Description

Photograph of the Athenaeum building located on the northwest corner of Saratoga and St. Paul Streets in Baltimore, Maryland. Designed by Robert Cary Long, Jr. (1810-1849) in the Italianate style, the building became home to the Mercantile Library Association (which rented space) and the Library Company of Baltimore and the Maryland Historical Society (both of which owned equal shares in the property) in 1848. When the Library Company was dissolved in 1852, the Society acquired full ownership of the building and of the Company's library collection. From 1918 to 1929, the building housed offices of the state's motor vehicle administration. It was razed in 1930 for a parking garage. Behind the building is the old Central Police Station, and behind that on the corner of Charles and Saratoga Streets is the Morris building tower, the location of the old Y.M.C.A. (Young Men’s Christian Association). In the right foreground is a sign identifying Thomas Gwilliam's sign painting and paperhanging business located at numbers 100-102 East Saratoga Street between 1901 and 1911. Strolling down the Saratoga Street sidewalk are two African American women dressed in long skirts and wearing bonnets. On the corner at St. Paul Street by the mailbox stand two well-dressed African American men, who appear to be talking. Walking east on Saratoga past them is an African American man wearing work clothes.

Record Contributed By

Enoch Pratt Free Library / State Library Resource Center

Record Harvested From

Digital Maryland