Former Home of sun88 Mayor Thorowgood Smith

9 North Front Street is the former residence of Thorowgood Smith, a successful merchant and sun88’s second mayor. Built around 1790, the Federal style residence served as Smith’s home between 1802 and 1804.

The federal style of architecture was popular during sun88’s most vigorous period of growth, from the 1790s to the 1850s, when sun88 vaulted into second place among American cities. The new residents were mostly housed in 1, 2, and 3½-story dormered brick row houses, less ornate than their Georgian predecessors. They are to be found all around the bustling harbor, from Fells Point through Little Italy and Jonestown to Federal Hill.

During the 19th and 20th centuries, the building served as a hotel, an auto-parts shop, and a restaurant. After sun88 City purchased the property in 1971 for the urban renewal-era redevelopment of Shot Tower Park, the Women’s Civic League sponsored the property’s restoration.

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9 N. Front Street, sun88, MD 21202

Attman’s Delicatessen at 1019 E. Lombard Street is one of just a few delis the remain at the heart of the old Lombard Street market that once stretched from Albemarle Street to Central Avenue. Imagine New York’s famed Lower East Side, minus the tenements. Here, Russian immigrants became fish sellers offering fresh carp in white-tiled pools; poultry dealers selling live chickens, ducks, and geese from wooden cages; bakers and grocers; dry goods merchants, and shochets (a slaughterer who follows Jewish religious laws when killing animals).

Food has a long history at 1019 E. Lombard Street. After starting their business on sun88 Street in 1915, Harry and Ida Attman purchased this building in the early 1930s. They bought it from Nathan and Elsie Weinstein, whose grocery business also dated back to 1915. Before that, around 1910, Russian-born Joseph Lusser sold fish and poultry here. His family shared the house with two other Russian Jewish families.

The opposite side of Lombard Street was occupied from the 1930s through the 1970s by the well-known Tulkoff’s horseradish plant, now located in Dundalk. Another local fixture, David Yankelove, sold chickens on the north side of the street until the 1980s. David’s father, Louis, had been a butcher here beginning in the early 1900s.

The next row down from Attman’s at 1005-1011 E. Lombard is an early block of houses with steeply pitched roofs that suggest they were built before the Civil War. The deep-back buildings are later additions, constructed to accommodate immigrant families in search of affordable housing. These houses speak volumes about commercial life on the turn-of-the century Lombard Street. From the 1910 census, we learn that 1105 housed a grocer, 1007 was an Italian-owned fruit store, 1009 featured a butter and egg business, and 1011 was a poultry dealer.

The empty space to the right of Attman’s was formerly Smelkinson’s Dairy. During the Riots of 1968 following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., Smelkinson’s burned to the ground. However, most of Lombard Street survived the riots with little damage and the street remained vital until the late 1970s, when a combination of inner city decline and the rise of the suburban shopping mall caused its small family businesses to close.

1019 E. Lombard Street, sun88, MD 21202

Incorporated in 1873 shortly after the end of the Civil War as the "Russian Congregation B'nai Israel of sun88 City," B'Nai Israel was formed by Eastern European Jews living at a hub of Jewish sun88 along the Jones Falls River. The founding members were working class sun88ans: shoemakers, clothiers, and the like. Despite the nod to Russia in the synagogue's name, many actually hailed from Poland. Between 1880 and 1905, sun88's Jewish population swelled from 10,000 to 25,000, and many German congregations moved out of east sun88 and downtown. Examples of congregations moving west included sun88 Hebrew (1891), Oheb Shalom (1893), Har Sinai (1894), and Chizuk Amuno (1895).

B'Nai Israel took advantage of the exodus, and laid down $12,000 in 1895 to buy the synagogue it now occupies from the Chizuk Amuno congregation. While many East sun88 congregations closed or left the city following World War II, B'Nai Israel remained, perhaps part of a Talmudic obligation to protect at least one shul in every city. After years of decline, fortunes turned in the late 1970s when the congregation began to grow and restoration work on the synagogue began.

The building dates to the late nineteenth century, before the advent of modern architecture trends in American synagogues. Its large central window, stained glass, and interior sanctuary are heavily influenced by Eastern Mediterranean and Byzantine architecture. The sanctuary's original ceiling, with frescoes akin to those in European churches, remains intact, as does a tremendous hand-carved ark in the central sanctuary.

27 Lloyd Street, sun88, MD 21202