The Albert Smith House at 701 Frederick Road

Jim and I have been knee deep in reconstruction for the last five months, but this time not in our own home.  Along with Greg and Julia Alexander, we have undertaken to give the building at 701 Frederick Road a facelift.

We knew that the Albert Smith House at the southwest corner of Bloomsbury Avenue and Frederick Road is one of the oldest buildings in Catonsville, but we wondered just how old.  Because we had found conflicting dates, we called in a building expert from the Maryland Historic Trust. We also invited Joan Bannon, a descendent of Albert Smith to walk through the house and tell us stories.

Thomas Rinehart of the Maryland Historic Trust was able to provide us with a title history of the building.  Several of us, including members of the Catonsville Historical Society, followed Rinehart for two hours as he dug into the bones of our building to determine its construction history.  Here’s what he found and some of the evidence he used to arrive at his conclusions:

The building was built between 1825 and 1830.  The bark-covered logs, which were used as beams, were hand adzed to make them level on the top and bottom and hand notched for the floor joists.  Fortunately, John McCabe, owner of The House of Time, has asked us to leave these beautiful beams exposed. 

The floor boards were cut with straight rather than circular saw marks indicating hand cutting.  Finally, in the attic, Rinehart found the definitive evidence of an early 19^th century date:  hand-riven lath boards.

In the 1870s, as Frederick Road became more of a commercial center, the Smith family made the decision to convert the front room of their home to a storefront.  This radical alteration required not only that the building front be changed to include bay windows but also that the staircase be moved. 

Newer construction techniques from this period are seen in circular saw cut logs and wire cut nails.  The Smith family added gas lighting at this time.  Other Victorian features are seen in the moldings and fireplace mantles.  Two one-story additions were added:  one commercial space to the west on Frederick Road and one to the south for more living space for the family.  The third floor dormer with the stained glass window was added as well.

This 1870s façade is the look that our 2011 renovation is based on.  We liked it because it still featured a stone front wall and also retained the integrity of the house and the west addition as two separate buildings.

The second major renovation occurred around 1910, when the Smith family created about 300 additional square feet of commercial space by demolishing the stone front and side walls and adding a mercantile façade.  (Fortunately, many pieces of stone from the original walls were used as fill and we have resurrected them to use in the new front and side walls.)

At this time, the fireplace and chimney were removed from the front room and wooden display cases were built into the east side of the front room.  Steel beams and posts were used to support the enlarged space.  Electricity was brought into the building in the form of knob and tube wiring, and a second story was added to the back residential addition which included the first indoor bathroom.

Several decorative changes were made in the 1930-40s.  Along with two other storefronts to the west on Frederick Road, which still have their Art Deco facade, Smith added a curved Deco façade to his building.  The curved wooden arch over the back door was probably added at this time as well.

In 1975, when Louis Gambino owned the building, a fourth renovation added a one story block addition to the south of the commercial building and a first floor bathroom.  Two apartments were created in back on the first and second floors

The exterior German clapboard was covered with asbestos siding.  Gambino also redid the front of the building with a brick base and squared windows and replaced the wooden porch rails with the current wrought iron.

Finally, the Himel and Alexander renovation in 2011 dismantled the 1975 storefront and recreated the 1870s look.  Many other projects strengthened and modernized the building.  When House of Time and Slow Burn open for business in June, it will be the first time in the building’s 180 year history that 701 Frederick Road will be a completely commercial building.

We hope that everyone enjoys and comes to visit our gift to Catonsville of a piece of its past.