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 Interactive map of St. Paul Street−Light Street Calvert Street | |
| Owner | City of Baltimore |
|---|---|
| Location | Baltimore |
| Postal code | 21201, 21202, 21218 |
| North end | Charles Street (St. Paul St.) University Parkway (Calvert St.) |
| South end | E. Wells Street (as Light St.) Pratt Street (Calvert St.) |
St. Paul Street andCalvert Street are aone-way pair of streets inDowntown Baltimore and areas north. The streets, which are part ofMaryland Route 2, are two of Baltimore's best-known streets in the downtown area.
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St. Paul Street begins offCharles Street just south ofColdspring Lane nearLoyola College (now renamed Loyola University Maryland) From this point on, the street runs directly parallel to North Charles Street, exactly one block east of Charles Street. It carriesMaryland Route 139 in the southbound direction until intersecting North Avenue (formerly Boundary Avenue with northern city limits of 1818–1888) (U.S. Route 1), where MD 139 ends.
St. Paul Street is two ways until the intersection with 31st Street. Northbound traffic is relegated to a single northbound lane, separated by median, and with meteredparallel parking.
St. Paul Street is exit 4 off theJones Falls Expressway (I-83). Approaching the downtown area moving south between East Centre and Lexington Streets, St. Paul Street is split into two parallel, nearby streets, also being identified asSt. Paul Place in this area. The wider eastern thoroughfare was the former narrow alley-like Courtland Street, once flanked by rows of small brick and stone townhouses. While the more westward of the two sides of St. Paul Street/Place intersects with all east–west streets within these blocks, the eastward opposite wider side passes under the Orleans Street Viaduct (US 40). The area between the two St. Paul streets, landscaped into terraced gardens and parks with fountains are known asPreston Gardens, replaced a group of 1820s, 1830s and 1840s ofGeorgian,Federal andGreek Revival styled architecture townhouses which had supposedly become shabby by the early 20th century along narrow alley-like Courtland Street and the original parallel St. Paul Street. The district had become home to many African American / black professional offices of doctors, lawyers, and a number of schools, educational / cultural organizations and institutions plus several churches in those tightly packed blocks from the early 19th century of which many of the residences would be valuable architectural treasures now a century later. Unfortunately, the five square blocks north to south along St. Paul and Courtland were razed beginning in 1919 as the city's first "urban renewal" project and was laid out in aClassical Revival style architecture and landscaped the terraces, staircases and fountains by noted architectThomas Hastings (1860–1929). The remaining black and white historical photographs archived in the libraries and historical society are all that's left to show the appearance long ago of this picturesque residential neighborhood and its Baltimore style rowhouses architecture streetscape just on the northern edge ofDowntown, similar to others on the western and eastern sides.[1]
Preston Gardens landscaped terraces constructed on five square blocks north to south of razed / cleared townhouses and educational / cultural instructions along with several churches on the northern edge of downtown during the early 1920s, were named forJames H. Preston (1860–1938), who was the 37thMayor of the City ofBaltimore (served 1911–1919), and earlier as theSpeaker in 1894 of theMaryland House of Delegates (the lower chamber of theGeneral Assembly of Maryland) in the historicMaryland State House on State Circle of the state capital ofAnnapolis of which he served 1890–1894.
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As St. Paul Street is mostly one-way southbound, Calvert Street, which is directly east of St. Paul, is open to northbound traffic. North Calvert Street is a name of a portion of the street north of its intersection with East Baltimore Street. South Calvert Street is a name for the downtown portion running further south and alongside theInner Harbor waterfront to the east.
Calvert Street begins atPratt Street near theInner Harbor and continues through the downtown area and various north Baltimore neighborhoods before terminating in theGuilford neighborhood. of northern Baltimore.
At its railroad andJones Falls stream crossing near I-83, Calvert Street once had anarch-style steel/iron bridge with lions sculptures at each end, though not as interesting looking as the one on nearby Charles Street orHoward Street running parallel to the west. The present crossing on Calvert Street is ordinary-looking poured concrete construction.
After passingEast Baltimore Street, St. Paul Street changes its name toLight Street. Light Street becomes a large, two-way street with center divider after passing East Pratt Street (which runs along the north shore of theInner Harbor and municipal piers 1 to 6), the point where South Calvert Street begins for northbound traffic. Light Street continues throughFrancis Scott Key Highway (Key Highway), passing through theFederal Hill and old South Baltimore commercial district and tightly packed rowhouse neighborhoods and the Cross Street Market, one of Baltimore's six remainingpublic market halls, until its southern terminus at Wells Street, just east of parallel South Hanover Street (Maryland Route 2), above the north shore of the Middle Branch of thePatapsco River andBaltimore Harbor.The street ends by the newly plannedPort Covington redevelopment project on the site ofWar of 1812 Fort Covington, a supportingredoubt ofFort McHenry in theBattle of Baltimore, which became theWestern Maryland Railway Port Covington marine terminal.
Though quite short in length, Light Street is well known in the area, forming the western boundary of theInner Harbor tourist area. The formerly narrow cobble-stoned waterfront street clogged with horses and wagons and later early trucks was the site of the western shore piers for East Coast/Chesapeake Bay passenger steamboats such as theOld Bay Line and others in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Today, the Harborplace shopping pavilions (1980), the glass walled Baltimore Visitors Center (2010) are located here along with theMaryland Science Center, founded 1797 was relocated here on the Light Street waterfront in 1976, and the formerMcCormick & Company offices and manufacturing plant for spices. flavorings and seasonings between 1889 originally on East Pratt Street by the Jones Falls, moved and rebuilt 1922 in a large poured white painted concrete multi-story structure up to 1989 was located facing east on Light Street at East Conway Street, opposite the Inner Harbor (today the site of a shiny glass apartment / condo tower built 2018).
Light Street is named for Capt.Darby Lux I (1695–1750), an early sea captain / mariner, major merchant and civic leader in thecolonial era of themercantile history of Baltimore who had a house on the waterfront street.
39°19′4″N76°36′53.2″W / 39.31778°N 76.614778°W /39.31778; -76.614778