The Lord Baltimore Hotel is the last
surviving pre-war grand hotel of Baltimore. The Lord Baltimore Hotel Company
was incorporated in Maryland on March 31, 1927. On May 28, 1928 the first stone
was laid and the hotel opened on December 30, 1928, a 22 story, 120' X 150'
building on north-east corner of Hanover and Baltimore Streets in
downtown Baltimore,
located on the former site of the Caswell Hotel which opened in April 1905
following the Great Fire of 1904. Originally surrounded by the manufacturing,
wholesale, retail, legal and financial districts, the hotel was also near the
steamship piers and railroad stations and close to the theatrical district and
other important centers.
Lord Baltimore Hotel
Architects Drawing
William Lee Stoddart, New York
Rising over 300 feet
in height, with a frontage of 120 feet on Baltimore Street and 150 feet on
Hanover Street, the hotel occupies a site of 18,000 square feet and covers
almost an entire city block. With each floor containing 18,000 square feet, the
hotel has a total floor space of 330,000 square feet.
The Lord Baltimore Hotel designed by William Lee
Stoddard after three years of careful study in conference with the owner Mr.
Harry Busick. Stoddard was known at the time as the architect of The Georgian
Terrace in Atlanta, Georgia, the George Vanderbilt in Asheville, North Carolina
(now low income apartments), the Hotel Winthrop in Takoma, Washington (now low
income housing), the Francis Marion in Charleston, South Carolina, the
Poinsette in Greenville, South Carolina, the Charlotte Hotel, in Charlotte ,
North Carolina (no longer standing), the Patrick Henry in Roanoke, Virginia
(now upscale apartments), the Penn-Harris in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania (no
longer standing), and the Yorktown Hotel in York, Pennsylvania.
The hotel was built by the Consolidated Engineering
Company of Baltimore. While little known today they were well known in
Baltimore in the 1920s having built the North Avenue Sanitary Market, the
Baltimore War Memorial, the Maryland Casualty Office Building, many of the
Johns Hopkins University and Hospital buildings, the Welch Memorial Library,
the Hecht Company Department Store, the Warrington Apartments, and the
Apartment Building at 100 University Parkway, among other buildings.
The base of the hotel, from the street level to the former main dining
room, now the Versailles Room, is made of highly polished Crotch Island
granite. From the third floor to the seventeenth floor, the façade is made of
deep red native brick with trimmings of Benedict stone, manufactured at the
Benedict Stone Company's Baltimore plant. The main roof was designed so that it
could be readily converted into a roof-garden if desired, and is today the
location of the Sky Bar.
Laundry
The
laundry was located on the twentieth floor. Capable of washing more than
7 tons of laundry a day, the floor of the laundry was made of cork and lead so
that no vibrations from its operation were transferred to the rest of the
hotel.
Radio Room
A tower which rises
from the center of the hotel is covered with a copper covered mansard roof with
carved stone dormer windows. This five floor tower was devoted to the various
service departments of the hotel. On the first floor of the tower was a service
room which contained telephone switch boards, carpenters shop, and lockers for
the laundry employees. Above this was the fan room, for all of the fan
machinery. Above this was the elevator machines and motors. Above this was the
tank room which contained two 20,000 gallon tanks and above this in the mansard
roof was radio equipment. And atop the hotel was originally a vertical
revolving searchlight of 3,000,000 candlepower and was the airmail beacon for
Baltimore.
Main Lobby
One of the main entrances to the hotel is on
Hanover Street and upon entering you are greeted by the beautiful effect of a
spacious lobby. This lobby designed in the Italian Renaissance style, occupied
5,377 square feet, with a high coffered and richly decorated ceiling. The
floors of the main lobby were finished with Terrazzo marble, which consisted of
imported colored marble lined off in squares by leans of brass strips. All the
wood panel wainscoting in the lobby was of American walnut. The walls were
finished with imported marble of rose Tavernelle, with a base of imported
Italian Levanto marble. From the floor tower eight immense marble piers, each
with a beautifully carved Corinthian capital in gold. Hanging from the center
of the lobby ceiling is an elaborately cast bronze chandelier. This with other
bronze trimming such as numerous side lighting brackets, those decorating the
main offices, counter screens, elevators and revolving doors at the main
entrance, combined to make a sight of rare beauty.
Telephone Switchboard
To
the right, or Baltimore Street side of the lobby is a grand marble stairway,
which once led the main dining room, now known as the Versailles Room, and
private dining rooms. The stairway has a carved Tavernelle marble balustrade,
which continues as a railing between the lobby and the former main dining room
foyer. The main marble stairway also leads down to the Baltimore Street
entrance. Another marble stairway which leads from the lobby to the mezzanine
floor is also directly off the elevator lobby. Directly across from the lobby and at the extreme rear were the
general offices, a space now devoted to the LB Tavern. To the left is a bank of
five high speed gearless traction passenger elevators which originally ran at a
rate of 600 feet per minute to the top of the hotel. In addition to these
elevators, the hotel has three geared traction service elevators, and also had two
dumbwaiters, and a lift with an 1,800-pound capacity for automobiles and
other heavy pieces, capable to moving items to the convention hall for events,
all provided by the Atlantic Elevator Company of Philadelphia.
Also to the left of the
lobby was the grill, known as Ye English Room. This room, now office space and reception, to the rear of the
main lobby was decorated in the 16th century English manner with a plastered
ornamental ceiling, reproduced from a 16th century English original, and
quartered sawn white oak paneled walls, from top of base to ceiling. The floor
was of Terrazzo marble, composed of chipped imported marble lined off in
alternating squares of gold and black and Botticino marble. The steel casement
windows were glazed with stained glass designed to receive the shields, the Lord Baltimore crest, and many other coats of arms. A total of 350 guests
could be assembled in the room at one time.
Also on this entrance level were numerous shops, entrance to them either being
through the arcade of the hotel or directly from the street. Also on this floor
were the porter's desk, cigar, newspaper, and flower stands, public telephone
booths, public stenographers, etc.
Fountain Room
The
basement level was accessible from the main lobby grand marble stairway, the
elevators, or by the Baltimore Street entrance. The wall treatment of the
basement was wainscoting of blue and black mat glazed tile, with a Terrazzo
floor. To the left of the Baltimore Street entrance on this level was a large
barbershop operated by Terminal Barbershops, one of the best equipped in the
United States at that time, a space now occupied by the LB Bakery. To the right
of the Baltimore Street entrance on this level was a coffee shop and oyster bar
seating sixty-one customers, with revolving high-back chairs and high table
counters and a long counter laid out in the Greek Key fashion, now the
International Room. The floor of the coffee shop was finished with varicolored
Spartan tile. There were also public telephone and washing rooms located on
this floor.
Continuing down the main marble stairway, there was a rather unusually finished
Cafeteria foyer, which could be reached by way of a separate Baltimore Street
entrance. Here an elevated vault arch treatment was used, from which sprung
forth four ornamental decorative pier capitals. Below the arches, the walls
were finished with imitation Travertine, and the floor imported Terrazzo. This
cafeteria with a 60 foot cafeteria counter had the capacity to serve over 3,000
persons daily.
Main Dining Room
May 1929
The main dining room,
today known as the Versailles Room, is a well lighted space, in the Italian
Renaissance style. It has a high and elaborately decorated beam ceiling, the
beams made of channel iron, metal lath, and plaster. A series of large windows
overlooking Baltimore Street makes it a warm, sun lit room of great
attractiveness. Originally at one end of the room and standing out in bold
relief was an artistic fountain. It consisted of a figure of a youth holding a
fish, modeled and cast in the studios of T. Milton Oler, from which water
flowed upon which played special electric lighting effects. The background of a
high arched mirrored niche design reflected the spirit and life of the
fountain. All the wood panel wainscoting was of American walnut. Crystal
chandeliers and shaded lamps completed the room.
The mezzanine floor overlooks the lobby and was
originally amply provided with an abundance of lounging spaces, 15 to 20 private
dining rooms with selected grain walnut floors, a library, ladies' and men's
rooms, and a beauty parlor in the modern French style. This floor, originally
of selected grain walnut, extends around all four sides of the lobby and is
finished with a bronze railing. The parlor and lobby were decorated in the
style of Louis XVI, with floors of gray marble tile with Belgium block inserts.
The walls were of Botticino and marble was used in the columns, the ceiling
finished in ornamental plaster decorated in creams and gold. Special telephone
booths were also installed here for the ladies.
Calvert Banquet Hall
The entire second floor, today known as the Ballroom Level, is given over to an immense convention and banquet hall, and the Calvert Ballroom, in the style of the Italian Renaissance. It was fitted with three large crystal chandeliers, and numerous side lights to augment the large number of imposing windows with arch tops. This space when built was second to size to only the Fifth Regiment Armory and could accommodate 1,250 banqueters at tables, and more than double that when used as an auditorium. The floor, like the Mezzanine, was originally of selected grain walnut. Soundproof movable partitions along the sides were installed so that many private dining and social rooms could be formed in which meetings could be held simultaneously without interruption. A balcony, with a rail embodying the crest of Lord Baltimore, runs around three sides of the room providing additional seating for 300 people. The ceiling was made of Macoustic plaster, an innovation designed to make the acoustics of the hall perfect., and was finished with a highly decorated design in water colors in keeping with the rest of the space. This floor is accessible from the street by three stairways and five elevators. Adjoining the convention hall foyer are a coat room and the men's and ladies lounging and toilet rooms.
Clerk's Desk on Each Floor
Typical Bedroom
(most likely a corner room)
Beginning on the
third and extending to the sixteenth floor were originally 700 guest rooms and
suites, the third floor now being given over to hotel offices and additional
meeting rooms with some additional meeting rooms on the fourth floor.
Originally designed in colonial and other periods, each bedroom had a private
bath, something not always common in the 1920s. Each floor also has its own
independent floor clerk, all of which were women, with a desk of selected grain
walnut facing the elevator foyer in full view of the corridors, elevator and
stairways. She would greet each guest and hand them their room keys, any mail
or telegrams, and was trained to answer any questions about the hotel or
Baltimore in general. She also served as a form of security for the guests, as
no one could enter the floor without being observed by her. Each room featured
a small night bedside table which held the telephone, but also acted as the
rooms radio receiver. Inside a drawer in this table was a headset, permanently
attached with a cord, long enough for the guest to listen comfortably to one of
two radio programs which were available, the selection made by a switch on top
of the receiver box in the drawer. Corner rooms in the hotel had radios of
Gothic design with loudspeakers as they would not interfere with other rooms
with the noise. The radio equipment was provided by Western Electric. The rooms
were provided with china dresser trays and match holders made by the Onondaga
Pottery Company, later known as Syracuse China, and distributed by H.P.
Chandlee Sons Company of Baltimore. With 700 rooms, the initial order consisted
of 1,440 pieces and consisted of an ivory ground, with a coin gold edge line
and the hotel crest in gold.
Guest Room of a Suite
Dining Room En Suite
The seventeenth floor
was devoted entirely to salesmen and offered rooms off sufficient size to be
used as sample rooms. The beds in these rooms were Holmes Concealed Beds on
rollers, and the bed and dresser could be placed into a cupboard, so that the
entire room could be used as display space. If more space was needed, two or
more rooms could be combined into one. The doors on this floor were also wider
that the other guest rooms so that large trunks and other display cases could
be taken in and out of the rooms. And they featured exceedingly large closets
so that they could be used for the storage of samples while the room is
converted into a luxurious living room. A large service elevator ran directly
from the service entrance at street level to this floor.
The kitchens of the hotel were located between the
dining room and the banquet hall, so that it would be possible to feed down to
one and up to the other by electric dumbwaiters. Additional service kitchens
were located off the main dining room, grill, coffee shop, cafeteria, and
banquet hall. The automatic dishwasher in the hotel had a capacity to wash
10,040 pieces an hour and the bakery could make 2,500 loaves of bread and
15,000 rolls a day.
Known for its culinary delights, a few of the recipes from the Lord
Baltimore Hotel have been preserved for posterity. In 1932 recipes for Oyster
Fritters, Crab Cakes Baltimore, Lobster Maryland Style, Rabbit Pie Maryland
Style , and Chicken Maryland were published in "Eat, Drink And Be Merry in Maryland," which
had been provided to the author by Mr. W.L.
Jackson, Managing Director of the Lord Baltimore Hotel.
Lord Baltimore Service Plate
Both the banquet hall
and the main dining room used a service plate which were rare masterpieces of
ceramic art. The background was in "old ivory" tones with a border of
coin gold. In the center was a reproduction of the celebrated Meyer painting of
"The Landing of Lord Baltimore and His Colony, March 25, 1634." As
there were twenty different colors to be reproduced, each one being laid and
fired at a separate time, it was necessary for the plate to go through many
processes. Around the edge are three medallions in color, one a reproduction of
oil painting portraying Baron George Calvert, the First Lord Baltimore. To the
left of this are the crest of Baron George Calvert, and to the right the crest
of the State of Maryland. Onondaga Pottery Company, later known as Syracuse
China, which had for years produced high-grade porcelain and china, considered
this service plate for the Lord Baltimore Hotel the ultimate in ceramics. The
hotel ordered 2,400 of these service plates for its opening. The rest of the
china used in these rooms, also supplied by H.P. Chandlee Sons Company of
Baltimore, complimented the other pieces used, and was the pink
"Shanghee" pattern. The initial order for the hotel opening for this
pattern was 29,832 pieces.
The cafeteria and coffee shop used a more modern style
of decoration, a most attractive fruit design of bright hues, decorated
entirely by hand. Known by the manufacturer as "Fruit Moderne," the
original order required 7,806 pieces of china for the hotel opening.
The glassware of the hotel, made by the Sensca Glass
Company of Morgantown, West Virginia, had the Lord Baltimore crest etched into
each footed piece which had amber bases to conform with other tableware, such
as goblets. Silver plate for the hotel was the Sussex pattern provided by the International Silver
Company.
In the summer of 1927, James H. Chambers of the H.
Chambers & Company of Baltimore was selected to go forth to the markets of
the world to select the furnishings for the hotel. After several trips to
Europe and cross the United States, purchased were made from the leading firms
to decorate the hotel. Among other firms providing furnishings for the hotel
were Campbell Residential Type Windows made in Baltimore, tile and marble work
by the Columbia Mosaic & Tile Company, site preparation by the venerable
and still extant Potts & Callahan of Baltimore, sheet work, metal work and
waterproofing by W.A. Fingles Inc. of Baltimore, refrigerators by Ottenheimer
Brother Inc. of Baltimore, pain by J. Harlan Williams Inc. of Baltimore,
interior woodwork by Oettinger Lumber Company of Greensboro, North Carolina,
plaster work and scagliola by John H. Hampshire Inc., room artwork by the
White-Seldenman Company of Baltimore, laundry equipment by the Troy Laundry
Machinery Company, plumbing heating and ventilation by the Lloyd E. Mitchell
Company Inc. of Baltimore, electrical equipment by the Blumenthal-Kahn Electric
Company of Baltimore, guest room paneling by the Milton W. Bosley Company of
Baltimore, tables for the dining room, convention and banquet hall, and grill
by the Reischmann Company of New York, furniture by the Sligh Furniture Company
of Grand Rapids, Michigan, lighting fixtures by the Black & Boyd
Manufacturing Company of New York, ornamental iron work by the Herzog Iron Works
of St. Paul, Minnesota, sand and gravel by the Arundel Corporation of
Baltimore, chairs by the Michigan Chair Company of Grand Rapids, Michigan,
carpets by Messrs. A. & M. Karagheusian Inc. of Freehold New Jersey,
Turkish towel woven with the Lord Baltimore crest by John E. Hurst Company of
Baltimore, Irish linens by The Brookfield Linen Company of Ireland, pique
bedspreads woven with the name and crest of the hotel by the Stevens Mills of
Fall River, Massachusetts, among many other suppliers of materials and services
to the hotel.
The true scale of what was needed to build the hotel
is epic. To transport all the materials and furnishings for the hotel it would
have required nearly 3,000 railroad cars. 5,200,000 pounds of steel were used
in the framework of the hotel, as well as an additional 400 tons of reinforced
steel. If all the piping in the hotel were joined, it would be 42 miles long,
the distance from Baltimore to Washington. Fifteen railcar loads or ornamental
metalwork and ten railcar loads or hollow metalwork were used. Ten railcar
loads of fine walnut and quarter oak were used in the doors, wall trimmings and
wainscoting. Ten railcar loads of millwork were used in the hotel. 10,000
square feet of gypsum partitions were needed. 200,000 linear feet of paneling
were used. 600,000 square feet of terra cotta was used. 7,000 tons of concrete
were used as well as 200 tons of lime. Eight railcar loads of marble chip
terrazzo were used. 40,000 linear feet of bronze strip were used. 150 miles of
electric wire and cable were used. If a one-inch paint brush were used for the
purpose, the paint required throughout the hotel would make a center road line
from Boston to San Francisco with paint remaining for addition mileage. The
hotel required 90,000 man work days to complete.
Built in a little over seven months, the Lord Baltimore Hotel was, and
remains today, one of the architectural masterpieces of Baltimore. Over the
years it has changed not only ownership, but with the times, to continue its
tradition of hospitality.
