Writer’s Row Federal Townhouse (Hamilton Street)

Intended for a sophisticated clientele is this early example of multi-unit row houses, designed by celebrated local architect, Robert Cary Long Sr. With staid neoclassical detailing and a piano nobile plan elevating the principal rooms over a low ground-floor entrance level, the row houses at 12-18 West Hamilton Street appear almost modern-day. Built of Flemish-bond brick with contrasting white marble details, they encompass five stories, including a basement kitchen and finished attic. Of note are the tripartite windows, entrances with sidelights separated by jambs capped with molding to resemble slender unassuming Doric columns, and, emblematic of Baltimore’s early row houses, a single dormer lighting the attic story. Long resided in one of the units himself. [Society of Architectural Historians]

One of old-Baltimore’s bastions of intelligentsia, the Hamilton Street Club (for men) is located at number 14 W. Hamilton.  The writers and journalists of the legendary Hamilton Street Club included John Dos Passos and Ogden Nash, and their presence there burnished the street with the legend “Writer’s Row.”

Join the homeowner for a brief history of the row and a tour of the house and garden. 

Hamilton Residence: 12 W Hamilton Street