Patterson Park is a neighborhood in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Named for the 137-acre park that abuts its north and east sides, the area is in the southeast section of Baltimore City, roughly two miles east of Baltimore’s downtown district. Patterson Park is traditionally centered on the intersection of Baltimore Street and Linwood Avenue; until the formation of the Patterson Park Neighborhood Association in 1986, it was referred to as the Baltimore-Linwood Neighborhood. Its original borders were Pratt Street to the south, Fayette Street to the north, Milton Street to the west, and Clinton Street to the east. Still, in 2011 the neighborhood association voted to expand northward to Orleans Street between Milton and Curley Street. Patterson Park is near Butchers Hill, Canton, Fells Point, Highlandtown, and McElderry Park.
Founding
Patterson Park homes were first developed between the mid-19th century and early 20th century to accommodate the swelling population of Baltimore City after the Civil War. William Patterson owned much of the land that now constitutes the Patterson Park neighborhood. In 1827, he donated five acres of land in what we now know as Patterson Park to the city for a public walk. His heirs were less interested in presenting the land that remained; and instead leased the land to speculative builders, who then raised rowhouses on it. The builders sold these homes at a profit, while the Patterson heirs collected ground rent on the leased land. Bed Bug Exterminator Baltimore
Affectionately known as “marble houses,” the typical Patterson Park rowhouse was built in Renaissance Revival, or Italianate, style. They have restrained flat roofs; flat, brown, or red brick façades; molded and galvanized sheet-metal exterior cornices, often stamped with neoclassical decoration and dressed up with ball finials; stained glass transoms; and marble steps and trim.
In the latter half of the 19th century, immigrant European laborers and free blacks like Frederick Douglass flocked to Baltimore, MD, seeking jobs in the waterfront factories, rail yards, and wharves. The architect-designed homes of Bolton Hill and Mount Vernon were beyond their reach. Still, speculative builders-built block upon block of narrow rowhouses on inexpensive land, including around Patterson Park.
Architectural details changed over time as the building and manufacturing processes advanced. For example, when plate glass became affordable in the late 1890s, builders replaced the tall, narrow Palladian first-floor windows with a single, wide plate glass window—some arched, some square. Three-story Victorians built circa 1900 to 1910 line the park’s border. Two-story rowhomes dating from the 1920s line quaint and narrow side streets, some still paved with brick. Interiors often feature pressed tin ceilings, hardwood floors, stained glass windows, and ornate moldings. Many houses still have original marble steps. By 1927, many immigrants were from Bohemia, thanks to the growth of the Czech population in nearby Little Bohemia.
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