Queen Street Lot 23 (18BC52)

Queen Street Lot 23 (18BC52) is a complex of late 18th – early 19th-century brick rowhouses in the Fells Point district of downtown Baltimore. The site is situated at the intersection of Thames and S. Caroline Streets. The site sits on Lot 23 of Queen Street (now Block Street) on a plat of the city produced in 1773. In the early 19th century, five rowhouses fronting on the north side of Thames Street stood at the site. No other information is known at present.

The site was investigated archaeologically in 1984. The Bond Street Associates, owners of the property, funded a survey of the site. At the time, the extant structures were slated for development. In 1987, the Bond Street Associates declared bankruptcy. The property and buildings were never renovated or developed as proposed and no final report or documentation of the excavation was ever completed.

A very brief preliminary report was written, which describes findings at the site up until September 2nd of 1984. At that time work was ongoing. A grid was established oriented along Thames Street and three north-south backhoe trenches were opened and excavated. Profile drawings were made of each trench and photographs were taken. An intact seawall was exposed in one trench at a depth of about 1 m. Just north of the seawall, in an early 19th century level, a silver coffee urn, a tin or pewter platter, and numerous pieces of shoes and leather were encountered in the waterlogged matrix. Other artifacts included creamware and pearlware sherds, wine bottles, metal flatware, and clay pipes.

No other information on the site is documented at MHT. Today the site is the location of a large a mixed-use building. The impact of the construction of this building is not known, but likely destroyed any remaining elements of the site.

(Edited from the Maryland Historical Trust Synthesis Project)