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Commission for Historical & Architectural Preservation
Little Montgomery Street
National Register of Historic Places 4/15/82
Certified Historic District for Tax Incentives (NR)
Description
The Little Montgomery Street Historic District is a residential area located in South Baltimore a few blocks to the southwest of the Inner Harbor area. It is composed of approximately fifteen nineteenth century brick houses, some of which are double, that line the 100 block of West Montgomery Street and the northwestern portion of the 800 block of Leadenhall Street. Nine of the structures are "halfhouses" that are only one room deep with a single pitch roof. The house at 117 West Montgomery Street, one of these nine, was built circa 1820 and is the oldest remaining building in the Sharp-Leadenhall area. The north side of Montgomery Street is lined with four pairs of semi-detached half houses. All were built at the same time, circa 1835, for freed blacks from the Ottorbein area. 109-113 West Montgomery were built separately in a very similar style. 113, circa 1845, and 109, circa 1849, were constructed as combination stores and residences. The middle dwelling was built in 1848.
Significance
The Little Montgomery Street Historic District draws significance from two sources. First, as the earliest and only coherent remnant of the Sharp-Leadenhall neighborhood in South Baltimore, the Little Montgomery Street Historic District is associated with a working class urban community where, throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Baltimore's native poor, struggling German and Irish immigrants, and freed blacks lived side by side competing for the same space and the same railroad and port-related jobs. By the 1890s, the twenty-four blocks of Sharp-Leadenhall were a thriving residential-industrial community with three churches, three public schools, a police station, and dozens of major and minor manufactories. Secondly, the Little Montgomery Street Historic District also achieves significance through the collection of buildings which are examples of a type of early and mid-nineteenth century vernacular architecture in Baltimore. All the buildings are small in scale and of brick construction, but the sidewalks are closely spaced, and are generally two to three stories high with two bay facades.
Contacts
417 East Fayette St
8th floor
Baltimore, MD 21202
410-396-4866
410-396-PLAN (7526)
Fax: 410-396-5662