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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
Enoch Pratt House, 201 West Monument Street
image info
Architects:Around the time of the 1844 founding of the Maryland Historical Society, the house which would become its second home was begun on the southwest corner of Monument Street and Park Avenue in Baltimore. Enoch Pratt (1808-1896), a prosperous hardware merchant, and his wife moved into it in late 1847 or early 1848. Originally, it was a three-story brick house with basement; in 1868, architect Edmund G. Lind added a fourth floor, probably in order to keep the Pratts in step with the "Mansard" trend in Victorian architecture. The marble portico had been commissioned in 1836 by the Clerk of the United States House of Representatives for a mansion he was building on H Street, N.W. in Washington D.C., but when financial reverses made it impossible for him to take delivery, Mr. Pratt took it off the designers' hands and attached it to his Monument Street residence.
1847 Unknown
1868 Edmond G. Lind
1916 Wyatt and NoltingAfter Mr. Pratt's death, the house remained his widow's home until her death in 1911. When her heirs placed it on the market, it was purchased by Mary Ann [Washington] Keyser (1841-1931), a near neighbor and a friend of the Maryland Historical Society, who was anxious both to assist the Society with a new home and preserve the memory of Enoch Pratt, founder of Baltimore's public library system. Under her auspices, the "back buildings" and a portion of the mansion's gardens were replaced by an addition designed to house the Society's collections (which opened in 1919). The Society has owned and occupied both the original house and the Keyser addition since that time, making further additions in 1965, 1985 and 1998.
Image information
left: Maryland Historical Society - Buildings - Pratt House [ca. 1926], (MdHS Subject Vertical File Photograph Collection).
right: Photo by John Orrick, 2000.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"