BGE-N-1410 – North Avenue Market between Maryland and Charles streets on the northeast corner of North Ave. at Maryland, December 10, 1928.

Built by private developers on the site of Confederate General Bradley T. Johnson’s former residence, North Avenue Market was billed as “Baltimore’s largest enclosed sanitary market” when it opened in 1928. Thronged by nearly 50,000 visitors on its opening day, the market’s twelve retail shops and 22-lane bowling alley were soon joined by more than two hundred grocery vendors. In spite of this early success, North Avenue Market was hit hard by both the Great Depression and the end of World War II, both of which led to declines in its customer base. After being struck by a six-alarm fire in August 1968, much of the market’s core was left vacant and abandoned.

(Take photo from the median in the middle of North Ave. at Maryland Ave., looking northeast.)