BNHA Hollingsworth-Steele House

This fine Federal home at 931 Fell Street was built soon after the Revolutionary War by the Lowery Brothers and Robert Long for Jesse Hollingsworth. Hollingsworth served as naval agent for Maryland for the Continental Congress and then as state agent at Fell’s Point. He was responsible for purchasing, warehousing, and shipping such Maryland and Virginia products as tobacco and flour to the West Indies and France in exchange for war materials to support the rebellion against England. Hollingsworth and his brother Henry set up a logistics system between Fell’s Point and Elkton, located near the head of the Chesapeake Bay, to handle supplies for General Washington’s army of the north. Hollingsworth sold the house to John Steele, a shipbuilder, who moved here in 1796 from his former home at 909 Fell Street. The home was built as a freestanding structure and is one of Baltimore’s best remaining examples of Federal architecture. The house has survived with all its interior trim, doors, six original fireplaces, and finely carved balustrades and baseboards intact.

Note the fanlight over the front door, the Flemish bond brickwork, cedar roofing shingles, and brick jack arches above the windows. This beautiful house, meticulously restored over the course of many years, has been featured in many architectural publications and national magazines.

Site summary courtesy of the Preservation Society of Federal Hill and Fell’s Point