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Nearly 100 years ago during the Great Fire of Baltimore, the rampaging flames were fortuitously halted along South Charles Street, preserving an enclave of housing which is now known as Otterbein, home of Otterbein sugar cookies, a holiday treat enjoyed in many Baltimore households.
Otterbein residents can trace their neighborhoods origins to a tract of land that was subdivided around 1840. Small, modest houses were built and occupied by families working in the shipping trade along the bustling piers nestled on Light and Pratt Streets. The inner City was being rebuilt from the fire of 1904, and as Baltimore prospered once again, the nearby South Baltimore communities of Otterbein, Federal Hill, and Sharp-Leadenhall prospered in similar fashion. McCormick Spice Company enlarged their facilities, several fresh fruit and vegetable warehouses sprung up along Charles and Hanover Streets, new piers were constructed as far east as Little Italy, and Baltimore began to regain its predominance as one of the busiest port cities along the Atlantic Coast.
Waves of immigrants, lured by rumors of adventure and prosperity in the New World, poured into Baltimore from Italy, Greece, Germany, Poland, and Eastern Europe. Unable to afford the posh splendor of the "country homes" of Mt. Vernon and Homewood, this diverse mix of European and Mediterranean people was absorbed into the thriving little community of Otterbein.
However, as Baltimore lived through the change and turmoil of the Depression, two World Wars, the 50's and the 60's, time began to play its cruel trick on the Otterbein community. The two-story "summer kitchen" rear additions began to crumble and deteriorate, backyard horse stables became convenient trash receptacles ripe for condemnation and new interstate highway construction.
Perched precariously on the edge of destruction, Otterbein was, literally speaking, granted a new lease on life through the Urban Homesteading Program. In 1975 under the direction of Bob Embry and William Donald Shaefer, Housing Commissioner and Mayor respectively, an open house was held to determine the public receptiveness to rehabilitate the 110 dwelling units, conveniently located just two blocks from the redevelopment of the Inner Harbor.
he response was overwhelming; several thousand people toured the houses. Against all odds, but with full financial and moral support of the City, winners were randomly selected in a lottery held in August, 1975. Otterbein, America's largest one-dollar homesteading community was reborn.
The dollar houses are by now a fairly well known success story for Baltimore. The acclaim which our city has received is well deserved, for it took courage, imagination, technical support, and low-interest loans to make the idea into a living reality. But the real story is the sense of community which has rejuvenated these brick shells. The neighborhood storefronts have been preserved, Federal style simplicity has been authentically reproduced, and most importantly another chapter in the life of Otterbein has been written.
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