Our Story

Make your story part of the history of Preston Hall.

Preston Hall is known for both its architectural and historic prominence in the heart of Baltimore’s Cultural District. We cordially invite you to add your story to the history of our beautiful location

”The five houses at 25-33 West Preston Street have long been an integral part of the Mid-Town-Belvedere community, a neighborhood historically known for its grand rowhouse architecture and currently undergoing a residential renaissance.

The earliest residents of these houses included the socially prominent General and Mrs. Henry M. Warfield, the uncle and aunt of the Duchess of Windsor. They resided at 31 West Preston Street. Their neighbor to the West was Sterrett McKim, whose family banking firm, McKim and Company (founded in 1808) was a significant factor in the economic development of Baltimore.

Built between 1891 and 1893, these houses form the eastern half of a terrace of ten houses. Their classical detailing is characteristic of Colonial Revival architecture, a style popular in the late 19th century. The four-story buildings are grouped in two's though the use of shared details, a device which deftly exaggerates the width of each house. Each of the three groupings is united at street level by a common stone entablature over the entrance porticos. Numbers 25 and 27, 33 and 35 have second-story Palladian windows whose side lights repeat in smaller scale the entranceway details. The remaining windows are rectangular with one-over-one lights, stone sills, splayed, stepped brick lintels and brick rustication.

A hipped, shingle roof running the length of the terrace unifies the houses. Roof dormers with tracery windows, pilasters, and gable roofs appear in groups of four, interrupted by minor gables with semi-circular windows accented by keystones and brick voussoirs.

Variation in brick color, from a light to a deep brown, further differentiates the houses.

The corner house, no. 25, boasts a wide, arched entrance way with detailing like the Preston Street entranceways. A third-story Palladian window with a bracketed stone balcony balances the side façade. [...]

The style and technique exhibited in these buildings indicate that they were designed by an architect. Research on the building made no indication as to whom it might have been. However, the manner of execution suggest that the houses could have been the work of J.B. Noel Wyatt and William Nolting, a major Baltimore architectural firm whose designs integrated 19th century ornamentation and 20th century simplicity.

This interplay of architectural attitudes is reflected in the Preston Street houses, which display elaborate ornamentation and yet manage to evoke a sense of restraint, a technique alien to late Victorian design.

Among the structures designed by Wyatt and Nolting in Baltimore are the Keyser Building (1905), the City's first skyscraper without a cornice, and the old Patterson Park High School (1933), an early exampl of International Style architecture. The Tudor-Style Roland Park Shopping Center (1896) and the Neo-Classical Baltimore Courthouse (10899) were also designed by Wyatt and Nolting.”

- From the Historical and Architectural Significance of 25 - 33 West Preston Street, prepared by the Commission for Historic and Architectural Preservation, May 1978, Baltimore, Maryland #21202