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The large Coldstream-Homestead-Montebello community takes its name from three early nineteenth century estates. Predominantly residential in character, the neighborhood is generally composed of small and medium-sized row houses constructed during the first quarter of the twentieth century. A number of duplexes and early frame dwellings may still be found in the west-central portion of the community. Some commercial and industrial land use occurs along the Harford Road as well as along the community's southern border near the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad tracks. A large portion of the community is also devoted to educational use.
The history of settlement in this neighborhood began in the late seventeenth century when Quakers first settled in the area. The Patapsco Meeting of the Society of Friends bought a one acre tract from the "Darley Hall" estate of John Ensor on one of the highest knolls near the City. They established a , meetinghouse and cemetery on this property which is just northwest of the Intersection of today's Baltimore and Ohio Railroad tracks and Harford Road. This log building is considered the first religious structure built within the present City limits. Tradition says that local Indians assisted in its construction and worshipped there. The cemetery, its stone wall and caretaker's house are still in existence.
The earliest colonial tract encompassing this area was owned by Thomas Gorsuch, who purchased hundreds of acres in 1731 and for whom Gorsuch Avenue was named. In 1714 Thomas married lane Ensor by whom he had five children. After purchasing their tract in 1731 and erecting a sturdy L-shaped log house in 1736, they named it "Homestead." For over one hundred years this property remained in family hands.
In 1828 Robert Gorsuch, Jr., known as a "sportsman" and "gentleman of leisure," acquired almost all of the remaining 200 acres of the estate. In 1851 he formed a syndicate with the idea of turning the lands of "Homestead" into a real estate development.
During the early half of the nineteenth century, other large estates accounted for all the land in the surrounding area. These included John W. Garrett's "Montebello," Johns Hopkins' " CliftonPark," Horace Abbott's "Abbottston," and " ColdStream" owned by William Patterson. Most property in the present-day neighborhood came from "Cold Stream" and remained in the hands of the Patterson family throughout the entire nineteenth century. First use of the name "Cold Stream" may be traced to Mrs. Rebecca Dulaney, wife of Daniel Dulaney, who although an active American pre-Revolutionary leader, had lost his vast land holdings by remaining an English loyalist during the war.
Apparently William Patterson, his wife and thirteen children occupied the estate as tenants in residence for a few years before they bought it in 1805. Patterson was well-known during his lifetime as a Revolutionary soldier, one of Baltimore's earliest merchants, and a man of high public spirit who organized a number of important institutions. He came to Philadelphia from Protestant Ireland at the age of fourteen to begin mercantile pursuits. By 1775 he had invested all of his property in two ships to bring gunpowder and arms to the American war effort. During the American Revolution, he operated partly from the West Indies, eventually returning to Baltimore with a fortune in goods and gold. Half of this fortune, a portion which he felt he could afford to lose, he invested in real estate. He also began to participate in Baltimore business affairs. He was the first president of the Bank of Maryland in 1790. an organizer of the Merchants Exchange in 1815, and an incorporator of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in 1827 and the Canton Company,in 1828.
Although he was one of the wealthiest and most respected men of his time, William Patterson is more often remembered as the father who disapproved of his daughter's marriage to Jerome Bonapartein 1803. He is commemorated in the name of an avenue and in "PattersonPark" which he offered to the City as early as 1827. When William Patterson died in 1835 he was interred alongside other family members in the family cemetery, which still exists, and since 1925 has been a part of a 2 1/2 acre City Park on Fillmore Street.
Horace Abbott was a significant landholder in this area during the second half of the nineteenth century. His estate, which he called "Abbottston," was located in the area of the present site of City College. Abbott was the proprietor of vast ironworks on the Canton shore, the largest rolling mill south of Pittsburgh. Plate from his company went into the manufacture of the Monitor and other large ironclad ships of the Civil War.
In the early 1850s Robert Gorsuch, Jr., Edward B. Jackson, and other partners laid out streets, staked off lots. and began to sell them. The new development was advertised in Matchett's City Directory for 1853-54 as located between the Harford and York Turnpike Roads and about 1 3/4 miles from the Baltimore Courthouse. Selling features heavily advertised were commanding views of the Patapsco River and the Bay, and the land's proximity to the impressive surrounding estates. Other benefits were the 60-foot wide paved Gorsuch Avenue running the full length of the property, and the Protestant Episcopal Church and School House.
Some authors see Homestead as the first suburban tract to be subdivided into building lots and developed by a regular real estate company. Although historians criticize the lack of business expertise of Gorsuch and his partners, one of the main reasons that the project failed was the absence in its early history of railway communication with the City. After 1866 when a horsecar railway called the "Hall's Spring Line" provided such service along Harford Road, sales of property in the village revived. Small cottages and larger country residences were built throughout the development although at a relatively slow pace. Housing types varied from large suburban frame houses to small simple brickrows. This architectural variety makes the area unusual in Baltimore, where most neighborhoods were developed as solid row house neighborhoods or as suburbs with frame cottages of more or less uniform style. Because it was developed so early, this area today contains both types of housing next to each other. The Homestead development was never completed as originally intended. only in the twentieth century were the large estates to the north and south divided into lots and improved with modern row houses featuring large porches and front lawns.
Although Coldstream-Homestead-Montebello contains diverse housing types constructed during the second half of the nineteenth century and early twentieth century, most houses are of the daylight type built in the late 'Teens and 1920s, many by Frank Novak and by E. J. Gallagher. These two-story homes with large porches were designed so that daylight would reach all rooms. Both builders advertised the high and healthy location of the neighborhood as well as its proximity, to the Harford Avenue streetcars, City College, Clifton Park, and Lake Montebello. Other builders active in the area included the Potomac Development Company and Charles H. Steffey.
A number of landmarks exist in the neighborhood in addition to the Friends Cemetery on Harford Road and the Patterson family cemetery. These landmarks include a number of important remaining structures. The frame church now covered with siding in the 1600 block of Gorsuch Avenue was built in 1879 by the Mt. Lebanon Church congregation of Baltimore City. Their new independent Methodist Church was constructed on the site of the Old Homestead Protestant Episcopal Church. The best known structure in thearea is the " Collegiate Gothic"-City College, #408, constructed in 1926 with some initial difficulty because of the swampy site. The architectural team of Buckler and Fenhagen had been selected from numerous entries in a national design competition held in 1924. Considered to be Baltimore's most elaborate piece of architecture since the Courthouse, this new home for the third oldest high school in the country was also the most expensive undertaking by, the school system up until that time. Additions were made in 1957. Renovation was undertaken in the late 1970's, and female students are now admitted to the formerly, all-male school.
Besides these sites and buildings, The Alameda also lends historical significance to the neighborhood. This boulevard is a part of Baltimore's parkway system that evolved out of the Olmsted Brothers' park plan completed in 1904 for Baltimore City. This plan envisioned the creation of stream valley parks along the Gwynns Falls, Jones Falls, and Herring Run. Small parkways like The Alameda, 33rd Street, and the Gwynns Falls Parkway were to serve as connections between these linear parks.
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