A historic building in Baltimore was recently demolished without a permit, a report by WJZ 13 says. The city issued a stop work notice Feb. 24 but the building in west Baltimore was still razed.
The former St. Vincent Infant Asylum was built between 1860 and 1910. The report says it originally housed Catholic nuns who provided housing and medical services to women and children. It was then converted into affordable housing units called Carver Hall Apartments. The property has been vacant since 2003 and had a fire in 2015 that required more than 100 firefighters to extinguish.
The property owner, New York City-based 1411 Division Street LLC was given the stop work order after it was unable to get a permit. The report says the 32,400-square-foot property was valued at $696,533 in July 2017.
While some residents reacted positively to the demolition, the report says Carver Hall Apartments has an entry on the Baltimore Heritage website outlining its history and the reasons its considered an important landmark. The website says the building was an “important landmark reflecting Baltimore’s legacy of philanthropy, nationally significant Catholic history and the history of African-American housing during the mid-20th century.”