Chapter 5: West
The "west" section of this historical site is composed of photos of Plat 2, most of Plat 3 and the strip of Plat 1 that lies west of Roland Avenue, i.e., the houses on the west side of the avenue that front onto it. While it is in Plat 3, Baltimore Country Club clubhouse photos are grouped with shots of the western part of the old golf course in this site's "northwest" section, as are photos of lower Plat 3. For their part, photos of the Roland Park business center and the firehouse and trolley carhouse immediately next to it can be found in the "Roland Avenue" section.
Plat 2 was the Roland Park Co.'s second development in the area; its planning started in 1897. At this time, Plat 1, mostly east of Roland Avenue, was simply known as "Roland Park," and what was to become Plat 2 was intended as a wholly separate — and higher-end — development with the tentative name of "Braehurst." This name was pushed by the Olmsted brothers' firm, which liked its British ring. (Plat 1 designer George E. Kessler's formal involvement with Roland Park had ended in December 1891, though he continued to advise via correspondence. The Olmsted landscape architects were engaged by Roland Park in November 1897 to take his place.) Another 98 names were suggested by the Olmsteds, including "Ackenshaw," "Chesney-Coombe" and "Ackbroyl." Roland Park Co. President Edward Bouton stalled for a couple of years and then, in January 1900, opted for the simple "Roland Park Plat Two." This was in good measure because the initially struggling sales in Plat 1 had just taken off, and he wanted the new development to be popularly associated with the suddenly very fashionable Plat 1. The photo above is of Plat 2's showpiece block, Goodwood Gardens, the brainchild of architect Charles A. Platt. The photographer is looking northeast out of one of the upper-floor windows of 206 Goodwood. The photo is undated, but St. David's church, on the far right, appears completed, putting the shot after 1906. (Photo source: Undated period postcard, Noko Publishing Co.; Leslie Goldsmith collection.) Click photos for larger images.
Along Roland Avenue
Set 1
Mapped Scene: Absent from the 1898 Bromley Plat 1 map, 4502 Roland is evident on the 1915 Bromley map. That year, it belonged to the Adams household.
Scene: Looking west at 102 Roland Avenue, now 4502 Roland. This undated image is part of local area resident Leslie Goldsmith's collection, but nothing is known of the prevenance of the photo. Comparing this image to that at right, the house appears to have changed virtually none. What appears to be a gable end on the porch roof to the left in fact is part of some structure beyond the porch. This may have been a garage, a summerhouse or something smiliar. Whatever it was, it no longer exists today.
Commentary: The vintage photo at left cannot be dated with any precision. The most we can say is that it dates back to the streetcar era, given the trolley-track camouflaging privet hedge prominent in the foreground. (The photographer was obviously standing on the tracks to take this picture.) We do not know when this house was built. It appears on the 1915 Bromley map, noted as being owned by the Adams family. It does not appear on the 1898 Bromley Plat 1 map. Like the Woman's Club next door to it, 4502 Roland was likely contructed in about 1904. A 1904 image in this site's "south" section shows the house next to the club and already built in that year.
Set 2
Sense of the Scene: This undated, but doubtless early, photo shows the whole school building.
Scene: Looking west from Roland Avenue toward the front door of the Roland Park Country School's second location, at 4608 Roland Avenue. Initially called the Roland Park School, the then-coed institution was established in 1894, sponsored by the Roland Park Co. It moved to this handsome building, then numbered 210 Roland Avenue, in 1905. (The building was renumbered 4608 after the city's annexation of Roland Park, New Year's Eve, 1918-19.) In 1905, boys' admission was restricted to 4th graders and under. Admission for all boys ceased in 1981. As for 210 Roland Avenue itself, it was designed by Ernest A. Wolf III and built in 1891, according to tax records. By the late 1990s, by then a private residence, it had fallen into disrepair. It is currently (2010) being restored by an Indian restaurateur.
Commentary: The Roland Park School was initially slated to operate out of rooms on the upper floor of the shopping center on the 4800 block of Roland Avenue, though it was objected that this proximity to the streetcar tracks would be dangerous. Accordingly, the Roland Park Co. in summer 1894 installed teachers Adelaide and Katherine Howard at 410 Notre Dame Avenue, now 4810 Keswick Road. The school's first session opened there on September 25, 1894. In 1905, the school moved to 210 Roland Avenue, staying here until 1916. That year, the school moved to 817 W. University Parkway, the former Grace A. Greenway estate, and now (2010) the site of the Roland Park Place retirement community. (Readers looking for 817 W. University will not find it. In the normally understood sense of the term, the address does not exist, the house numbers on that side of the road leaping from 807 to 819 W. University. Rather, the campus was located behind (south of) University Parkway and was accessed by means of a footpath from the 800 block. It was this footpath that gave the lot its claim to a fashionable University Parkway address. Road access was from 40th Street. Now on this site, Roland Park Place's address is a more logical 830 W. 40th Street.) There were severe fires on the country school campus in 1947 and 1976. In 1978, the trustees bought the A.R.L. Dohme "Chestnutwood" estate at 5204 Roland Avenue. In October 1980, the school term opened at the new facility, the students solemnly marching up Roland Avenue from their old to their new campus.
Set 3
Mapped Scene: The 1915 Bromley map shows St. David's and, diagonally opposite it, the-then Roland Park Methodist Episcopal church. The Methodist congregation subsequently become Grace Methodist and moved to a larger establishment at the intersection of Charles Street and Northern Parkway. The smaller Roland Park building, 4615 Roland Avenue, passed to the Church of the Brethren, which in 1987 sold it to the North Baltimore Mennonites, who still own it.
Scene: Looking north from Oakdale Road toward the south side of St. David's Episcopal church, 4700 Roland Avenue. St. David's was designed by a local architectural firm, Ellicott and Emmert, who were also responsible for much of the ornate, monumental and usually pale painted architecture of Plat 2. William M. Ellicott lived nearby on Ridgewood Road (set 18).
Commentary: The distinctive shape of the back of St. David's is as easily recognizable in the old as in the new photo. The annex closest to the photographer in the modern shot is not original to the building. I do not known when it was added.
Set 4
Scene: Looking west from the middle of Roland Avenue at the east façade of St. David's. Note the builder's advertisement on the main window.
Commentary: To the church itself, very little changed has been visited over the past century. An outer window has been added for protective purposes. An administrative/preschool building was added at the right in 1962.
Set 5
Sense of the Scene: The "Electromagnetic Fire Alarm Telegraph for Cities" was invented in 1852 and patented two years later. In 1855, John Gamewell bought the rights to the device and by 1895 his Gamewell Fire Alarm Telegraph Co. had cornered 95 percent of the market for such alarms. The user pulled a lever, which via telegraph set off an alarm in the nearest fire station (which in turn could tell the location of the box ringing). Small, domestic versions of these boxes are still seen in public buildings sometimes, though the large, outdoor variants are now very uncommon. The example shown here is an updated and still functional example in San Francisco (source: http://sfdailyphotos.blogspot.com/2008/11/fire-alarm-box.html). Decommissioned fire-alarm boxes are very collectible.
Scene: St. David's again, with a streetcar passing in front of it. Same scene as in the set above but taken from further away, east of the intersection of Roland Avenue and Oakdale Road, though with most of the church cropped out. The streetcar rails were pulled up in the late 1940s, so this photo predates that. The device to the right of the foreground tree is one of the many fire-alarm boxes that once dotted Baltimore, similar to the one shown on the left. The Baltimore ones were initially red but were later usually painted orange.
Commentary: This uncropped modern photo gives a better view of the overall scene. There are fewer trees at this intersection than there were several decades ago but, apart from that, the scene is little changed. More's the pity: the old fire-alarm box is long gone. On the right in the background, the full extent of the 1962 St. David's administrative/preschool addition can be seen.
Set 6
Scene: Looking west from the intersection of Roland Avenue and Club Road, just north of St. David's. Club Road is treated in more detail below. This photo is included here because the Club intersection vicinity is one of the very few places where enclosing brick walls may be seen from Roland Avenue. Most lots along Roland are open or, at most, fenced or hedged in. In this view, an enclosing brick wall may be seen at the far left. The wall opposite, on the right, is brick too but, being shown here ivy covered, this is not apparent from the image.
Commentary: The scene is gratifyingly similar to that shown in the historic photo at left. Now shorn of all ivy, Club Road's supposedly English-style brick walls are readily apparent here.
Set 7
Mapped Scene: This topographical map excellently shows Roland Park's network of lanes and footpaths. In the center of the map are, from bottom to top, the Presbyterian church, the shopping center, the firehouse, the trolley carhouse and the community stable. The first water tower is just to the left, at the intersection of Long and Tower lanes.
Scene: Looking west across the 4700 block of Roland Avenue on a snowy day toward 4708 and 4710 Roland, with the neighborhood's first water tower in the background. Eight artesian wells pumped water to the tower. The tower's surplus water was bottled and sold elsewhere. The tower was 70 feet high and topped with a roofed observation platform. Access was by means of a spiral stairway around the outside of the structure. This blurred and skewed photo is the only known image of the first water tower, built, according to Moudry, in about 1892. The tower was quite a local attraction and featured prominently in Roland Park Co. advertising. The tower's life was a fairly short one. It still appears on the 1915 Bromley map, but a building that was once the Girls' Latin School gymnasium now occupies this site (2 Tower Lane), this latter building having been built in 1929. The houses shown do not appear on the 1898 Bromley map of Plat 1, so the photo falls between 1898 and 1915. See set 32 for more detail on the water tower.
Commentary: The house on the right is 4710 Roland Avenue, which is little changed compared to the historic photo. The water tower is of course gone. Also, 4708 Roland Avenue is now very different. In the historic photo, 4708 is a stately Roland Park home. Now, it is a comparatively modern rancher-style building with six apartments — very much at odds with the surrounding architecture. How did this happen? The old house was completely destroyed by fire in the late 1950s. It still appears in the 1953 ASCS aerial photo (for which see chapter 1). However, it was burned fairly shortly after that. The new rancher building was completed in 1959.
Set 8
Scene: Looking west at 4710 Roland Avenue burning. This is the same house as appears on the right in the set above. The image is undated. However, suggesting the first decade of the 20th century seems appropriate from the women's clothes. It looks as though the house is collapsing on the photo. This is not so. The image is simply distorted. It was e-mailed to me in the early 2010s. The sender did not give her source.
Commentary: The house has long since recovered from its early 20th century fire. With its current green and yellow livery, it is one of the more distinctive residences on Roland Avenue. It is not possible quite to replicate the angle of the historic photo. To do so would have involved taking some steps to the right. This would simply have produced a close-up of of the large evergreen tree visible at the far right of this modern photo.
Set 9
Mapped Scene: The house appears on the 1915 Bromley map, though the owner is not given.
Scene: Looking west at the front of 428 (now 4828) Roland Avenue, one of a number of Italianate villas that grace this part of Roland Avenue. This excellent scan of an old postcard was sent to me by Judy Eisenhauer, the great granddaughter-in-law of a former owner. According to Ms. Eisenhauer, "My husband’s great-grandfather, George Washington Eisenhauer, lived in this house before the Swindells. I don’t know if he was the first resident of this dwelling, but he is shown as residing there in the 1913 and 1915 Baltimore city directories. He moved [away] shortly before his death in 1918. George Washington Eisenhauer was president of the Eisenhauer-MacLea Company (wholesale lumber), which was located at 300-318 West Falls Avenue. His partner, Daniel MacLea, was vice president." (This no longer extant company address lay where there is now a pedestrian walkway along the west bank of the Jones Falls immediately north of Pratt Street.) The house photo is undated but, if Eisenhauer lived in the house in 1913 and 1915, it may reasonably be supposed to date to the mid-1910s.
Commentary: It is plain that this house has been historically very well preserved. The only noticeable differences between the vintage and modern photos are that there is now an iron railing up the middle of the front steps and the porch to the left has been enclosed, as is frequently the case in Roland Park.
Set 10
Scene: Looking southeast at the north side of 4828 Roland Avenue, the same house as shown in the set above. The caption with the photo names the Swindells. The Swindells were the house's 1920s owners after the Eisenhauers (1910s).
Commentary: The short stairway leading out from this sunroom now has iron railings, absent in the 1928 photo. The awnings have been removed. Virtually no other changes seem to have been made. In the mid-1910s photo above, the sunroom was still an open porch, whereas in the 1928 shot to the left it has already been enclosed. Given that Swindell was a glass manufacturer, it is likely that it was he who had the windows installed to turn the porch into the sunroom it is now.
Set 11
Scene: Looking east at the back of 4828 Roland Avenue, the same house as shown in the two sets above.
Commentary: Though it is a little hard to tell because of all the foreground foliage, the back of 4828 Roland Avenue is just about identical to the way it looked in 1928.
Set 12
Scene: Looking west from Roland Avenue at 4900 Roland Avenue, on the northwest corner of Roland and Elmhurst. The house is on the opposite side of Elmhurst from the house featured in the three sets above. This picture originally appeared in a two-part 1907 article about Roland Park by Otis E. Williams, published in a journal called Indoors and Out.
Commentary: This house is Roland Park's only missionstyle house. It was designed by Price & McLanahan, architects, and built in 1899. The porch has been enclosed by attractive multi-pane windows. This aside, the building is remarkably true to its origins. Price was a Philadelphia architect, professionally active from 1880 until 1916. Initially a proponent of the Arts & Crafts movement, by the end of his career he had moved to modern design.
Set 13
Mapped Scene: Marked "public school," Todd's Academy is evident on the 1915 Bromley map. Note that in 1915 the Tuxedo Park section of St. John's Road, east of Roland Avenue, was still called Euclid Road.
Scene: Looking northwest toward the façade of Todd's Academy, Roland Park-proper's first public school. (Evergreen had its own school on Schenley Road.) Built in 1901, Todd's Academy stood at the northwest corner of Roland Avenue and St. John's Road. The public school moved to its current location on the 5200 block of Roland Avenue in 1924, whereupon Todd's was demolished. Note the streetcar tracks in the foreground.
Commentary: After Todd's was demolished, in its stead were built 5100 and, next door, 5102 Roland Avenue, both built in 1929 (number 5100 was built on the Todd's lot; 5102, on a hitherto vacant lot). They were designed by Palmer & Lamdin, a Baltimore architectural firm. Until 1917, Edward L. Palmer, Jr. had been the Roland Park Co.'s resident architect. Though he remained involved with Roland Park, he went into private practice in 1917. In 1925, he joined Willis & Lamdin, which was superseded by Palmer & Lamdin in 1929, with which he stayed until 1945. Palmer lived in Roland Park and died in 1952. He and partner William D. Lamdin built a number of notable houses in north-central Baltimore, among them the "Guilford gateway" houses on the 3700 block of St. Paul Street.
Set 14
Mapped Scene: The house is shown on the 1922 Baltimore City survey map. Note that here the library building, at the east end of this block, has not yet been built.
Scene: Looking northward at 8 Longwood Road in 1910. This is what the house looked like when J.W. and Helen Tottle lived in it, shortly before their 1912 move to New North Roland Park. A generation later, in 1946, John and Elizabeth Scott (née Tottle) bought it — not knowing that Elizabeth's parents had once lived there. The house is now (2011) owned by Elizabeth's niece, Barrie, and her husband. It was Barrie who provided this website with the magnificent 1946 trolley footage viewable at the "trolley" page of this site.
Commentary: The pleasing fact is that, 101 years on, this Longwood Road house is virtually unchanged, at least as far as exterior appearances go. The cedar roof shakes have gone, replaced by the asphalt shingles now sadly so common in Roland Park. Beyond that, however, there truly are no appreciable differences. The general background is another matter. The modern photo displays an abundance of the foliage Roland Parkers take for granted these days. A glance at the historic photo at left reveals things were not always so verdant. Parts of Roland Park when young were, readers may be surprised to find out, as bereft of trees as the average modern exurb in the 21st century.
Set 15
Mapped Scene: The library building is shown on the 1935 Matthews map, which also, incorrectly, shows Todd's Academy still standing at 5100 Roland Avenue. In fact, it had been demolished six or seven years earlier.
Scene: Looking west at the façade of the Roland Park branch of the Enoch Pratt Free Library. According to the library's web page, it "open[ed] in 1924 on land donated by the Roland Park Civic League." This probably means the Roland Park Co., as the Civic League has never owned land in its own right. The library stands at the northwest corner of Roland Avenue and Longwood Road.
Commentary: By the early 2000, the library had fallen certainly into a state of shabbiness, if not of outright disrepair. Says the library's web page: "In March 2006 we closed for a significant renovation and expansion of the library for which the Roland Park Library Initiative and the many, many supporters of the library raised more than $2 million. We reopened on December 17, 2007 to a great crowd of enthusiastic supporters." The library initiative is one of Roland Park's proudest accomplishments. The neighborhood used its own contributions to leverage $2 million in grants. The existing building was completely rehabilitated, with sizable additions being grafted to the west and north sides (the latter visible here).
Along Ridgewood Road
Set 16
Scrapped Plan: Wilson Eyre's short 1902 article, "Two Solutions of the Cottage Problem," gives two illustrations of the communal arrangement originally slated for the southwest bend on Ridgewood Road. On the plan above, Falls Road is at the top and Cold Spring Lane at the left. Note that both are narrower than Ridgewood Road.
Scene: Looking west along the 100 block of Ridgewood Road. The white house in the background is 108 Ridgewood. This southern part of Ridgewood was originally intended to accommodate a themed cluster of formal houses around a communal T-shaped garden (which would have been where 108 Ridgewood is today). The Olmsteds objected and the plan was dropped, though elements of the plan later resurfaced at Goodwood Gardens (the formal, classical architecture) and Merryman Court (the communal garden). A concept plan for this might-have-been mini-development is shown.
Commentary: The scene today is much as it was a century ago. The front door of 108 Ridgewood now has a metal canopy above it, absent 100 years ago. The hydrant in front of the house is still in the same place. In the old photo, just to the left of the hydrant is a horse-tethering post, now long gone, of course. It was in front of the walkway to the side patio of the now-demolished 106 Ridgewood. (See set 18, below.)
Set 17
Scene: Looking south at 104 Ridgewood Road. Not much is known about this photo. It is "part of the package" when one buys this property, being passed down from owner to owner. It is not known who took the shot, nor when. However, given that a part of 106 Ridgewood is visible at the extreme right of the picture, the photo must have been taken before 106's demolition in 1937 by Gideon Stieff, owner of 108 Ridgewood.
Commentary: Multiple owners of this old beauty have kept the house largely unchanged in appearance as compared to the historic photo at left. It is unknown when the house was constructed. It plainly does not appear in the background beyond 106 Ridgewood in the photos of 106 showcased in the two sets below. So number 104 must have been built after the 1901 construction of number 106. The 104 building was at one point owned by the Stieffs and the cast-iron railings are said to be cut-down surplus railings from the Stieff Silver factory at the southern end of Hampden (800 Wyman Park Drive). The Stieffs also owned number 108. In 1937, they bought and demolished the intervening 106.
Set 18
Scene Relic: This 1937 letter to Gideon N. Stieff, Sr. from the Roland Park Roads & Maintence Corp. set in motion the train of events that lead to the demolition of 106 Ridgewood Road.
Scene: Looking southeast from the southern bend of Ridgewood at the then 106 Ridgewood Road. Deeded by the Roland Park Co. to Elizabeth King Ellicott on 24 June 1901, this grand residence was designed by husband William M. Ellicott, a prominent local architect. Ellicott was the designer of St. David's Episcopal church. Built in the French Renaissance style, number 106 was not long lived. In 1937, neighbor Gideon N. Stieff, Sr. became concerned that 106 was about to be turned into a nursing home. The influencial Stieff lived at 108 Ridgewood, and was the chairman of Stieff Silver, as well as president of the Civic League. Rather than let this nursing-home plan happen, Stieff bought the property, demolished it, and incorporated the now vacant lot into his own garden. The photo is undated, but it must predate the early 1903 journal in which it appeared. The photo is by Ellicott himself.
Commentary: The 106 Ridgewood lot remains vacant to this day and simply looks to be a large extension of 108's garden. In 1941, Stieff deeded back to the city and the Roland Park Roads & Maintenance Corp. certain parts of the 106 lot, such as the lane behind the land.
Set 19
Mapped Scene: The Ellicott house's distinctive terrace is plainly shown on the 1922 Baltimore City map. After Stieff's demolition of the 106 property, South Lane, which used to run between 106 and Stieff's 108, was rerouted such that it now no longer divided the two lots but, instead, divided 104 from 106. Also, at some point many years ago, Sunny Lane's access to Cold Spring Lane was closed off too.
Scene: Looking northeast at the back of 106 Ridgewood from Sunny Lane, which runs behind the Ridgewood Road houses. The portico-covered terrace is the same one prominent in set 18, above. The Greiners presumably owned the house after the Ellicotts. It is not known who lived in the house precisely when, but the 1908 Baltimore Blue Book social register gave the Ellicotts as still living there at that time. (The Greiners in 1908 had two Roland Park houses: 6 Edgevale and 105 Elmhurst.) Note that 104 Ridgewood does not here appear in the background, not having been built yet. This photo of 106 appears to have been taken at the same time as the one above, so it, too, was probably taken by architect William Ellicott.
Commentary: While there is not a trace of 106 Ridgewood to be seen, amazingly, the handsome stone steps that led from the upper front garden to the lower back garden are very much still in evidence. They are in remarkably good condition. The side and rear terraces have disappeared, though the ridge in the middle of the photo shows about where the back of the actual house was.
Set 20
Scene: From the southwest bend on Ridgewood Road, looking northeast at 107 (the closer of the two houses) and 109 Ridgewood. Like the picture of the Ellicott house shown at set 18, above, this photo appeared in the April 1903 edition of House & Garden magazine, which carried a feature on Roland Park (and Ridgewood Road in particular). Number 107 Ridgewood was at the time owned by the Townsends and 109 by the Coles. Both houses were designed by Ellicott and Emmert, the firm of their neighbor at number 106.
Commentary: Replicating the angle of the historic photo at left produces a shot somewhat obscured by trees nowadays. Nevertheless, the similarity of the vintage and modern scenes is self-evident. Like many Roland Park houses, 107 has had its right-side (south) porch enclosed and turned into a sunroom. On the left side (north), where once there was just an open patio, these is now a second sunroom, also. Apart from these two obvious changes, however, the house seems to be very well preserved.
Set 21
Scene: This January 1902 photo was taken from a point 100 or so yards north of the previous photo. Here we are looking back southward at 107 and 109 Ridgewood, with 109 now the closer of the two. Most interestingly, the magnificent but sadly now demolished 106 Ridgewood is prominent in the distance. The car in the left foreground appears to have been owned by the Granville family. The Granvilles lived at 404 Hawthorn Road in Plat 1. Photos of that house and others of this car appear in Munro's Greater Roland Park book.
Commentary: As for this modern photo, other than the lack of the 106 Ridgewood house, everything else is virtually as it was 11 decades ago.
Set 22
Scene: Looking north up Ridgewood from the south-end bend in the road. Number 108 Ridgewood is out of sight to the photographer's left. The path coming in from the left will one day be its driveway. The house beyond is 112 Ridgewood.
Commentary: Now hidden by evergreens, 112 Ridgewood is out of sight here. Number 108 now has a driveway where once was a path. There is also now a low wall in front of the property, absent in 1908. Ridgewood Road itself looks much less serpentine than in the 1908 shot, but presumably this is a function of lens types.
Set 23
Scene: Looking west by northwest at 112 Ridgewood Road. This house is opposite no. 107 (see above), and the photo comes from the same House & Garden article as that cited above. The house's first owner was Mr. G.M. Brown. Wyatt and Nolting were the architects.
Commentary: The originally fairly modest 112 Ridgewood — which would have been brand new when the vintage shot at left was taken — has been considerably enlarged. The south-side porch has been enclosed and a room added above it. It is not known when the addition was made, but it must have been early because it appears in the 1908 postcard above at set 20.
Set 24
Scene: This picture shows 114 Ridgewood Road. This photo is also from the April 1903 issue of House & Garden. The house was designed by Wyatt and Nolting for owner W.T. Kuhn.
Commentary: Nos. 112 and 114 Ridgewood were once very similar. While 112 (see the set above) has been extensively modified, 114 is just about identical to its original appearance.
Set 25
Alternate View: An undated photo of Mrs. White outside the house.
Scene: This is 201 Ridgewood Road, a west-facing house on the second block of Ridgewood. The house was designed by Wyatt & Nolting, the local firm that also designed the first Baltimore Country Club clubhouse. The house's first owner was Clymer White. White was a big mover and shaker in turn-of-the-20th-century Baltimore who, the story goes, rallied the troops and convinced his friends to move to "the country," thereby kicking real estate sales in Roland Park into high gear.
Commentary: The same house today: lighter in color but otherwise just about identical to its original Wyatt and Nolting blueprint.
Set 26
Scene: This is the last of the photos of Ridgewood Road houses from the April 1903 issue of House & Garden. The image shows 205 Ridgewood, a house so modified over the years as scarcely to be recognizable today. The house is a Wyatt and Nolting design for Mr. M.O. Selden.
Commentary: The house has had an ornate portico added and has been greatly extended on its north (left) side, by having the side porch enclosed and a story added above it.
Set 27
Scene: Looking north up Ridgewood Road from its intersection with Oakdale Road, coming in from the right. The house in the background is the "Symington mansion," 218 Ridgewood Road, whose stables on Falls Road feature in this collection's "northwest" section. Notice the rather primitive street lamp on the utility pole.
Commentary: Plainly visible here, the "Symington mansion" was tragically burned down, with loss of life, in December 2007. It is currently (2010) being restored.
Set 28
Mapped Scene: The Symington house is shown in pink on lot 19, Ridgewood Road. The house on the left in the two photos is that shown on the map as being owned by C.W. Smith.
Scene: Looking west at the northwest bend at the 200 block of Ridgewood Road. The schoolgirls are emerging from the Symington property, 218 Ridgewood Road. The roadside marble block is for people alighting from horsedrawn carriages to step down upon. A fair number of these still exist in Roland Park, though this particular one has gone. This photo shows particularly well Roland Park's early road surfacing: dirt and gravel, oiled and compacted.
Commentary: Though the stepping block has gone, the utility pole is still in the same place. The Symington house now has a low wall fronting its lot, whereas a century ago there was a hedge. The sapling on the left of the vintage picture is now a mighty tree. The road is of course now paved. Beyond this, there seem to have been no substantive changes to the scene in a century. The Symington brothers (Stuart and Thomas), incidentally, were the developers of Gibson Island (Anne Arundel County), summer retreat of the well-to-do. On the advice of Roland Park Co. President Edward Bouton, the Symingtons hired the Olmsteds to create a master plan for the island.
Along Club Road
Set 29
Scene: Looking south toward 3 Club Road. Built in the early 1900s, this house later served as the dormitory building for the nearby Girls' Latin School at 10 Club Road. This photo is said to show the house during the Girls' Latin period, but the clothes seem wrong to me. Girls' Latin bought 10 Club in 1927 and so, presumably, it did not purchase number 3 until the late 1920s also. The clothes shown in this photo, in contrast, appear Edwardian. I suspect the photo in fact dates to the first decade of the 20th century, maybe 1910 or so. It perhaps shows the house's original owner and her daughter.
Commentary: This charming house appears to have changed little over the past 120-odd years. I am over 6 feet tall, and yet in this modern photo the gate columns tower over me. In contrast, in the old photo at left they appear to be more or less at eye level. This leads me to suppose the the photographer was standing on something when snapping that shot, perhaps an open automobile or carriage.
Set 30
Period Plans: Two February 1899 floor plans of the Robinson house appear in C.F. Osborne's 1907 book, Country Homes and Gardens.
Scene: Looking north at 6 Club Road. Number 6 was originally the home of a certain Mr. Robinson. A comparison of the Robinson and modern photos reveals that the building has changed remarkably little over the years. The only really noticeable thing is the sunroom on the right: it originally had a trellis covering of sorts; it is now roofed. The house was designed by Wyatt & Nolting, which also designed the first Baltimore Country Club clubhouse, nearby, which was destroyed by fire in 1931. The photo is undated, but it appeared in C.F. Osborne's book, Country Homes and Gardens. Given that this was published in 1907, the image must obviously at least slightly predate that.
Commentary: The Club Road development was the Roland Park Co.'s first attempt at creating a community within a community — other, later ones being Goodwood Gardens, Edgevale Park and Merryman Court. Starting on Roland Avenue and extending west to the country club itself, most of the houses along Club Road are built in the English halftimbered Tudor style. In a radical departure from Roland Park Co. practice until that time, the houses' gardens are walled and fenced off from the road. The idea was to attract high-income, privacy-valuing country club members. (The club itself is treated in the "northwest" section of this site.) The club's presence was extremely useful to the Roland Park Co. All city dwellers coming to play golf or other sports at the club, a major social hub, had to come by streetcar along Roland Avenue, thereby passing some of Roland Park's grandest houses, each an advertisement in architecture for the company's wares.
Set 31
Period Advertisement: A 1903 advertisement for Girls' Latin is reproduced here, though in 1903 the school was still colocated with Goucher College in town (the "highest and newest section of the city" described in the ad refers to Charles Village, not Roland Park).
Scene: From Club Road, looking east by northeast at 10 Club Road, site of the former Girls' Latin School. Girls' Latin was founded in 1890 as a preparatory project of Goucher College, then located in lower Charles Village. Girls' Latin was located on the Goucher Campus. In 1890, Girls' Latin was separated from Goucher because the National Association of Collegiate Alumnae was opposed to colleges with in-house preparatory divisions. The now independent school leased space from Goucher for a while before moving to 1217 St. Paul Street in 1914. The school bought 10 Club Road in 1927. A decade later the school, bankrupt, was sold to its own alumnae in 1937, who continued to run it, though with ever diminishing success. The school closed permanently in 1951.
Commentary: The old Girls' Latin building, at least in external appearance is very little changed. It was designed by E.H. Glidden Jr., and built in 1903, according to tax records. In recent times, it served as an apartment building for many years but in 2010 was bought by a couple to be turned into a single-family home.
Set 32
Period Advertisement: An undated period advertisement for the first Roland Park water tower.
Scene: Looking north from Long Lane at the south-facing façade of the Girls' Latin gymnasium. Located at 2 Tower Lane, the gymnasium was built on the site of Roland Park's first water tower (an advertisement for which appears above). According to tax records, this gym building was erected in 1910 but this seems unlikely, given that Girls' Latin did not move to Roland Park until 1927. The University of Baltimore's collection of Roland Park records, however, gives 1929 as the year, altogether more plausible. E.H. Glidden, Jr. was the architect.
Commentary: An exact replication of the historic scene is not possible nowadays because a comparatively modern nearby garage gets in the way. A better sense of the scene may be gleaned from this shot, taken from a slightly closer location and a less head-on angle. This photo shows a structure very little changed since 1929. The building these days is owned by the Roland Park Country School, which bought it in 2001 and which uses it as a squash facility. It had previously been owned by a local area family, which had rented it out for squash playing.
Set 33
Mapped Scene: The photographer's position at the intersection of Club and Goodwood roads is marked by a red circle. Wyatt's house is shown as such.
Scene: Opposite the Girls' Latin dormitory at 6 Club Road (set 26) stands 5 Club, at the intersection of Club and Goodwood roads. The house was designed, owned and lived in by J.B. Noel Wyatt (1847-1926), a principal at Wyatt & Nolting. Wyatt & Nolting was a prominent local architectural firm, whose well known local designs included the Tudor-style shopping center, the firehouse, the first Baltimore Country Club clubhouse, and the Presbyterian and Methodist churches, the latter now owned by the North Baltimore Mennonites. (The Methodist congregation is these days at Charles Street and Northern Parkway.)
Commentary: Though largely screened from the road in amanner it was not a century ago, 5 Club Road has changed virtually none since the vintage photo at left was shot. The crisscross balustrade atop the porch roof has gone (replaced by something simpler), and one of the foreground stone balls has disappeared. There are no other discernable differences. A Roland Park booster, owner Wyatt had been educated at Harvard, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Ecole des Beaux Arts. From 1902 to 1911, he was Baltimore chapter president of the American Institute of Architects.
Set 34
Scene: Looking south along Goodwood Road from its intersection with Club Road. The house at the left is 5 Club Road (see the entry above).
Commentary: The scene is certainly recognizable a century on. The large tree just to the left of center is by all appearances the same one as that shown in the corresponding position in the 1911 Simmons picture at left (note the prominent limb jutting to the right). Absent in the historic picture, but visible in the new one, is the house's garage, recessed into the embankment. This was designed in 1926 by the well known local architect, Laurence H. Fowler.
Set 35
Front View: South-facing (inner) façade of Rusty Rocks. The house was built in 1907 on the site of a disused quarry, the lot being, in Bouton's view, unsuitable for sale. A number of Roland Park houses have foundations built of stone from this quarry.
Scene: The photographer is at the top of Sunset Path (at its intersection with Goodwood Road), looking west. On the right, behind the hedge, is the Baltimore Country Club. On the left is the north-facing (outer) façade of Rusty Rocks, Roland Park Co. President Edward H. Bouton's third and final home in Roland Park.
Commentary: Though nestled out of view, Rusty Rocks is one of Roland Park's most notable dwellings. It was designed by the Olmsted brothers, and bears all the hallmarks of the rusticity they favored. The quarry that furnished the lot upon which the house is built has been masterfully configured into a series of natural looking terraces and a pond.
Set 36
Mapped Scene: Bromley's 1915 map shows E.H. Bouton's beloved Rusty Rocks property.
Scene: Looking north along Boulder Lane from near its intersection with Ridgewood Road. Everything on the right is part of Edward Bouton's Rusty Rocks property. (See set 35, above.) Simmons must have been standing on something to take this photo: in this shot, the Rusty Rocks house can be seen beyond the foreground building; in the modern shot at right, taken by an average-height man, the house cannot be seen, other than the very top of the further away chimney.
Commentary: There is no mistaking this scene. Unfinished in 1911, the western wall of the Rusty Rocks property is obviously complete now. In the historic photo, beyond the distant car there appears to be a building of sorts, possibly a garage or an outbuilding at the Baltimore Country Club. Whatever it was, it is gone now. On the 1915 Bromley map, it appears as the smaller of the two buildings shown on Hillside Road lot 7.
Set 37
Scene: Looking south from the north end of Boulder Lane, back toward Ridgewood Road. Bouton's Rusty Rocks is on the left (see sets 35 and 36, above).
Commentary: The same scene today, so immediately recognizable that no commentary is needed, other than to note that the lower part of the retaining wall is somewhat higher than it was in 1911.
Set 38
Mapped Scene: The 1922 city topographical map shows 302 Club Road.
Scene: The photographer is standing at the northeast corner of the Club and Beechdale roads intersection, looking southwest at 302 Club. The road is unpaved, so the photo probably predates the city's annexation of Roland Park (December 31, 1918 - January 1, 1919). The delivery truck appears to have solid rubber, not pneumatic, tires. Pneumatic or inflatable tires were invented by a British veterinarian, John B. Dunlop, in 1897, though solids continued to be used for several years thereafter.
Commentary: As is quite common in Roland Park, what was once a fairly barren scene is now so sylvan as to defy photographic clarity. The house is now wholly obscured by trees when looking at it from the northeast. However, moving such that the photographer is looking due west at it produces a better view. Basically, the house is as it was, though important detail changes have been made. The distinctive upper-floor, central bay window is still in place. But whereas the portico and attic dormer windows once sported curved lintels, these somewhere along the line have been rebuilt with straight ones. Originally, the two downstairs windows were the same size as those above them; they are now wider.
Set 39
Scene: This photo's photographer is standing in just about exactly the same spot as the previous photo's photographer, but is facing in the opposite direction: looking northeast instead of southwest. The house is 12 Beechdale Road. The true subject of the image is the utility pole in the foreground, the photo being one of a number of such photos taken by BGE. The streetlamp on the pole is powered by the overhead lines visible at the very top of the image.
Commentary: I am here standing slightly ahead and to the right of the original photographer's position. To have stood in exactly the same place would have produced a view completely dominated by a modern "Stop" sign. (A bit of its metal pole may be seen at the lower left of this 2022 image.) The house, 12 Beechdale, is now a lighter color than it was six decades ago but, apart from that, it appears delightfully frozen in time.
Goodwood Gardens
Set 40
Period Plan: Charles A. Platt's original schematic for Goodwood Gardens appears in C.F. Osborne's 1907 book, Country Homes and Gardens. The plan is undated, but is probably early 20th century.
Scene: Looking north along Goodwood Gardens. This photo excellently shows the rubble gutters once ubiquitous throughout Roland Park. The road has an oiled dirt surface. Asphalt did not come to Roland Park until after annexation by Baltimore City. Goodwood Gardens' large and elaborate houses were mostly designed by Ellicott and Emmert, Parker and Thomas (designers of the Belvedere Hotel), and Edward L. Palmer, Jr.
Commentary: Goodwood Gardens was the Roland Park Co.'s second successful attempt at a themed mini development within a larger development (Plat 2), Club Road having been the first. An early attempt at something similar at the southern end of Ridgewood Road had foundered on the Olmsted brothers' objections (see set 16). The Goodwood Gardens project was the brainchild of architect and landscape designer Charles A. Platt, though he ended up designing only one of the actual houses. Goodwood Gardens was and remains Roland Park's most grandiose and formal block.
Set 41
Mapped Scene: The red circle at Kenwood and Goodwood marks the photographer's position.
Scene: Taken from a more or less the same location as the vintage photo shown in the set above (the intersection of Goodwood Gardens and Kenwood Road), but three months earlier, this leafless winter photo better shows the scale of the Goodwood Gardens architecture than does the summer shot.
Commentary: Attractive as they may be, the prominent yew trees unfortunately completely hide what would otherwise be a good view of 200 Goodwood Gardens. Though not original, the cast iron utility pole at the left is of a type once common in Roland Park.
Set 42
Scene: Looking west at 206 Goodwood Gardens.
Commentary: The house appears little, if any, changed. It would be nice to think that the foreground trees are those shown as saplings in the vintage photo, but they are not. Neither is in quite the same position.
Set 43
Scene: Another view of 206 Goodwood Gardens, this one an early 20th century postcard. The postmark is dated June 23, 1910. In the set above, there is a sapling to the left of the entrance gateway. In this photo, it has not yet been planted.
Commentary: The row of evergreen shrubs has gone, but little else is visibly changed. The foreground tree may be the sapling in the middle of the historic photo.
Hills and Dales (Upper Plat 3)
Set 44
Mapped Scene: The photographer is standing in the turning circle and is looking north by northeast at the house on lot 19.
Scene: Looking northeast at one of the houses at the foot of Elmhurst Road, the first (southernmost) of the four finger-like ridges radiating westward from Roland Avenue.
Commentary: The sunroom on the left has had a second story added to it. The tree just behind the evergreens is presumably one of the two in the corresponding position in the historic photo at left. While the lower part of plat 3 is dominated by Edgevale Road, the upper part of the plat is quite distinct. The primary characteristic of upper Plat 3 is the "fingers" of land that radiate west from Roland Avenue, divided from each other by small ravines. From south to north, and in ascending order of steepness, the "fingers" are Elmhurst Road, St. John's Road, Midvale Road and Longwood Road.
Set 45
Scene Relic: This scan shows the back of the lease whose front is shown at right. The parties are given as Josephine L. Stewart and Walter B. Swindell.
Scene: This is a fascinating scan of an old lease for "Melwood." It was sent to me by the great-great-grandson of the lessor, Josephine Lurman Stewart. Stewart was the owner of "Melwood," a large house in Plat 2 that in fact considerably pre-dates Roland Park. In spring 1902, she leased the house for five months to Walter B. Swindell for $100 per month, furnished. The house and property are today bounded by Elmhurst Road, Long Lane, Shady Lane and the backs of the houses on the south side of the unit
block of Beechdale Road — though none of these bounds existed when Melwood was built. The Melwood estate, with a fairly small house on it, appears on the 1876 Hopkins map; the owner is given as Judge Gilmor. The house in more or less its present (larger) form appears on the 1898 Bromley map (owner, Chas. O'Donnell Lee), though on a smaller lot, the northern half of the estate having been sold to the Roland Park Co. at some point during the intervening period.
Commentary: Today Melwood is known as 4 Elmhurst Road (to its south), though in fact it fronts onto Long Lane (immediately to its east). Long Lane is the alley between it and Roland Avenue. The reason for this is that the mansion originally fronted directly onto Roland Avenue (then still called Maryland Avenue). Access from Maryland Avenue was via a driveway running west therefrom. When the Roland Park Co. developed the west side of the avenue (renaming it Roland Avenue), Melwood was cut off from direct access. It now accessed the world by Long Lane, built by the Roland Park Co. and running west of, and parallel to, Roland Avenue. This modern photo was taken from Long Lane, looking nowthwest toward the east-facing front of Melwood (the front is the porch on the right).
Set 46
Mapped Scene: Facing north, the photographer is looking at what on the map is given as the G.W. Atkinson house.
Scene: Looking north from Beechdale Road at a house on the even-numbered side of the street.
Commentary: Once in a while one encounters a Roland Park house built without a porch, but with one now added. It is virtually unheard of for a house originally to have had a porch, later removed. Nevertheless, such is the case with 4 Beechdale Road, which once sported a fine porch the width of the house. A review of the Roland Park records held by the University of Baltimore reveals that the house was altered in August 1928, with Addison J. Worthington as the supervising architect. It is quite possible that the porch was
removed at this time.
Set 47
Scene: This photo of 6 Beechdale Road is part of the Pinto collection of Roland Park memorabilia. The date and photographer are unknown. However, a careful examination of the photo reveals that the house next door, 4 Beechdale, has here already lost its porch — an event that likely happened in August 1928, so this image certainly post-dates 1928. This photo is very similar to the one above of 12 Beechdale Road. As in that photo, the subject here really seems to be the utility pole, not the house in the background. I suspect this photo to another in the series of May 1961 images taken by BGE of utility poles in Roland park.
Commentary: The lower porch on the left has been enclosed, a common enough occurrence in Roland Park. More unusually, the once open portico on the right has also been enclosed. Apart from these alterations, this handsome house appears to be much as it was.
Set 48
Mapped Scene: No. 114 St. John's Road is the house sitting on lot 76 on this map, though in reality the house is a little further east, a little closer to the neck of the turning circle, than shown here.
Scene: Looking north at 114 St. John's Road.
Commentary: The awnings have gone and a set of stone steps down to the road has been added, but few other exterior changes have been made. Even the rubble roadside gutter is still in place.
Set 49
Scene: Looking west down Indian Lane, the alley between St. John's and Midvale roads.
Commentary: Now paved, Indian Lane runs along the ravine that separates St. John's and Midvale roads. It is not known how it came by its name.
Set 50
Scene: This great photo of 8 Midvale Road was sent to me by the granddaughter of the then-resident, who lived at the house for the periods 1928-35 and 1942-43. Many houses in Roland Park have had their side porches enclosed and upper floors added above them. This photo is fascinating because it shows the process underway. The enclosed sunroon at the left obviously was once a single-story porch, while the room above appears still be under construction. Observant readers will note that it is empty and windowless, and that its shingles are far newer than those on the rest of the house.
Commentary: And here is the finished product. In the vintage photo, the lower level of the porch had already been enclosed. It has since then been extended a little to the west (left), and it had lost its French doors, replaced with normla windows. The upper level enclosure has changed little since its completion, except that its shutters have been removed. In fact, every window on the house is now shutterless.
Set 51
Mapped Scene: The photographer is standing in the turning circle facing the F.H. Clark house
Scene: Looking southwest at the end of Midvale Road.
Commentary: The scene today is virtually unchanged. The fire hydrant is in the same place.
Set 52
Scene: Looking west from near the top of Elmwood Road. As this photo shows, even as late as 1911 Plat 3 was not fully developed. Note the vacant lot beyond the second white house, a lot now built out (see the new photo at right).
Commentary: Elmwood Road runs down the ravine between Midvale and Longwood roads. It has not changed much in a century.
Set 53
Mapped Scene: The photos at right were taken looking east up Elmwood from its intersection with Laurel Path, which is shown but not named on the map. In the photos, the foreground steps show the path's termination point.
Scene: Looking east back up Elmwood Road. Though no houses are in view in this shot due to foliage, old Roland Park's dirt roads and rubble gutters are fully on display.
Commentary: The same as scene today, though without the rubble gutters or unpaved road.
Set 54
Scene: The photographer is standing in the middle of Longwood Road, looking north by northeast at 200 Longwood. This house can be seen in the distance in the photo set below.
Commentary: A century has changed this house not at all. Part of the upper-level terrace formed by the porch roof has been covered, but that appears to be it. Everything else seems identical.
Set 55
Scene: Looking east back along Longwood Road (toward Roland Avenue). The exceedingly steep-sided Longwood Road was one of the most difficult areas to develop for the Roland Park Co., which solved the problem by building houses directly into the hillside. In the distance, beyond the white house, is 200 Longwood, the subject of the set above.
Commentary: The house on the right is 207 Longwood, which in 1911 was just a "lot for sale" sign. The white house in the background on the left is 202 Longwood, and 200 Longwood, the subject of set above, is beyond it, partly hidden by trees. In the modern photo, the roof of 204 Longwood can be seen at the far left, just this side of the white house — but only the roof because the house is built into the hillside below the level of the road. In the old photo, 204 is merely a pile of building materials at the side of the road. In the old shot, there is a hydrant along the sidewalk, which is no longer there. This is the only instance in this series of a hydrant's having been present in the early shot but absent in the modern.
Set 56
Scene: Looking east along the even-numbered (north) side of Longwood Road. Many of the houses here are built into the hillside and are substantially below the level of the road, which is over the ridge at the right. The Plat 3 preoccupation with Arts & Crafts simplicity is evident here.
Commentary: The cedar roof shakes have given way to asphalt shingles. but little else has changed. This row of Swiss-style chalets was built by the Roland Park Co. The houses were designed by Edward L. Palmer, Jr.
Set 57
Scene: This is 216 Longwood Road, the house immediately to the west of that shown in the set above. Photographer Simmons was standing on the footpath leading down to 220 Longwood, looking across the then vacant lot that is now 218 Longwood.
Commentary: This photo was taken from the top of the steps and path leading to 220 Longwood. It is not possible exactly to replicate the angle of Simmons shot, which was taken from lower down the hill. Now one must be higher on the slope than was Simmons because these days 218 Longwood intervenes between 216 and 220. In contrast to the houses featured in the three sets above, 216 Longwood, has been very much altered. As is common in Roland Park, the porch has been enclosed and turned into a sunroom. The
left window above the porch/sunroom roof has been replaced and dramatically reduced in size. A small dormer window has been added to the right of the chimney. Most dramatically, the prominent eaves — once a signature of the Arts & Crafts style on this block — have been cut back to nothing.
Set 58
Scene: Looking west at the last house, no. 222, on Longwood Road, with the golf course beyond it (particularly evident beyond and to the right).
Commentary: Though the planted island at the end of Longwood has long since disappeared, the house itself is instantly recognizable. The small utility pole to the left of the house in the old photo has been replaced by a far bigger one, though the location is still the same. The golf course is no longer around, of course, and, even it if were, the trees have grown such that even in winter there is little view through them.
Set 59
Scene: In the set above, beyond the vintage car there is a footpath just visible. This photo was taken from that footpath, looking north at the sunken garden of the same house featured in that set, 222 Longwood.
Commentary: Beyond the portico, a downspout has of late been added where none was previously. Other than that, the scene looks wholly unchanged.
Set 60
Mapped Scene: In 1911, to take this photo, Simmons stood on Longwood Road at about the boundary between lots 23 and 24 (the latter not so identified on the map), and looked down the hill toward lot 25. In 1911, lot 24 was vacant; by the time of the 1915 Bromley
map, 218 Longwood had been erected on it.
Scene: View from near the end of Longwood Road, looking northwest toward the upper end of the golf course. The nearby house on the left is 220 Longwood Road. The house in the distance is 608 Edgevale Road. The vacant land between this last and the photographer is what will one day be Edgevale Park. The man in the straw boater hat appears in a number of Simmons photos; it may very well be Simmons himself.
Commentary: When Simmons was doing his photography rounds, 218 Longwood had not yet been built. Now obviously this house blocks such view as may remain through the trees of Edgevale Park. Even so, the scene is recognizable: the fieldstone wall is little changed and 220 Longwood is much as it was.