Chamber of Commerce Building (Baltimore, Maryland) explained

Chamber of Commerce Building
Location:17 Commerce Street, (bounded on east by Custom House Avenue and on the south by Water Street), Baltimore, Maryland
Coordinates:39.2889°N -76.61°W
Architect:Cassell, Charles E. / (John Rudolph Niernsee)
Architecture:Renaissance Revival
Added:February 2, 1983
Area:less than one acre
Refnum:83002929
Mapframe:yes
Mapframe-Zoom:11
Designated Other1:BCL
Designated Other1 Abbr:BCL
Designated Other1 Date:1986

The Chamber of Commerce Building is a historic office building located at Baltimore, Maryland, United States. It is a Renaissance Revival-style of architecture with a brown glazed brick building five floors in height, eleven bays long on the west/east sides, facing Commerce Street on the west and Custom House Avenue to the east. Three bays wide (north/south) on the Water Street side, and rebuilt 1904–1905, using still standing walls / facades. It was built during the rebuilding of the old financial district in Downtown Baltimore following the Great Baltimore Fire of Sunday/Monday, February 7–8, 1904 (third worst conflagration to ever hit an American city) and features many terra cotta decorative elements. The rebuilt structure was designed by well-known Baltimore architect Charles E. Cassell.[1] The original pre-fire building was designed by locally famous and prominent architect John Rudolph Niernsee in 1880 and was used by the old Corn and Flour Exchange, which maintained a trading floor on the fifth level.[2]

It was later occupied during the 1990s by the Baltimore International Culinary College (later renamed the Baltimore International College) as one of their utilized buildings on an urban campus of nearby city blocks and later taken over by Stratford University, a for-profit educational institution. Currently it has been renovated to function as a Staybridge Suites - Baltimore Inner Harbor Hotel.

Chamber of Commerce Building was listed in 1983 on the National Register of Historic Places, maintained by the National Park Service of the U.S. Department of the Interior.

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: National Register of Historic Places Registration: Chamber of Commerce Building. March 1982. 2016-03-01 . Marc Schabb. Maryland Historical Trust.
  2. Book: Dorsey, John. Dilts, James D.. A Guide to Baltimore Architecture. Tidewater Publishes. Centreville, Maryland. 1981. Second. 84–85. 0-87033-272-4. registration.