BNHA Locust Point Historic District

Snuggly located by Fort McHenry, the Locust Point neighborhood’s history reaches back to the 1840s, when the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad built a spur line from its Mount Clare facilities to the point. The railroad, and the close connection to the deepwater port, quickly attracted industry to the area, and both factory owners and local builders began erecting rows of two-story houses for the employees.

In 1868 an immigration pier opened at Locust Point. While Ellis Island in New York and Angel Island in California are the most noted historic immigration stations in America, Baltimore was also a busy disembarkation point for thousands seeking new opportunities and fortunes in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Today those immigrants’ stories are told at the Baltimore Immigration Museum. The museum location at 1308 Beason Street has a unique tie to the immigration story: from 1904 to 1914, immigrants who needed temporary housing before moving on to their final destinations used the building for shelter. A German church located in Locust Point built the structure, which is one of the last immigrant houses in Baltimore still standing.