2500 Eutaw Place: A Story of Spite and Abandonment
2March 6, 2013 by Baltimore Slumlord Watch
Many thanks to Reader LR for playing tour guide and snooping around with me!
2500 Eutaw Place
Property Address: 2500 Eutaw Place, Baltimore, MD 21217
Property Owner: Twenty Five Hundred Associates, 2312 W North Avenue, Baltimore, MD 21216
It’s worth noting that no such company is registered with the state. Their address traces back to another company that is not registered in Maryland, 2310 West North Avenue Holding Company. In the city’s tax database, 2310-2312 is combined as one address, yet looking at Google Street View, 2310 appears to be a vacant house.
City Council District and Contact: District 7, Nick Mosby
State Senator: Catherine Pugh
State Delegates: Barbara Robinson, Shawn Tarrant, Frank Conaway, Jr.
Ornate ironwork is but only one of the lovely features of this home.
This home has a fascinating history. Originally built in 1895 by Captain Isaac Emerson, of Bromo Seltzer fame, the home was lived in by Captain Emerson and his family until 1911 — at which time, he divorced his wife. Two months later, he remarried and built the Emersonian, a large apartment building that could possibly be the “mother of all spite houses“, as it blocked his ex-wife’s view of Druid Lake. He and his new wife lived in the top floors of the building so that he could always look down on his ex-wife.
The Emersonian apartment building, 2500 Eutaw is visible on the left, to the right of the Emersonian is the view of Druid Lake.
The home was eventually used for offices — by the state’s Juvenile Services Division, a private businessmen’s club (The Mercantile Club), and real estate companies. In 1994, the property was auctioned off by one William S. Braverman, a real estate investor (no relation to Michael Braverman, Deputy Commissioner of Baltimore Housing) and sold to another real estate investor — James Crockett, whose sign remains on the front of the building today, despite having closed his office in this location.
Crockett Realty Company sign
The building was also used as the offices of the African American Firefighters’ Historical Society.
Unfortunately, this lovely home is falling into disrepair. There are broken windows, some of the ceilings (acoustical ceiling tiles, no less) are falling down, and the original copper trim is being stripped away, presumably by thieves.
Broken window in the rear of 2500 Eutaw Place
O, Irony!
I <3 this house. It's so lovely and so sad. And it's a great story. Thanks for that!
You’re welcome — I love our old historic homes…it’s always such a shame when they start to fall apart.