. Grundy Street (Block 6446)	C
701-739 S. Grundy Street (Block 6447)	C
800-820 S. Grundy Street (Block 6456)	C
801-833 S. Grundy Street (Block 6457)	C
900-909 S. Grundy Street (Block 6466)	C
500-502 S. Haven Street (Block 6427)	C
504-506 S. Haven Street (Block 6427)	C
601 S. Haven Street (Block 6448)	C
715 S. Haven Street (Block 6458)	C
3600-3612 Hudson Street (Block 6453)	C
3700-3728 Hudson Street (Block 6454)	C
3800-3828 Hudson Street (Block 6455)	C
3900-3928 Hudson Street (Block 6456)	C
3601-3613 Hudson Street (Block 6463)	C
3701-3729 Hudson Street (Block 6464)	C
3801-3829 Hudson Street (Block 6465)	C
3901-3929 Hudson Street (Block 6466)	C
NE comer Grundy Street and Fleet Street.	C	Old Texaco Station
921-9+G317925 S. Conkling Street (Block 6463)	NC
3720 Dillon Street (Block 6464)	NC	the headquarters of the Maryland Pilots Association
3800 Dillon Street (Block 6466)	NC
E side of S. Grundy Street (Block 6427)	NC
3901-3911 Fleet Street (Block 6436)	NC
4015 Fleet Street (Block 6437)	NC	the Best Battery Co.
515 S. Haven Street (Block 6428)	NC	the Henry and Jeanette Weinberg Central Service Facility
4001 Hudson Street, that extends along the west side of S. Haven Street and along the north side of Dillon Street (Block 6467)	NC
Ns 3700 block Fleet Street (Block 6425a)	NC	Highlandtown Healthy Living Center and American Radiology Services
Ns Fleet, W /Dean (Block 6425)	NC	Southeast Anchor Branch of the Enoch Pratt Free Library Bay Bank
NW corner of S. Fagley and Fleet Streets (Block 6426)	NC
NW corner of S. Grundy and Fleet Streets (Block 6426)	NC	the Highlandtown Community Church
SE corner of Eastern Avenue and S. Eaton St. (Block 6426)	NC	The Markets at Highlandtown
SE corner of Fleet and S. Dean Streets (Block 6434)	NC	Royal Farms store
4118 Eastern Avenue		B-5171 -- Highlandtown Pumping Station