Old Goucher finds a place as business hub
Diverse neighborhood is exploring its possibilities
Two years ago when a couple who practice architecture bought a Maryland Avenue insurance building, they had no experience as landlords of a commercial property. Now, that space at 2209 Maryland Ave. is full of tenants. There was some room left and they added an attractive bookshop, which opened last week.
“It’s a well curated store, with books about design, cities and architecture,” said Megan Elcrat, the principal architect of her 33:Design firm. “I felt like we needed to put a shop on the street and not practice architecture as if we were removed, up on the 13th floor. We wanted our business to be interconnected with the community.”
She and her husband, Phillip Jones, an architect associate with the firm, paid $300,000 for the one-story former insurance agency structure, which was somethings of a relic, with shag carpeting, flamboyant restroom wallpaper and large private executive offices.
They added skylights and contemporarystyle shared work spaces for 25 persons. The building is nearly fully leased. Many of the workers here ride bikes to work. The couple invested another $200,000 over the real estate purchase price.
“It was an ugly duckling building,” said Elcrat. “But we found there was more space in it than was initially indicated.”
The building, built about 1961, was constructed for the Underwood Company, a typewriter business that was then offering data processing systems. It was next home to the Bendinger Brothers school uniform company, whose workers installed a basement conveyor belt system. It still works to move boxes from the basement.
The 2200 block of Maryland Avenue is a characteristic section of the Old Goucher neighborhood, a part of midtown Baltimore that is named for the college campus that was once located here until the early 1950s when the school moved to Towson. As Goucher College departed its old quarters — centered at St. Paul and 23rd Streets — fomer Latin and chemestry lecture halls housed in gray-stone academic buildings became business offices.
The neighborhood’s roomy, 1880s and 1890s buildings appealed to Baltimore advertising, engineering and architectural community. There was a business synergy when radio and television stations were nearby and if an ad executive needed to take a client to lunch, what better spot than the Chesapeake Restaurant at Charles and Lanvale?
Old Goucher evolved into one of Baltimore’s most diverse neighbors, celebrating its populations, lenient zoning uses. architecture and housing stock.
“Baltimore as a whole may be shrinking Architect Megan Elcrat is pictured in the Co_Lab architectural bookstore at 2209 Maryland Ave., which she and her husband, architect Phillip Jones, opened. in population,” said Kelly Cross, president of the Old Goucher community Association. “But we are growing here.”
He says that some of the neighborhood’s appeal is in its mix of office and residential, often on the same block.
“We also have 43 social service entities here,” said Cross. “Plenty of people are more than happy to be in this neighborhood. We are not going to be focused on pushing these services out. We are focusing on bringing more uses to Old Goucher and recognize there is always going to be tension in a city neighborhoods”
“Old Goucher has one of the largest transgender populations of color in the country,” he said.
The busy working habits have established a constituency. The Telesis Corp., working in conjunction with the city’s housing department, renovated and sold 27 formerly vacant houses in Old Goucher. Most were for single-family occupant; several had an extra rental flat.
“The next phase for Old Goucher is for us to diversify more,” said Cross. “We see a need for smaller, affordable housing in a setting of historic preservation. We want to attract more businesses here and we want more night life.”
Cross noted that while it can be hard to find a parking space in Old Goucher Monday to Friday, when it gets to be 3 p.m. the neighborhood starts to empty.
“We see an opportunity for night life — restaurants, bars and music venues — and would love to see it happen,” he said.