Chapter 6: South
This 1904 photo shows the famous Roland Water Tower under contruction. Though very much a part of Roland Park's identity, the tower is in fact not within the boundaries of Roland Park and nor did it ever provide water to Roland Park. Though only by a matter of a few yards, the tower is just outside the southwestern border of Plat 4A. When still in operation, the tower provided water to Hampden, immediately to its south (and downhill from it), not to Roland Park. The tower was built in 1904-05 after a 1903 design by William J. Fizone. The standpipe shown here, while still exists within the tower that now surrounds it, has a capacity of 211,000 gallons. After the standpipe was completed, it had built around it a distinctive Beaux-Arts tower (see set 2, below). This Beaux-Arts tower is one of only two such in Maryland, the other one being three miles to the west in the West Arlington neighborhood. The tower and standpipe were disused after 1930, when Baltimore City began exclusively using reservoirs for its water supply (unknown photographer; Anthony F. Pinto III collection).
Roland Water Tower and Environs
Set 1
Scene: Looking east along University Parkway from the top of the Roland Water Tower, 1913. The two houses in the foreground are 830 and 900 W. University Parkway (the latter closer to the photographer). The no. 29 trolley route, opened on October 8, 1908, features prominently in this photo, running immediately parallel to the westbound carriageway of the parkway. The trolley passenger shelter in front of the two houses is still there today.The three-part, connected building toward the top right of the photo is the Egenton Home, an orphanage that subsequently moved to New North Roland Park. In 1926, the building shown here was taken over by the Keswick Home for Incurables which, now with a modern building and the name Keswick Multi-Care, still occupies the site.
Commentary: Occupying the site of the old Egenton home, Keswick Multi-Care is prominent in the modern photo: it is the building at the top right from which steam is emitting. As for the rest of the scene, the once spartanly developed Plat 5 is now fully built out and fully tree canopied, the latter a blessing though, in this case, a blessing that obscures 830 and 900 W. University from view. The modern photo (October 2011) was taken looking out from the east face of the water tower's cupola.
Set 2
Mapped Scene: In this detail taken from the 1915 Bromley map, we can see that Somerset Road does not yet extend to Roland Avenue, as it does now. Instead it turned south down what is today called Somerset Place. The area that is now what we may call the Somerset Road western extension was in 1915 still open land owned by the Roland Park Company. On this map, the water tower is labeled "Baltimore Water Tower." The red circle shows the photographer's position.
Scene: Roland Water Tower, looking southwest from near intersection of Roland Avenue and University Parkway (and, now, Somerset Road, though this last did not exist when this photo was taken). The no. 29 streetcar line is in the foreground. Though popularly thought of as a Roland Park landmark in the 21st century, the tower in fact never provided water to Roland Park; it served the Hampden area. The tower designed in 1903 by William J. Fizone and built in 1904-05.
Commentary: The tower itself is still instantly recognizable, though close inspection reveals it to be in sadly neglected condition as of this writing (2009). It ceased to be a functioning water tower in 1930 when the city moved to using reservoirs exclusively for its water supply. The tower has received inadequate municipal attention since then. Though the windows around the structure give the building the appearance of a lighthouse with rooms inside it, in fact the walls simply surround a tall 211,000-gallon water tank. Around the tank winds a spiral staircase, by which means people once accessed the viewing platform at the top.
Set 3
Period Plan: This August 1, 1904 architectural diagram of the Roland Water Tower shows the approval stamp of the city Department of Public Improvements.
Scene: Roland Water Tower loop, looking northwest from Roland Avenue. The photo is undated but can be placed with some precision. The standard trolley on the right is the no. 24 from Lakeside. The trackless trolley — that is, the bus powered by overhead lines — is the no. 10. The no. 10 line had once been served by a tracked streetcar that came up through Hampden and went as far north as the Roland Park carhouse. In April 1940, the line was switched to trackless. From this point onward, the northern turning point of the route was the water tower, as the Civic League would not agree to having trackless trolleys in Roland Park because they needed power lines in addition to those that powered the regular streetcars. The no. 24 trolley had previously shuttled between Lakeside (at Lake Roland) and the carhouse. As of 1940, the no. 24 went further south, to the water tower to make the connection with the trackless no. 10. However, as of June 1947, with a new gasoline bus service to Roland Park, the no. 24 was restricted to a short run between Lakeside and Lake Avenue. This shot must therefore have been taken between 1940 and 1947.
Commentary: When the vintage photo at left was taken in the 1940s, the water tower had already been abandoned for over a decade. By the early 21st century, it had fallen into disrepair to the point of endangering passersby, so frequently did tiles and other debris fall from it. In early summer 2009, Baltimore City surrounded the tower with a chain-link fence to keep pedestrians out of harm's way. The fence is evident in the modern photo above. Besides this, the scene is little changed. The streetcar rails have gone, as have the shelter and overhead power lines. The stone semicircular bench is still in place. (It is present in the old photo, but partially hidden by the conductor of the no. 24 trolley.) The apartment building in the background appears to be identical.
Set 4
Scene: The photographer is looking northeast from southern leg of the horseshoe-shaped loop around the base of the water tower (which is to say from the position of the people boarding the trackless trolley in the previous set, set 2). The road in the foreground is the 4200 block of Roland Avenue, immediately south of its intersection with University Parkway. The building just visible in the background through the foliage beyond the trolley is the old Kirkleigh Villa at 4301 Roland Avenue, demolished in October 2009. The photo is undated but is datable to the seven-year period 1940 to 1947. Only between these dates did the no. 24 venture this far south down Roland Avenue, for reasons described in set 3.
Commentary: This is one of the very few images in this series where the old photo shows more mature trees than the new photo. The apartment building prominent on the right of the photo above (988 W. University Parkway) is virtually identical in external appearance as in the old photo.
Set 5
Sense of the Scene: This sense-of-the-scene photo is more evocative of the historic photo at right than is the "now" image. This is the Marianist building (formerly the Kirkleigh Villa), as photographed in early 2008, 18 months before its demise. The photographer is standing in approximately the same spot as the streetcar photographer in the vintage photo at right. In 1926, the Daughters of Charity opened the Kirkleigh Villa retirement home for older women. It operated here at 4301 Roland Avenue until 1966, when it was sold to the Marianist Province of the United States, a Catholic religious order for men. Bought by a developer inthe 2008, the old building was demolished in October 2009, to be replaced by the new memory-care facility shown in this set's "now" shot, Symphony Manor.
Scene: A southbound no. 29 streetcar in front of what will become the Marianist building. This photo was taken a couple of hundred yards north of the previous photo set, the photographer here being just south of the set-back court that makes up the bulk of the even-numbered side of the 4300 block of Roland Avenue. The building on the opposite side of the street, beyond the trolly, is the now demolished Marianist building, 4301 Roland Avenue, originally the Kirkleigh Villa. The no. 29 line was laid in 1908 and closed in 1947. From Charles Street, it ran along University Parkway and up to the Roland Park carhouse, which was behind the Tudor-style shopping center. Baltimore ordered this model of streetcar in 1936, so this photo must have been taken between that year and the closing of the no. 29 line a decade later. Given that this photo was a publicity shot, it was probably taken in 1936 or shortly thereafter.
Commentary: This 2011 shot was taken from the Roland Avenue bus stop at the same location as the old trolley stop (left), though the trolley stop was on the median, not the curb. This modern photo is largely unintelligible because the distinctive building visible beyond the streetcar in the old photo does not appear in the new shot, above, having been demolished in 2009. This new building houses Symphony Manor, a memory-care facility.
Set 6
Kirkleigh Brochure: The photo above shows the front cover a Kirkleigh Villa promotional brochure published in 1926.
Scene: This photo shows the Kirkleigh Villa as photographed from Roland Avenue just northwest of the building. The photo appeared in a promotional brochure published by the Sisters of Charity (which name the Daughters of Charity seem to have used at the time). The brochure was published in 1926 to coincide with the villa's opening as a retirement home for older women.
Commentary: This photo was taken in March 2011, the day after Symphony Manor's grand opening. The new building is bigger than was the Kirkleigh Villa, but is architects have made a serious effort to capture the flavor of the earlier Shingle-style parts of Roland Park (principally plats 1 and 2), though here in Plat 4 the old Kirkleigh structure was actually brick. Of the old building itself, there is no trace.
Set 7
Scene: This photo comes from the same 1926 brochure as the photo above. Here, the photographer is standing at an upper window, or perhaps the roof, of the Kirkleigh building. The view is south from Kirkleigh toward the water tower. The streetcar tracks pass down the middle of Roland Avenue and the no. 10 trolley is passing the tower.
Commentary: In March 2011, Symphony Manor staff kindly allowed me up to the second-floor balcony of the newly opened facility. The vantage point is not as high as was the historical photographer's, but the scene is nevertheless very similar. The tower still dominates the vista, of course, and the houses on the opposite side of Roland Avenue are very little different as compared to the 1926 picture.
Set 8
Demolished House: This picture, excerpted from the historic photo at right, shows quite well the once magnificent house at the southwest corner of Roland Avenue and Cold Spring Lane. This house was demolished in the early 1960s to make way for the widening of Cold Spring into the major artery it is today.
Scene: Taken from an upper window of the Kirkleigh Villa, this photo is from the same source as the two above. The photographer is looking north from Kirkleigh toward the Roland Avenue/Cold Spring Lane intersection. The lovely garden that dominates the picture was at the time part of the Kirkleigh Villa lot. Both the garden and the actual site of the villa had originally been part of the St.Mary's orphanage lot (see set 11, below). Both St. Mary's and Kirkleigh were operated by the Daughters of Charity order (sometimes referred to as the Sisters of Charity at the time).
Commentary: This March 2011 shot was taken from the same second-floor balcony as that above. The Kirkleigh Villa garden, the subject of the historic photo to the left, has given what to the Symphony Manor parking lot and a large 1970s-vintage condominium
building at 4401 Roland Avenue.
Set 9
Mapped Scene: The Roland Park Woman's Club shows clearly on the 1915 Bromley map. Note that Plat 4A, opposite Roland Avenue from the orphanage, is still described as vacant Roland Park Co. land.
Scene: The Roland Park Woman's Club building sits on the northwest corner of the three-way intersection of Roland Avenue, Cold Spring Lane and Ridgewood Road. The photographer is looking at the building from the southeast corner of the intersection. Though this image of poor quality, it does give an excellent sense of how uncluttered Roland Park was in the early 20th century.
Commentary: Few photos illustrate better than this the major thoroughfares that Roland Avenue and Cold Spring Lane have become. The photo to the left is undated, but is quite early. Depending on the source of the information, the club building was erected sometime between 1901 and 1904, the club itself having been founded in 1898. The photo to the left was taken after 1904 but before the addition of the club house's south wing, which occurred in the 1920s. In the old photo, Roland Avenue is still unpaved, as it was until some time after the city annexed this part of Baltimore County in the late 1910s.
Set 10a
Scene: A closer shot of the Woman's Club, looking northwest. The south wing is absent. The photo is said to have been taken in 1904. As in the set above, the 1904-built number 4502 Roland can be seen in the background, so one assumes this photo was taken late that year, perhaps in December, given the bare trees.
Commentary: The Woman's Club building has been substantially enlarged since opening its doors well over a century ago. Though it is hidden by foliage in this shot, the south wing prominent in the 1930s photo at set 10b now has a second floor added. The portico has been enclosed. The club itself still exists. Membership is by invitation only.
Set 10b
Scene: The Woman's Club after its first enlargement. The same scene as above, but taken about three decades later. The south wing has by now been added, though its second floor is still in the distant future.
Most of the postcards reproduced on this web site carry no messages, However, the 1930s one on the left does and it may interest viewers to read it:
"Dear Chum,
"So sorry, old dear, but Annie & I are going to A.P. this week-end — otherwise we would have been there with bells on, to say nothing of shorts — Love, Alice."
The postcard is addressed to a Miss Mary Settle, Sherwood Forest, Maryland. In 2016, a reader in Anchorage, Alaska wrote me to say that the Mary Settle in question was probably she of 700 Reservoir Street, Baltimore, five blocks south of Druid Hill Park— a very well-to-do area pre-war. Born in 1915, Mary was the youngest child of Nellie and William Settle, the latter an attorney with is own practice. Mary and her older sister Elizabeth were public-school teachers, and their brother William Jr. was a doctor. Sherwood Forest was in the 1920s and '30s a waterfront vacation community centered on a 9-hole golf course. On the south bank of the Severn River about five miles upstream from Annapolis, it still exists today as a gated community of Roland Park-reminiscent houses. No doubt the Settles were staying there in summer 1938, hence the postcard writer's mention of shorts. Mary would have been about 23 at the time. But what is the mysterious "A.P."?
Set 11
Mapped Scene: This is a close up of a section of the 1898 Bromley map. The orphanage is shown in some detail, including the driveway so prominent in the photo at right. Some time after this map was made, but before the publication of the subsequent 1915 Bromley map, the orphanage lot appears to have expanded to the east to encompass Mrs.Hanson's land and to the west to encompass the vacant lot abutting Roland Avenue.
Scene: St. Mary's Female Orphan Asylum operated from 1818 to 1960. Its location was on a generous lot that initially was bounded by Roland Avenue, Cold Spring Lane, Kittery Lane, and the back yards of the Somerset Road houses. The strip fronting onto Roland Avenue was later developed into the Kirkleigh Villa women's retirement home and its extensive gardens (later the Marianist building). See sets 6-8, above. The villa was operated by the same religious order. Here, the unknown photographer is facing south and is at the orphanage's main entrance on Cold Spring, opposite Church Lane (the alley between Roland Avenue and Woodlawn Road, the latter then called Freyer or Fryer Avenue).
Commentary: The service road behind what is now the condominium at 4401 Roland Avenue started life as the driveway to the old orphanage building. The driveway curved eastward at the same place where the service road now turns left (in the center of the photo), leading into the newish development shown in the middle distance of this modern shot. The orphanage complex has now been reincarnated as the Roland Springs Community, of which development this is the northwest corner. A hundred and four townhouses constitute Roland Springs, the houses having been erected between 1974 and 1989. There is now not even a trace of the orphanage.
Set 12
Bird's Eye View: This aerial view of the southern end of Roland Park gives an excellent sense of the large size of the orphanage, which is in the mid-distance, far left. The patio shown at right has already been roofed over like a large pavilion in this bird's eyeshot. The image is undated by can be guessed at with some precision. Somerset Road has already been extended all the way west to University Parkway. This places the photo after 1915, because on the 1915 Bromley map this extension has not yet occurred. On the other hand, in front of the orphanage in the photo, the Kirklea Villa ladies' retirement home has not yet been constructed, which we know happened in 1926. Therefore, suggesting a date of about 1920 seems reasonable.
Scene: St. Mary's orphanage had a large patio or deck behind it, to its east (upon which, toward the end of the orphanage's tenure, the young residents used to roller skate). The 1900 Maryland orphanage census listed St. Mary's as having 225 girls, which is rather more than the group shown here (about 160). The photographer is looking east here and is probably looking out of a second floor window at the rear of the orphanage building itself (shown in the set above). The photo is undated but, judging by the late Victorian clothing, is in all likelihood circa 1900. The aerial photo of southern Roland Park (at left) shows that the patio had been roofed over by about 1920, so this shot certainly predates that. The ridge visible in the distant background is the area that will soon become Whitfield and Rugby roads.
Commentary: Because of the complete absence today of even a hint of the ghost of the orphanage on the modern Roland Springs property, it is difficult to match the exact location of the historic photo to the left. However, a review of period and modern aerial photos shows that the main orphanage building (see the set above) stood on the site of the block behind the photographer in this modern shot. The grassy swath evident in the vintage photo must have been about where this parking lot is. The patio was sited behind the houses that are the subject of this new photo.
Set 13
Aerial View: The Industrial Home was located on a lot just north of the Melvale natural gas tank, which stood alongside Cold Spring Lane for eight decades until it was demolished, February 24, 2013. The 1953 ASCS aerial photo, above, shows the Industrial Home and the gas tank clearly.
Scene: St. Mary's orphanage was not the only such institution in the vicinity. A little over a mile to the west along Cold Spring Lane lay a reform school called the Industrial Home for Colored Girls, a segregated facility that was supposed to train its residents for vocational jobs (hence the lugubriousname). The home was founded in 1882 as a tax-exempt private facility, changing its name to the Maryland Training School for Colored Girls when absorbed by the state in 1931. It was renamed again in 1949 as the Barrett School for Girls, and was merged with the Montrose School for Girls in 1962. The buildings pictured above were demolished sometime thereafter.
Commentary: The Industrial Home was not as large as St. Mary's orphanage but it was not small either. In 1916, it had 111 residents. In addition, there were seven staff members. The institution's funding originally having been a gift of George M. Griffith, six trustees were appointed by the Griffith estate, two by the city, and two by the state. In 1916, younger girls received two hours of schooling a day; older girls, one hour. For the rest of the time they worked in a nearby factory. The home had a playground, though it is not known where. Nor is it known when the home was demolished, but it was probably shortly after it merged with the Montrose School in 1962, for this was also the time that Cold Spring Lane was greatly widened to accommodate traffic coming off the new Jones Falls Express. When this photo was taken in 2009, the site was occupied by the Calvert Wholesale Florist (left) and its hothouse (right). The site is now (2022) the home of the Woodberry apartment complex.
Set 14
Mapped Scene: This segment from the 1962 city Zoning Commission map shows interesting elements of the old and new Jones Falls valley. The expressway itself has not yet been built and the river has not yet been canalized. However, the first Cold Spring valley bridge has been built, having been erected in 1931. Before that time, the only bridge was a small one across the river, just west of the Melvale Distillery (it is still there).The distillery is marked "x." The rest of the valley was before 1931 traversed by road with a crossing at the railroad. West Cold Spring joined East Cold Spring by means of a roadway linking points "a" and "b" on this map. In 1931, there was constructed a bridge crossing both the tracks and the Jones Falls. On this map, East Cold Spring still passes through the Medfield neighborhood. Today, instead, it follows a route shown by the northern boundaries of the R8 and R9 zones in the middle of the map. What used to be called Cold Spring Lane, going through Medfield, is now called Old Cold Spring Lane.
Scene: Looking north from the future roadbed of the Jones Falls Expressway northbound ramp from Cold Spring Lane at the remains of the Jones Falls Valley Park, a small park at the southern end of the Baltimore Country Club's golf course. Much of the park was composed of the small hill prominent in the photo. This is the hill's western slope. The top of the hill is out of the photo to the right. This section of the JFX was completed in 1962. Shortly thereafter, what was left of the park was turned over to the Baltimore Polytechnic Institute and Western High School, which relocated to this place in 1967 from their downtown facilities. The hill was leveled. Poly's western parking lot and part of the school itself now sit atop the flattened hill.
Nowadays, Cold Spring Lane comes in from the right of this shot and crosses more or less due west; in fact, the photographer is probably standing on what will soon be the new Cold Spring Lane. In 1960, when this photo was probably taken, the original Cold Spring Lane — now called Old Cold Spring Lane — came in from the east behind and to the right of the photographer. It crossed the Jones Falls valley in a northwesterly direction to the valley bridge across the railway and the the river. This shot was taken shortly before the extension of the bridge across the whole valley, including a new span across the JFX.
Scene: On lieu of a "now" photo for this set, we present a bird's eye view of more or less the same scene as the interchange shot at left. The white-sided partially demolished hill is the same as the one in the ground-level photo. The Melvale gas holder is prominent in the foreground. The mid-distant building in the center of the frame is the Melvale Distillery, now the Fleischmann Vinegar Distillery. The 1931 bridge crossing the valley is nicely shown here. The white strip leading off to its right is the old Cold Spring Lane. The area being graded in the foreground is the roadbed of the JFX. The current interchange between Cold Spring Lane (as it now is) and the JFX (as eventually contructed) occupies the bare land between the white strip and the white hill.
Both these photos came from an early 1960s album of planning photographs. The albums were nameless and authorless.
Plat 5 County
Set 15
Mapped Scene: The barn or shed in the foreground of the Simmons photo at right may be the northernmost of the three shown on the tract belonging to the City & Suburban Realty and Investment Co. This map predates the photo by 13 years, so it does not yet show any development on Plat 5. The prominent 305 Somerset Road will be built in about the position where on the map someone has penciled in "T.L. Jones"(see set 19). The road immediately to the east (right) of Mrs. Hanson's "Wilton" property is Kittery Lane.
Scene: This scene is essentially the opposite of that shown in set 12. Here, the photographer is looking west from the soon-to-be Rugby Road area toward Roland Park's Plat 5 (County), still at this stage under construction. The water tower is plainly visible. The housing being built at the top right of the photo is Merryman Court. Behind this mini-development, just beyond the tree line, is the St.Mary's orphanage pyramid-topped tower (see set 11).The arched structure just to the left of the tree the middle of the picture is the back terrace of 305 Somerset Road.
Commentary: Now the 4300 block of Rugby Road, this part of Guilford was developed by the Roland Park Co. in the late 1920s. While the Plat 5 scene of the historic photo is largely unchanged to this day, it is now entirely hidden by the houses on Rugby Road and the trees that have grown up in the Stony Run valley over the course of a century. This new photo's only point of reference with the old photo is the Roland Water Tower, visible in the distance in both shots (to the left of the foreground chimney in the new picture).
Set 16
Mapped Scene: As this close-up of part of the 1911 Roland Park Co. map of Plat 5 shows, Keswick Road was not a through road to Cold Spring at this time. It ended at Somerset Road, the little section north of that being considered to be part of Northfield Place.
Scene: The photographer is standing on the road looking north toward the south-facing front of 308 Northfield Place. Immediately behind Northfield Place is the northern boundary of Plat 5, which separates this part of Roland Park from the Keswick neighborhood (which is not part of Roland Park-proper). Through the 1920s, northbound Keswick Road came to a dead end at Northfield Place, not connecting with Keswick Road north of Cold Spring Lane (which was called Cedar Avenue in Evergreen and Notre Dame Avenue in Plat 1, later Forest Road). In 1931, the city mandated that the Roland Park Co. extend Keswick Road north through the Keswick neighborhood so as to create a through road for emergency vehicles. The photo above is undated but tax records give a 1925 completion date for this house, which was designed by Mottu & White in 1922.
Commentary: The tree whose boughs dominate the top left of this frame precludes an exact matching of the historic photo's angle. Nevertheless, the new photo above shows well enough how 308 Northfield eventually turned out.
Set 17
Scene: Here is 308 Northfield Place again, the viewpoint being a few paces west of the that shown in set 16. After viewing the old photo in the set above on the first edition of this web site, Maine resident Anne Ritchie Mommers (née Muth) sent me this photo of 308 Northfield, her childhood home from 1947 to 1967.
Commentary: Originally covered with a fairly dark stucco, the house is now painted white and its lot has been substantially "de-treed," the latter an exercise apparently undertaken by the Muth girls' stepmother after they had grown up and moved away. The house itself, however, has changed very little over some nine decades.
Set 18
Mapped Scene: The house, 305 Northfield Place, appears on the 1922 city topographical map, meaning that it was one of the first to be built on Northfield.
Scene: Directly opposite 308 Northfield (see the set above) is the distinctly Homelandesque, north-facing 305 Northfield, seen here. The tax records date this house to 1925, but this is a little late. The house appears on both the 1922 city topographical map (left) and the 1915 Bromley map — one of only a handful of houses on Northfield at that point. Given the lack of trees in the scene, the photo must have been taken when Plat 5 was still quite new, perhaps the mid-1920s.
Commentary: Though Northfield Place is vastly more canopied than it once was, 305 Northfield itself has changed little. The beige or gray stucco has given way to white but, beyond that, the house appears identical. Now topped by a modern fixture, the once ornate street lamp on the left retains is original base.
Set 19
Back View: From this terrace at the back of the house, 305 Somerset commands a spectacular view of the Stony Run valley.
Scene: The photographer is looking southeast at 305 Somerset Road, one of the most distinctive buildings in Roland Park. Built on a multiple lots, in these early years, it was owned by Charles H. Dickey.
Commentary: Despite the passage of a century since the historic photo was taken, the exterior of 305 Somerset appears wholly unchanged.
Set 20
Mapped Scene: The exquisitely detailed 1911 Roland Park Co. map shows that nos. 305 and 307 Somerset Road were by 1911 bought and built. Many other lots, however, were still empty at this time.
Scene: The photographer is looking south at 307 Somerset Road, which is immediately next to 305 Somerset, the subject of the set above. Any garage, let alone a double garage, was highly unusual in Roland Park at this time.
Commentary: Like 305, next-door 307 Somerset —designed by the same architect as 305 — has entirely retained its historical appearance since 1912.
Set 21
Mapped Scene: In this section of the1915 Bromley map, Merryman Court is very apparent. There is no through road to Cold Spring Lane. Keswick Road changes its name to Northfield Place north of Somerset Road and turns right at Merryman. Beyond, the future Keswick neighborhood is still the Carter estate.
Scene: Here we are looking west at the newly constructed Merryman Court. Workmen's tools can be seen in the foreground on the right. Nowadays, Keswick Road cuts through this debris-strewn area but until 1931 it dead-ended here. This was a deliberate Roland Park Co. ploy: the company did not wish any future inhabitants of what is now the Keswick neighborhood to have easy access to Roland Park. At this time, 1912, the Keswick neighborhood had not yet been developed and the area was still the Allan L. Carter estate.
Commentary: The idea behind Merryman Court, where six houses surround a common "green," was to suggest an old English close, according to Roberta Moudry. This allowed Roland Park Co. President Edward H. Bouton to experiment with the notion of individual houses being a part of a larger theme, in this case a sort of tiny English village within the greater Roland Park develment. There is only one entrance to Merryman Court, the gateway shown here, which shielded the mini-development from the outside world.
Set 22
Period Plan: This Merryman Courtplan, from the Brickbuilder architectural journal, shows the six houses of the court and their common open area, "the green."
Scene: This photo, which is part of the same set as that shown in the preceding set, shows the two east-facing houses of the six in Merryman Court, backing onto Kittery Lane.
Commentary: Moudry cites Edward L. Palmer, Jr. as the designer of Merryman Court, while the contemporary Brickbuilder journal named Howard Sill. Sill was a protegé of the Wyatt & Nolting firm, which had designed such Roland Park mainstays as the first country club building and the Roland Avenue shopping center. Palmer initially worked for Hornblower & Marshall, which worked extensively with the Roland Park Co. on all five of its principal developments (Roland Park, Guilford, Homeland, Northwood and Dundalk). He went on to become the Roland Park Co.'s in-house architect. In 1917, he went into private practice.
Set 23
Scene Relic: Especially on Plat 5's Northfield Place, a number of Smyser-Royerlamp posts remain, though topped with modern light fixtures. This particular one is just east of the intersection of Somerset Road and Northfield.
Scene: A handsome Smyser-Royer lampost at Overhill and University. The above photo was sent tome by an Ardmore, Pennsylvania architect who, upon reading the first edition of this historical website, thought is might be suitable for inclusion —which it certainly was. The location is the intersection of Overhill Road (shown) and University Parkway (out of sight to the right). The photographer is looking northeast at the side of 830 W. University, a house built in about 1910. The source of the scan was an old Smyser-Royer catalog (date unknown). Smyser-Royer was a York, Pennsylvania maker or ornamental cast iron. The interesting sundial motif atop the sign/lamp pictured above was not a Roland Park-related design: it appeared on Smyser-Royer signs in other towns too. As Roland Park's premier sector, plat 5's signs and lamps were considerably more sophisticated than those in the other plats. The photo is undated but, given the lack of trees, it appears to be from the same era as the 1912 photos in the sets above.
Commentary: Though a few of Plat 5's Smyser-Royer lampposts are still in place (see in set at top), the magnificent specimen at Overhill and University no longer is. On the other hand, the house pictured, 830 W. University, appears little changed a century on.
Set 24
Scene: This house is at the northwest corner of Overhill and Keswick roads. Its pre-city-annexation address was 11 Overhill Road, though it is now numbered 400 Overhill.
Commentary: Apart from a change of address designation (the property is now 400 Overhill Road), the house has changed virtually none since 1928 —most gratifying.
Set 25
Scene: Another Smyser-Royer lamppost, this one at Keswick and Overhill. This photo was sent to me by a reader of the earlier version of this website. I do not know the photo's provenance. The horse-drawn cart in the distance, and the small size of the saplings along the sidewalk verge, lead me to believe that the photo is of the same vintage at the lamp-post shot two sets above. I speculate that both photos date to about 1912 and that, moreover, they probably both were once part of a series of similar photos taken around plat 5.
Commentary: This is the view eastward along Overhill from Keswick today. The enormous hedge on the right casts a very dark shadow, but the sidewalk is for the most part little changed. Sadly, there is no trace of the early 20th century lamppost. The house prominent in the vintage photo is the yellow-painted one visible in this modern shot, partially obscured by the brick colonial to the left.
Set 26
Scene: View of Linkwood Park from what will soon be the confluence of Overhill and Wickford roads. The sidewalk paving at the bottom right of the shot is that nowadays at the southeast corner of the intersection. The utility poles at the left of the image show the route of the Ma & Pa railroad. (Telegraph and, subsequently, telephone poles frequently followed track routes.) The sawmill at left was a temporary one erected for construction purposes. It stood somewhat north of the northern end of the current Linkwood Apartments parking lot. The shadowy building in the middle of the photo is the Tudor Arms apartment building. The large double-chimneyed houses to its right are 603 and 611 W. University Parkway. (There are no intervening house numbers.) The white streak running diagonally across the image toward the lower right corner is the westbound carriageway of the parkway itself.
Commentary: The photographer of this modern image is standing a little further north, and on higher ground, than was the photogrpaher of the vintage photo. The latter was situated slightly beyond the traffic island. However, standing there for this new shot produced only a view of bushes and a porch. This pulled-back view gives better perspective. The sidewalk between the car and the house is that visible at the right corner of the 1912 picture.
Set 27
Mapped Scene: As can be seen on this 1911 map, in the early days Somerset Road did not continue west to Roland Avenue, as it does today. Instead it right-angled south and came to a Y junction at Overhill Road. In the very early 1920s, the road was cut west to Roland Avenue and the short southward leg was renamed Somerset Place.
Scene: Looking west by northwest at 4204 Somerset Place, about 100 yards up the hill, just north of, the Overhill/Somerset Y junction. The house was built in the early 1910s. The photo is undated but, judging by the shape of the car left rear fender visible at the bottom left of the picture, about 1940 seems right.
Commentary: The house today (2011) is slightly less ivy covered than it was in the 1940s and the handsome property-demarcating hedge has gone. The vast holly bush visible at the left of this modern photo precludes matching the angle of the vintage image. Photographing the house from a more head-on angle, as here, reveals how little it has changed over the decades.
Plat 5 City and Beyond
Set 28
Mapped Scene: In this detail from a 1911 Roland Park Co. map of Plat 5, the trolley stop is clearly marked — as is the old city/country boundary, which passed just a few feet south of the shelter. This was the city line through New Year's Eve, 1918.
Scene: The photographer is looking southeast along the eastbound lane of University Parkway, near the old streetcar shelter opposite intersection with Overhill Road (visible on the far left). The streetcar tracks are plainly visible between the low privet hedges. Beyond Overhill (i.e., east of the shelter), the tracks are separated from University Parkway westbound by a wire fence as well as a privet hedge. Above the shelter (i.e., toward the photographer), a hedge alone suffices.
Commentary: This scene is still pleasingly recognizable. The median, bereft of its trolley tracks, is narrower but still verdant. The Overhill streetcar shelter is much the same, though its walls have been considerably lowered.
Set 29
Mapped Scene: The second trolley shelter on University Parkway is also shown on the 1911 Roland Park Co. Plat 5 map.
Scene: Looking west along the Keswick S-bend. From a point about a quarter of a mile southeast of his position in the previous photo, the photographer is now looking more or less west along the short S-bend that links the otherwise non-aligned sections of Keswick Road in Plat 5 City and Plat 5 County. Beyond the trolley "waiting station," short uprights are visible at the right boundry of the track right-of-way. These are the support posts for the wire fence that separated the tracks from the road along this hedgeless stretch of University Parkway.
Commentary: Though there are more trees about now than a century ago, this oddly shaped section of road is almost exactly the same as it was. It is of course now paved, unlike in the old photo. Though one cannot really tell it from either photo of this set, the sidewalk at left is still paved with the same salmon-colored bricks. The trolley shelter is now long gone; the foreground holly bush obscures its old site from view here. The house visible at the extreme left of the old photo is 803 E. University Parkway, though this, too, is obscured by trees in the new photo.
Set 30
Mapped Scene: The 1911 Roland Park Co. Plat 5 map shows 719 W. University as bought and built. The gap to its left is Kittery Lane, a pre-existing right of way that the Roland Park Co. had to work around.
Scene: This undated and anonymous photo shows 719 W. University Parkway being constructed. The tax records give this building's date as 1913, but this may be a little late, given that the 1911 map at right shows the house has having been built by 1911. Presumably, the house was at least under construction, if not completed, by that earlier date.
Commentary: The house, remarkably well preserved, is to this day one of University Parkway's signature buildings.
Set 31
Mapped Scene: The 1935 Matthews map clearly shows the RPCS campus and the path to University Parkway. Interestingly, though the map was printed in 1935, it still shows the old pre-1919 city/county boundary.
Scene: The Roland Park Country School's post-1916 campus. In 1916, the Roland Park Country School left its handsome home at 4806 Roland Avenue. The school moved to a new campus at 817 W. University Parkway, an address that was not really on University at all but, rather, on 40th Street. The lot had previously been the Grace A. Greenway estate.The only access from the parkway was via the footpath shown here. Vehicular traffic entered from 40th. The school was located behind the houses on the south side of University and the path made its way down to the parkway between 807 and 819 W. University. Here, the photographer is in the backyard of 819 (the rear of 819 is over the photographer's left shoulder), looking south by southeast at the school's northeast-facing main entrance. The campus was severely damaged by fire 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. The photo is undated, but the above-knee skirt on the student on the right is indicative perhaps of the late 1960s.
Commentary: After the 1976 fire and the school's move to 5204 Roland Avenue, the old RPCS campus buildings were torn down. In their place arose Roland Park Place, a continuing-care retirement community developed by Lutheran Hospital of Maryland, Inc. Construction began in 1982. There is absolutely no trace of the RPCS buildings today and the retirement facility has a bigger footprint on the land than had the school. The old school path to University Parkway is now just for emergency egress. Roland Park Place, sensibly, has its main entrance on 40th Street. Because of a tall hedge along the edge of the backyard of 819 W. University, it is not possible to replicate the historic photo at left. Suffice it to say that the steps upon which the dog is standing in this modern shot are almost certainly those at the extreme left of the historic shot.
Set 32
Scene: The photographer is more or less level with the more western of the two trolley stations on University Parkway (in other words, the station is to the left, out of the frame.) The photographer is looking along eastbound University Parkway at the innovative poured-concrete, five-house complex on the 800 block of the parkway. Built on Plat 5 lots 137, 138 and 139, these were the first poured-concrete houses in Baltimore.
Commentary: The concrete building, nos. 835-843 W. University, is just about exactly the same as it was a century ago, though in this photo it is large obscured by foliage. And there is still a fire hydrant in the same position. The big change, of course, is the presence above of the gray building on the right, 845 E. University, itself the end unit of a triplex (845-849 E. University). This latter was built, according to tax records, in 1915, four years after the Simmons photo was taken.
Set 33
Aerial View: Though overexposed, this 1938 ASCS aerial view shows the poured concrete multiplex on University Parkway well. Also visible are the Roland Park Country School at its post-1916 location on 40th Street, where Roland Park Place is now (2010). The Keswick Home for Incurables' old campus buildings can be seen too (Keswick Multi-Care, as it is now known, is at present housed in modern buildings on the same site).
Scene: In this scene, the photographer is on the northside of University Parkway, looking southwest toward the same concrete-house block as shown in the previous set. The streetcar tracks feature prominently in the foreground.
Commentary: Though the trees in front of 835-843 E.University are now sufficiently grown as to partially shield the building from view from the opposite side of the parkway, the scene is nevertheless instantly recognizable.
Set 34
Scene: The photo in the previous set was in all probability taken looking over the fence prominent in this photo, which shows the view from the front yard of 806 W. University Parkway. Here, the photographer has taken a few steps back and turned slightly to the right (west), giving us a view of the ornate gateway of this Georgian-style Plat 5 house.
Commentary: Rather surprisingly, given a century of tree growth, the concrete complex on the other side of University Parkway is more visible in this newer photo than in the old.
Set 35
Scene: This is the house to which belongs the gateway shown in the previous set, 806 W. University — a circa 1910 Georgian on the parkway. The photographer is standing in approximately the same place as in the previous set, but has turned to his right. This house was designed by Palmer, Willis & Lamdin, architects.
Commentary: Other than the fact that the shutters are cream colored now instead of black, this fine and stately house on the 800 block of W. University Parkway is not much changed.
Set 36
Mapped Scene: The 1911 Plat 5 map shows Centennial Park nicely (though it was not then called that), including the brick Kittery Lane footpath.
Scene: View across Centennial Park. This is the "preceding group" of houses mentioned in the historical caption of the previous set. The road at the right is Kittery Lane; its footpath extension across Centennial Park or The Dell is clearly shown. "Centennial Park" and "The Dell" are the names variously given to the green, landscaped area between east- and westbound carriageways of University Parkway.
Commentary: Nearly all the elements of the historic photo to the left are still in place — but all are now hidden by trees. The brick path that continues Kittery Lane across Centennial Park is still there — and paved with the same bricks too — but it is largely camouflaged in this autumnal modern shot. The stately Georgians that dominate the old photo are all present and correct behind the trees in this new picture. The lone sapling just to the right of center in the old photo has grown into the middle-distance tree immediately in front of and to the right of the bright red bush. Note the same distinctive split trunk. Likewise, in the old photo, toward the left are two white-barked trees growing from the same base, with a dark tree immediately this side of them. The dark tree has gone but the two light-barked trees are still alive and still growing from the same base. In the new photo, they are immediately to the left of the yellow rope with a broken swing dangling from the end.
Set 37
Scene: This is another of the Georgians on the northside of University Parkway, number 900. This shot is particularly interesting because it clearly shows that, as late as 1911, Plat 5 was still not complete.
Commentary: The fact that Plat 5 was far from complete in 1911 can hardly be missed in the old Simmons photo on the left. All alone in 1911, this W. University Parkway house is now surrounded by foliage and neighbors. Beyond that, it has changed little except that the hand rails on either side of the portico have been removed.
Set 38
Period Advertisement: Though mostly known as a development company and real-estate agency, during the Great Depression the Roland Park Co. also served as a rental propery broker, as many area residents let out rooms, apartments or their whole houses to help make ends meet. This advertisement for area rental properties appeared in the company's magazine in fall 1938.
Scene: This 1941 realtor's advertisement for 702 W. University Parkway is interesting on a number of fronts. The house is here being offered at $48,500 —seemingly a trivial sum but in fact worth about $730,000 in inflation-adjusted 2011 dollars (in otherwords, in the vicinity of what the house might fetch at the end of the first decade of the 21st century). Second, it is stated that the house is currently — i.e., in 1941 — divided into apartments. This was a legacy of the then recent Great Depression, during which many people, even in well-heeled Roland Park, were forced to divide up their houses or take in lodgers. The Roland Park Co. itself even got into the rental-agency business, as shown in the 1938 advertisement at left. (source: Gardens, Houses and People, November 1938).
Commentary: The house, a graceful Georgian, has long since been turned back in to a single-family home. Virtually unchanged in external appearance since 1941, and restored to single-family usage, it still stands watch over University Parkway. Nowadays, it is not permissible to divide Roland Park houses, though a few thus divided during the depression linger on as apartments. The Roland Park civic organizations encourage their return to single-family use.
Set 39
Mapped Scene: This map was made before Roland Park's development of Plat 5, though it did already own the land at this time. The Ma & Pa is here still the Baltimore & Leheigh. A large mill pond is still evident here; the Linkwood Apartments are now at this spot. Mrs. Quigley's house is a far cry from the Carlyle Apartment building that will one day occupy her spot. The Keswick retirement community on 40th Street is here still the Egenton Orphan Asylum, which later moved to New North Roland Park. Shaded gray, Wyman Park is, however, already Wyman Park.
Scene: The view is looking southward along Stony Run, which is flowing away from the photographer (on the left side of the shot). The photographer is standing under the University Parkway viaduct. Puffing toward the photographer is a Ma & Pa engine heading north. The green space on either side of the locomotive is Wyman Park.
Commentary: There is little to say. Other than the lack of tracks and the fact that the concrete streambed has deteriorated somewhat, the immediate scene is similar. In the background, the once sylvan west bank of the stream has been cleared and turned into playing fields.
Set 40
Aerial View: This 1938 ASCS photoshows the University Parkway viaduct and the Ma & Pa line running under it. The high-rise apartment buildings that now crowd this area are of course absent.
Scene: This photo, perhaps 10 to 20 years older than that shown in the set preceding, shows a derailment at the University Parkway viaduct. Here, the photographer is north of the bridge looking south. Derailments were fairly common, especially on down inclines, as here. (On down inclines, the tension between the cars is lost because of gravity.)
Commentary: The graffiti are new and the tracks and the utility pole have gone. But that's about it. There is no mistaking this scene, even decades later. The three protruding drain pipes are still in place.
Set 41
Scene: This is the same derailment as shown in the set above, though shot from the south side of the University Parkway viaduct looking northward.
Commentary: In December 2009, when this modern photo was taken, the city was in the middle of a massive stream-restoration project along this part of Stony Run (having undertaken the restoration of the upstream Plat 1 section in 2006).
Set 42
Scene: The photographer is peering over the north side of the University Parkway viaduct over Stony Run. This is not the same derailment as that shown in the two sets above, which occurred on the south side of the bridge. This photo came from the collection of longtime Evergreen resident John H. Pleier. Though Pleier took many photos of the Ma & Pa line, this photo otself does not seem to have been taken by him. Had he himself taken it, he would have known its exact date, and would therefore have been able to write in something more precise than the "1940-50s" window given on the back of the photo (in his writing). The diesel locomotive at the top right of the picture is engine no. 81, which was built in 1946. It was still in use when Emons Industries bought what little was left of the Ma & Pa in 1971.
Commentary: This photo was taken in March 2011, some 15 months after the modern shots in the two sets above, with little apparent headway having been made on the stream-restoration project. The viaduct itself, whose north façade may be seen here, is unchanged vis-à-vis the historic photo. The apartment building service road coming in from the top right of the picture is built on the old rail right-of-way.
Set 43
Mapped Scene: This map is a detail from a 1912 map made by the Roland Park Co. of its soon-to-be Guilford development. The map shows a vacant lot at the cathedral site. Even if ground had been broken in 1910 (see right), apparently serious building did not commence until 1912-13.
Scene: Looking west from the eastern edge of the "wedge" at the southernmost end of Guilford. The Episcopal Diocese bought 3.6 acres here in 1910, breaking ground that same year. The cathedral's foundation is in the middle distance, toward the right. The men in the foregound are construction workers standing in the pay line. The white building prominent at the left of the photo stood where the 1 University Parkway condomimium now is. The distant building immediately to its right, with two chimneys, is the back of the Carlton condominium at 3507 N. Charles Street. The church that is now immediately to the Carlton's north — currently the Bunting Meyerhoff Interfaith Center — has in this photo not yet been built.
Commentary: Located a 4 E. University Parkway, the Episcopal Cathedral of the Incarnation was eventually completed in 1947, the work of many architects. At the time, there were great uncertainties. Forty years earlier, in 1907, the then-bishop had pessimistically said that it might take from 100 to 200 years to get it built, according to the October 26, 1907 New York Times. As for the green expense in the foreground, the Roland Park Co. originally platted this for development, as shown in the 1912 map at left. Since then, generations of locals have been thankful that this plan never came to fruition. leaving the Guilford "wedge" as a park popular with dogs and residents alike.
Set 44
Aerial View: Aerial view of the Rotunda, then the home of the Maryland Casualty insurance firm, from an undated period advertising postcard. The intersection at the bottom left is that of Keswick Road (more or less verical) and 40th Street (approximately horizontal). Hampden is in the background.
Scene: The Rotunda on 40th Street. The Rotunda's corner stone was laid in 1920. The grounds — see aerial view at left — were designed by the Olmsteds, who had been so crucial in the designing of Roland Park plats 2 to 6.
Commentary: In this modern photo, the formerly H-shaped Rotunda looks just about identical to the way it looked in the old photo at left. However, this is only because the large, blue "lease" sign hides the fact that the spaces between the vertical struts of the H have been filled in by a supermarket (west side) and a movie theater (east side).