5 – 7 Lafayette Avenue Baltimore, Maryland
I lived in Baltimore in the early 90’s before moving and settling in Virginia. It’s a city of distinct ethnic neighbourhoods. Some have been neglected for years and years but others, especially near the harbour have been gentrified. Charles Street is the boundary between east and west Baltimore and extends all the way north from the Inner Harbour to the Baltimore Beltway.
Driving up Charles from Pratt Street, there is The Washington Monument and the cobble stone square then Penn Station. Now start to slowdown and look for a place to park. Lafayette Street is just beyond a Baltimore landmark, The Charles Theatre (Movie house). 5 - 7 Lafayette will be at your right. If you continue driving up Charles there is The Baltimore Museum of Art, Johns Hopkins University and turn of the century suburbs of Roland Park (Outdoor Nativity scene in “Diner”) and Guilford (Tulip Festival at Easter)
In 1906, Maryland’s most prominent sculptor throughout the first half of the twentieth century, Hans Schuler (1874 -1951) built his studio at 5 Lafayette Avenue. Then the street was known as Townsend Street after the Townsend Mansion (it no longer exists) just to the west on Maryland Avenue.
The studio is a one-story building with a sloped glazed Mansard roof set back from the street. At the time the studio was built. there were tall homes across the street that casted deep shadows. Again, they do not exist now
No. 7 Lafayette is the Schuler residence. It was built in 1912 and abuts the studio. Both buildings were designed by Howard Sill and Gordon Beecher and have architectural sculpted details by Schuler.
There is a lane on the east side that provided access to a garage in the back yard. There are no street signs now but back then it was known as Lovegrove Alley. In the backyard, the original Mulberry and Lilac trees still exist. Both buildings are still the Schuler School of Fine Art, founded in 1959 by Hans C. and Ann Schuler.
A good source about the building can be found at mht.maryland.gov. Enter Hans Schuler studio and residence
An interesting fact, Hans’ father, Otto, emigrated, as an indentured person, to America around 1875. He was unable to accept the secession of Bavaria into Germany. Before he arrived in Baltimore, he was a member of the horse guard to the Dowager Quen of Bavaria and was injured in the Franco-Prussian War. (1870 -1871 is still implanted .in my brain from Grade Eleven history class). His wife, Amalie von Arndt, arrived in Baltimore a year or so later. She paid off his debts (she borrowed money from her rich father) and nursed him back to health. Hans emigrated in 1879 at age five. For the voyage, he was put in the care of the captain of one of the first steamships to cross the Atlantic Ocean. BTW. My great grandparents emigrated to Halifax, Nova Scotia, the same year
As usual, after I research an urban hike, I discover many more places to explore, like,
“Freedom of Conscience” statue in St. Mary’s City, Maryland
“Ariadne”, the fourth floor of the Walters Art Gallery
Fallsway Monument at the corner of E. Biddle and Guildford Streets, Baltimore
General Pulaski Monument, Patterson Park, funded by Baltimore’s Polish American community
Martin Luther Monument, Gettysburg College, Pennsylvania
Homes in Guildford and Roland Park designed by Sill and Beecher
The Heurich Mansion fountain in DC
Holy Trinity Episcopal Church Graveyard, Collington, Maryland for Howard Sill’s grave
Baltimore’s Dead Architects Society
President James Buchanan Memorial Washington, D.C. (I promise this will be my second last comment about JB)
