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Merchants' Exchange Building (Baltimore)

1810s establishments in Maryland1900s disestablishments in MarylandBenjamin Henry Latrobe buildings and structuresDemolished buildings and structures in BaltimoreFederal buildings in the United States
Government buildings in Baltimore
Merchants Exchange Building Baltimore Old Custom House
Merchants Exchange Building Baltimore Old Custom House

The Baltimore Exchange Building, also known as the first Baltimore Custom House, the Merchants' Exchange Building, and the Baltimore Government Building was a structure in Maryland, United States that housed an eclectic array of commercial enterprises and government offices during the 19th century. The Merchants' Exchange Building site was bounded by Water Street, Gay Street, and Lombard Street.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Merchants' Exchange Building (Baltimore) (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Merchants' Exchange Building (Baltimore)
Commerce Street, Baltimore Downtown

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Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 39.2886 ° E -76.6088 °
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Business and Government Historic District

Commerce Street
21203 Baltimore, Downtown
Maryland, United States
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Merchants Exchange Building Baltimore Old Custom House
Merchants Exchange Building Baltimore Old Custom House
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Chamber of Commerce Building (Baltimore, Maryland)
Chamber of Commerce Building (Baltimore, Maryland)

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. 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.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.

The Block, Baltimore
The Block, Baltimore

Baltimore's The Block is a stretch on the 400 block of East Baltimore Street in Baltimore, Maryland, containing several strip clubs, sex shops, and other adult entertainment merchants. During the 19th century, Baltimore was filled with brothels, and in the first half of the 20th century, it was famous for its burlesque houses. It was a noted starting point and stop-over for many noted burlesque dancers, including the likes of Blaze Starr. By the 1950s, the clubs became seedier, as burlesque was replaced by strip clubs and sex shops. The Block of that era is featured prominently in several films, notably Barry Levinson's Liberty Heights and Diner, as well as Steve Yeager's independent feature drama On The Block, with Howard Rollins.The decades to follow would bring a marked increase in general crime, sex work, and drug dealing, an unusual situation considering the location of Baltimore's Police Headquarters and Central Police District House at the east end of the block. It has been suggested that the police, whose headquarters are located right next to The Block, chose to contain the prostitution and drug dealing in that small section of Baltimore rather than combat it.The passing decades would see a shrinking of the area. Once several blocks long, stretching almost to Charles Street in the central part of downtown Baltimore, today The Block only stretches about two blocks long from South Street to Gay Street.Polock Johnny's sausage restaurant was a local landmark on the strip into the 1980s. In recent years, The Block has undergone a bit of a revival with the opening of Larry Flynt's Hustler Club, and its next-door neighbor Norma Jean's, an upscale urban strip club.A five alarm fire on December 6, 2010, heavily damaged four buildings, including the building that formerly housed the Gayety Theater. The fire was believed to be an act of arson.

Canton House
Canton House

Canton House is a historic office building located on the northeast corner of Water Street and South Street in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. It is a 4+1⁄2-story Colonial Revival-style building, with seven bays across the front façade of Water Street to the south and three bays across the side facing South Street to the west. The first story level is in marble and brick is laid in Flemish bond from the second story up. It has a sloped peaked roof with two dormer windows facing west to the side. The main entrance features two fluted Corinthian stone columns. It was constructed in 1923 as the headquarters of one of Baltimore's oldest, largest and most colorful businesses, The Canton Company, a business established in 1828 by Peter Cooper (1791-1883), noted engineer and industrialist most remembered for inventing and manufacturing the Tom Thumb steam locomotive for the recently established Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, the first passenger railway line in America in 1827 as it made its transition from using horse power to steam power to pull its railroad cars on the first segment of the line from Baltimore southwest to Ellicott Mills, Maryland on the upper Patapsco River from Helen Delich Bentley Port of Baltimore. Columbus O'Donnell, the son of John O'Donnell, a sea captain who brought in the first trade cargos from Canton, China to Baltimore and America in 1784, along with William Patterson (1752-1835), a noted city merchant, civic leader, co-founder of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and the father of the infamous Elizabeth ("Betsy") Patterson Bonaparte, the "Belle of Baltimore", who married Jerome Bonaparte on Christmas Eve, December 24, 1803, the younger brother of the French Emperor Napoleon I and the donater of land for nearby Patterson Park in 1827. The company was established to develop the industrial, commercial and residential potential of the large tract of land along the north shore of the Patapsco's Northwest Branch, east of the Inner Harbor (then called "The Basin") and southeast of old Baltimore Town and neighboring Fells Point, Baltimore The Canton House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.