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Maryland Historical Society
Library of Maryland History
201 W. Monument Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
Phone: 410-685-3750
Fax: 410-385-2105
E-mail: library@mdhs.org

Baltimore Architecture:
Then and Now

The Pembroke Apartments, 847 Park Avenue
image info

Although there is visual evidence that this building existed as early as 1873, knowledge of its occupants goes back only as far as 1885 when mention was made in the Baltimore Directory (1885-1890) as the business premises of Matthews and Berry, upholsterers. The next occupant (from 1891 through 1909) was James E. Evans, advertised as "a practical house, sign and fresco painter." The Baltimore Blue Book, however, listed the names of fashionable people who also occupied the building during the same period. The City Directory (1915-1923) listed the address as "The Pembroke Apartments".

There is no record of commercial use of the site until the 1930s, when the area was in decline. In 1928,  Richmond Street was renamed Read Street and the address became #138 Read Street. During World War II it housed the offices of a contractor, Frank Bennett, and later "Harris' Diner." The western part of the building on the ground floor also housed "Tidy Laundry" during the same period. From 1958 to 1961 a women's clothing store named "Shane's Park Avenue Shop" was there, and then "Betty's Laundromat." In 2000 it was still occupied by a laundromat.

Image information
left: View from the steeple of First Presbyterian Church, Madison and Park Avenue, ca. 1873 (CC3009, MdHS/BCLM Photograph Collection).
right: Photo by John Orrick, 2000.

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Baltimore Architecture - Homepage
 

Site Contents
1  Masonic Building
2  Enoch Pratt House
3  Graham-Hughes House
4  American Brewery
5  Belvedere Hotel
6  Camden Station
7  Alex Brown Building
8  Williams-Small House
9  Timanus Mill
10  The Pembroke Apartments
11  Merchant's Exchange
12  Old B and O Building
13  Denny & Mitchell Building
14  Guardian Trust Building
15  Old Post Office Building
16  St. Joseph's R.C. Church & Washington Firehouse
17  The Maryland Casualty Building
18  Church of the Redeemer Building
19  The Popplein Family Mansion/Marlborough Apartments
20  Samuel Hoffman, later the Dr. William Osler Mansion
21  Cohen Brothers, later the Dr. Robinson Building
22  Saint Peter's Catholic Church 1770
23  The Baltimore Humane Impartial Society Building
24  Baltimore and Susquehanna Railroad Calvert Station
25  The Richmond Market Building Site
26  Dr. Charles Howard's Site and Mount Vernon Place M.E. Church
27  The Stephen Broadbent Mansion "The Glen Mary"