Stories by author "Nathan Dennies": 34
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Zissimos Bar: Where Lou Costello tap danced on the bar
Family-owned since 1930, Zissimos lays claim to being the oldest business in operation on the Avenue.
Zion Lutheran Church
The Zion Lutheran Church is a piece of German-American history that dates back to 1755. Originally known as the German Lutheran Reformed Church, it served Lutheran immigrants coming from Germany. The…
Woodberry Factory and Park Mill
The Woodberry Factory and Park Mill were built near the site of an eighteenth-century gristmill. An active industrial area for nearly two centuries, buildings here have been replaced and repurposed to…
Whitehall Cotton Mill
Before the rise of textile mills, the fast-flowing water of the Jones Falls instead powered gristmills supplying Baltimore's lucrative flour trade. Whitehall Mill was established as a gristmill in the…
Vickers Building
The Vickers Building represents a shift in downtown Baltimore architectural design that occurred directly after the Great Baltimore Fire of 1904 and is one of the largest buildings to utilize brick as…
The Rotunda
The construction of the Rotunda in 1921, designed by architects Simonson & Pietsch in the neo-Georgian style, marked a radical change in the design of business campuses in the twentieth century.…
The Duchess of Windsor at 212 East Biddle Street
The Duchess of Windsor, born Bessie Wallis Warfield, moved into the three-story brownstone at 212 East Biddle Street with her mother in 1908. It was the first home they could call their own as they…
Stafford Hotel
The Stafford was once an elegant hotel serving the elite of Baltimore and the many high-profile figures visiting the city. The hotel was designed by founding member of the Baltimore AIA chapter…
St. Thomas Aquinas Church
In the mid-nineteenth century, Catholic residents of Hampden belonged to the St. Mary of the Assumption parish in Govans, a distant walk from the burgeoning neighborhood. Since the industrial mill…
Schuler School of Fine Arts: Hans Schuler's Home and Studio
Baltimore is a city known for its sculptures. John Quincy Adams famously toasted "Baltimore—the monumental city" during a visit in 1823. The moniker is well deserved. Baltimore possess the first…
Saint Ignatius Church
Stretching along Calvert Street between Madison and Monument Streets, stands a massive Italianate palace, built for the Society of Jesus, a Catholic religious order. Decorating the facade are arched…
Round Falls
Hampden Falls, now known as Round Falls, was once part of a dam servicing Rock Mill. Completed in the early nineteenth century and rebuilt several times, it became a popular subject for local…
Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African-American History & Culture
The 82,000 square-foot Reginald F. Lewis Museum opened in 2005 and immediately made history as the first major building in downtown Baltimore designed by African American architects—a joint effort…
Poole & Hunt Foundry and Machine Works: Industry and Adaptive Reuse at Clipper Mill
At its peak in the late nineteenth century, the Poole & Hunt Foundry and Machine Works employed over 700 people, making it one of the largest employers in the Jones Falls Valley after the textile…
Ottmar Mergenthaler at 159 West Lanvale Street
Ottmar Mergenthaler was only 18 years old when he immigrated to the United States from Germany in 1872 to work with his cousin August Hahl at his machine shop in Washington, D.C. Four years later,…
Ogden Nash at 4300 Rugby Road
After a brief stint in New York, Ogden Nash returned to Baltimore in 1934 and wrote: "I could have loved New York had I not loved Balti-more."
Mount Washington Mill
Mt. Washington Mill—historically Washington Mill, part of Washington Cotton Manufacturing Company—is one of Maryland’s earliest purpose-built cotton mills. In the early nineteenth century, the…
Mount Clare Station and the B&O Roundhouse: Oldest Railroad Station in the United States
Mount Clare is considered to be the birthplace of American railroading. It holds the oldest passenger and freight station in the United States and the first railroad manufacturing complex in the…
Mill Centre: Offices at Mount Vernon Mill No. 3
Mount Vernon Mill No. 3, renamed Mill Centre in the 1980s, represented in 1853 an important expansion to Mt.Vernon Company. Led by president and former sailor Captain William Kennedy, both were among…
Meadow Mill
Meadow Mill was built by industrialist William E. Hooper in 1877 during one of the most prosperous periods for industry in the Jones Falls Valley. Designed by architect Reuben Gladfelter, it…
Mayor's Christmas Parade
William Donald Schaeffer approached Tom Kerr, head of the old Hampden Business Association, in 1972 to organize the Mayor's Christmas Parade. The parade would be Schaeffer's answer to the…
John H.B. Latrobe House
The John H.B. Latrobe House is the only surviving site associated with the "Saturday Morning Visiter" writing contest that launched Edgar Allan Poe's literary career. On an evening in October 1833,…
Hampden Branch, Enoch Pratt Free Library: Robert Poole's Gift to Hampden Readers
Enoch Pratt Free Library Branch No. 7 opened its doors on July 2, 1900, 17 years after industrialist Robert Poole and fellow businessmen established Woodberry’s first community library. In 1899, Poole…
Green Mount Cemetery
Officially dedicated on July 13, 1839 and born out of the garden cemetery movement, Green Mount Cemetery is one of the first garden cemeteries created in the United States. After seeing the beautiful…
Garrett Building
Robert Garrett was the original owner of the thirteen-story Garrett Building. Among other things, Garrett was a banker, Olympian, collector of medieval manuscripts, and a leader in the development of…
Furness House
A slice of English architecture, the Furness House was built in 1917 by architect Edward H. Glidden. Glidden also designed the Washington Place Apartments in Mount Vernon and the Marlboro Apartments…
F. Scott Fitzgerald at 1307 Park Avenue
In August 1933, F. Scott Fitzgerald moved with his family to 1307 Park Avenue. Fitzgerald had been forced out of his previous home in Towson due to a house fire attributed to his mentally ill wife,…
Edgar Allan Poe Statue: Monument to a Literary Icon at the University of Baltimore
The Edgar Allan Poe statue sitting in the Gordon Plaza at University of Baltimore has a colorful past. The statue was commissioned in 1911 by the Edgar Allan Poe Memorial Association of Baltimore and…
Dashiell Hammett and the Continental Trust Company Building
Dashiell Hammett found inspiration for his great detective novels like "The Maltese Falcon" and "The Thin Man" by working at the Pinkerton Detective Agency in what was then known as the Continental…
Church & Company: A new use for the old Hampden Presbyterian Church
Workers laid the cornerstone of the Hampden Presbyterian Church in 1875 and dedicated the building two years later. The sturdy structure is made of Texas Limestone, named for the unincorporated town…