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Baltimore Architecture: Then and Now St. Joseph's Catholic Church & the Washington House Firehouse 200 West Barre Street, Located between S. Hanover and Howard Streets. image info Architects: 1858 Murray and Hazelhurst Building The block of West Barre Street between South Hanover and South Howard Streets must have been a particularly interesting one in its time, as it included the St. Joseph's [R.C.] Church, whose cornerstone was laid in 1839, on its northwest corner and the Washington House Company's firehouse of 1843 (visible in the left photo) on its south side. The firehouse, which was taken over by the city when firefighting was municipalized in 1859, was for years the home of Engine Company Number 2. The enormous gray shed blocking the end of the street is in fact a portion of the trainsheds of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad's Camden Station, which occupied the whole west side of Howard Street from Camden Street south beginning in the 1850's. The railroad was the major neighborhood employer, but it was a voracious neighbor: when the B & O decided to expand in the decade of World War I, nothing--not a new house of worship which the parishioners of St. Joseph's had built further east in the block in 1901 and not even the historic firehouse--was permitted to remain. By 1922, the block had been knocked flat and its buildings replaced by railroad structures. It was perhaps only poetic justice that the expansion proved to be more than the railroad really required: by 1950 most of the buildings on it were vacant, and in the early 1960's the railroad sold the land it had taken a half-century earlier to the city of Baltimore, which ran the north end of Interstate 395 across the western half of it. The eastern half, including what is shown here, was sold to the Federal Reserve System, which used it as the site for its Baltimore branch, opening at this location in 1980. Image information: left: St. Joseph's R.C. Church.(CC3009, MdHS/BCLM Photograph Collection). center: The Washington Hose Company Engine House No. 2. right: The Federal Reserve. Photos courtesy of John Orrick, 2002. Previous Next 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"

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