The Classic Building-Loft Historic District North - Baltimore MD - NRHP Historic Districts - Contributing Buildings on Waymarking.com

National Register of Historic Places Inventory Nomination Form

The Loft Historic District North area is architecturally significant for its excellent, massive, brick vertical manufactories which date from 1870-1915 and represent the finest collection of large Victorian, Romanesque and early modern industrial design in Baltimore. They are the works of important local architects including George Frederick, Parker & Thomas, Charles L. Carson and Charles Cassell. The buildings are noteworthy as local adaptations of industrial designs in other American cities by such noteworthy nationally important architects as H. H. Richardson. Many have fine architectural features such as cast iron storefronts that are among the best examples of this building element in Baltimore City.

Historically, this area housed some of Baltimore's leading industrial firms, especially clothing manufacturers. At the turn of the century, Baltimore was a national leader in the manufacture of ready-to-wear clothes with the major industry in the metropolitan district being clothing. The city was also a leader in the country in both the amount and factory value of the production of straw hats. The district takes in some of the most notable firms of the late nineteenth century Baltimore industry including E. Rosenfeld & Company, Hamburger Brothers, Brigham Hopkins Company, Strauss Brothers and M. S. Levy & Sons.

The district is also associated with the important people who owned and ran these companies. These individuals were among Baltimore's business, civic and social leaders that helped guide the City's development in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

The Classic Building-401 W. Redwood Street at corner of 10-14 South Eutaw Street-Photo 25-Inventory Control Number B-1089

Page 6 Nomination Form-The Classic Building at 10-14 South Eutaw Street, (401 W. Redwood Street) the southeast corner of Eutaw and Redwood Streets, adjoins the Keidel Building . It is seven stories high, five bays wide and seven bays deep. Above a glass and wood store front area, brick pilasters ending in flat Ionic capitals support a thin molding and stone cornice. Segmentally arched one over one windows and arched windows on the seventh floor punctuate the building walls.

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TEXT on sign erected on building at 401 West Redwood Street by the Mayor City of Baltimore:


The Classic Building

Originally built for Henry Sonneborn & Company in 1895 and designed by the noted architect Charles E. Cassell, this structure housed some of the leading wholesale clothing manufactures in Baltimore in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The building stands on the former site of the famous Concordia Opera House and annex which was a center of German culture among the upper classes in Baltimore during the late 19th century.

Architecturally, the building features subtle, yet elegant details which include iron lintels adorned with iron rosettes, a metal cornice embellished with egg and dart molding and rolled stone modillions, and pilasters capped with Ionic capitals which clearly mark the structure bays of the building. This structure serves as a fine example of one of Baltimore’s earliest commercial loft buildings.

In the early 1900’s Henry Sonneborn & Company, one of the largest clothing manufacturers in the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, moved from this building to their new headquarters at the northwest corner of South Paca and West Pratt Streets. Around 1908, the L. Greif & Brother Company, founded in 1862 as manufacturers of men’s suits and overcoats, occupied the building and remained for nearly two decades. In the mid 1920’s the Strouse-Baer Company, producers of middy blouses for women and children under the “Jack Tar Togs” label, moved to this structure for more spacious quarters. Since the late 1930’s the building has had various occupants, one of which was the Classic Uniform Company in the 1950’s, which gave the building its present name.

Kenilworth Equities, LTD, Sponsor
William Donald Schaefer, Mayor

Name of Historic District (as listed on the NRHP): Loft Historic District North Link to nationalregisterofhistoricplaces.com page with the Historic District: [Web Link] Address: 401 W. Redwood 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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Date Logged Log User Rating   08/28/2021 Don.Morfe visited it