MHT File Photo
1, Chase St., E. & Charles St., Baltimore, Baltimore City
The Belvedere was originally a hotel built in the grand style of the French Beaux Arts. The exterior is of an unusual brownish-pink color brick with quoins and other embellishments of terra cotta and iron formed in careful simulation of stonework. The 188’-high building has a 2-story high rusticated base with a cornice at the third floor level, a main body of embellished brickwork, terminating with a massive cornice at the eleventh floor, and a 35’-high slate-covered mansard roof. In plan the building is a shallow "U" shape, opening to the south and views of the downtown and inner harbor areas. The building is slightly asymmetrical, with the west wing (Charles Street side) being 15’ broader than the east wing. The main entrance is in the center of the north (Chase Street) side, and the center section of the north elevation is recessed four feet from the flanking wings. At the first floor, the "U" shape is completed to form a rectangle. Two passenger elevators are located at the west side of the lobby and two service elevators and one additional passenger elevator are on the east side. Overall, the building is 185’ east-to-west (across the "U"), by 100’ north-to-south.
Constructed in 1903, the Belvedere Hotel is a notable representation of the architectural creativity of the Boston firm of Parker & Thomas (later Parker, Thomas and Rice), which shaped a great deal of the Baltimore City skyline during the first 20 years of this century. Not only is the structure characteristic of the style which drew so many young architects to L’Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris in the late 1800s, but the handsomeness of its configuration is exemplary of the mannerisms peculiar to that age.