Friday, June 18, 2010

Brick Row


In 1892 The Big Fire sweep thru Delmar burning most of it to the ground. Among the houses burnt were tenement houses on what was than called Front street. After the fire Mitchell H. German, owner of the M. H. German & Co. Brickyard, built on that land what is today called Brick Row. The Rowhouses faced on Front Street, which became RailRoad Avenue and later it would be called South Pennsylvania Ave.

Brick Row has had a series of owners. In 1915 Mitchell German defaulted on the mortgage he had with Walter Miller and Brick row was sold at public auction to Arthur Williams, his heirs in 1937 sold it to Lee Mason, whose heirs sold it to Sue Payne in 1955. In 1979 it was owned by Norman and linda Buroker who sold it to Samuel and Darlene Lombardo in 1981, who flipped it to Terry Sell in 1981, who sold it to GNI,LLC in 1999.

The upkeep of the property aside, Brick Row standing on the Maryland side of Delmar is one of the most distinctive structures in Delmar. It is of a late 1890's style and it is amazing so much of it is still intact. It is a two-story brick rowhouse that has seven units in the structure. Each paired units share an entrance bay and are separated by a narrow passageway between units. There is a front decorative turned post porch with scrollwork. Above each second floor window is a metal vent that provides air circulation to the attic. Along the top of the rowhouse is decorative brick corbelling with pyramidal topped metal finials.

Attached to to Brick Row is a smaller series of rowhouse units dating from the second quarter of the twentieth century.

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