YMCA-Cathedral Hill Historic District - Baltimore MD - NRHP Historic Districts - Contributing Buildings on Waymarking.com

National Register of Historic Places Inventory Nomination Form

The Cathedral Hill Historic District is a concentration of commercial, religious, and institutional buildings covering approximately 10 blocks in downtown Baltimore that are linked historically and architecturally. Its general boundaries are Hamilton Street on the north, St. Paul Place on the east, Saratoga Street on the south, and Cathedral Street and Park Avenue on the west.

The buildings are mostly commercial in use, with the exception of four large churches, dominated by the Catholic Basilica of the Assumption or "the Cathedral," and several large institutional buildings, most of which have been converted to commercial use.

The District originally was mostly rowhouses, which began to be converted to combined residential and commercial use about the middle of the 19th century. By the time of the Baltimore Fire of 1904, the District was mostly commercial and the rowhouses had been largely altered by the addition of plate glass display windows and projecting bays. The Fire caused massive relocations of businesses and shops into the District with increasing remodeling of existing buildings and construction of new buildings.

The second building type which distinguishes the Cathedral Hill District is the social or fraternal organization building. The most important architectural examples of this type are the 1867 Masonic Temple at 221-229 North Charles Street, a Classical Revival building given a Renaissance Revival roofline by several alterations; the Renaissance Revival Old YMCA Building of 1873 at 300 North Charles Street, and the Romanesque Revival Odd Fellows Hall of 1891 at 300 Cathedral Street.

In addition to these, the Old YMCA Central Building at 24 West Franklin Street and the YWCA Building at 128 West Franklin Street represent the Beaux-Arts Classicism of the early 20th century. Two of the organizations, the Masons and the YWCA, still occupy their original buildings, further supporting the active nature of the building type in the Cathedral Hill District.


YMCA 24 W. Franklin Street (Young Men’s Christian Association)
(Now Hotel Indigo)

The YMCA had two consecutive buildings in the District. The 1873 building at 300 North Charles Street became an office building after the construction of the new YMCA Building in 1907 at 24-30 West Franklin Street. The later building was adapted for hotel use in 1982.

The Old YMCA Central Building at 24 West Franklin Street and the YWCA Building at 128 West Franklin Street represent the Beaux-Arts Classicism of the early 20th century.

Partly in response to the elegance and quality of these buildings and the prestigious residential neighborhood which grew around them, fraternal orders and social organizations erected large, well-designed headquarters buildings in the Cathedral Hill District. These included the Masonic order in 1867, the YMCA in 1873, and a second YMCA building in 1907, the International Order of Odd Fellows in 1891, and the YWCA in 1915.

Name of Historic District (as listed on the NRHP): Cathedral Hill Historic District Link to nationalregisterofhistoricplaces.com page with the Historic District: [Web Link] Address: 24-30 W. Franklin Street, Baltimore MD 21201 How did you determine the building to be a contributing structure?: Narrative found on the internet (Link provided below) Optional link to narrative or database: [Web Link] NRHP Historic District Waymark (Optional): Not listed

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