Center Market Space - The Fish Market Building
| Center Market Space - The Fish Market Building | |
|---|---|
| |
| Site Information | |
| Address | 35 Market Pl |
| Geo-reference | 39°17′21″N 76°36′23″W / 39.28904°N 76.60628°W |
| Building Data | |
| Building Type | Commercial |
| Design | |
| Architect | Theodore Wells Pietsch |
| Architecture Firm | Simonson & Pietsch |
| Construction | |
| Completed | 1907 |
After the Great Baltimore Fire of 1904 decimated 140 acres of the urban fabric, the city commissioned architects Simonson & Pietsch to prepare plans for the Center Market Space, a wholesale market for household consumers as well as institutional buyers. The facilities included a Wholesale Fish Market Building (which survives today as part of the Port Discovery Children’s Museum), a Wholesale Produce Market Building (where the parking garage at 45 Market Place is today), and a Retail Market Building with the Maryland Institute Night School above (site of the entrance into the Baltimore Metro). Designed in the style of the Neoclassical Revival, they had symmetrical front facades, continuous cornices, and classically-framed doorways, topped with pediments. The fireproof features of these buildings were tin roofs, granite foundations, and steel frames. The exteriors were made of brick with Indiana limestone trim. The city opened the new Center Market Space in 1907, having been designed and completed in less than two years.
This is the Fish Market Building today. It was converted into the Port Discovery Children's Museum in 1998.
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The building was featured in Recent Works of Simonson & Pietsch, published in 1906 (Enoch Pratt Free Library Archives).
Two other buildings (the Produce Market and the Retail Market and Night School) that made up the Center Market Space, but have since been torn down, were also featured in Recent Works of Simonson & Pietsch, published in 1906 (Enoch Pratt Free Library Archives).
