4107 Walrad Street Profile

4107 Walrad Street after renovation. Single family home in Baltimore City painted yellow and blue with a red door.
4107 Walrad Street after renovation. Photos from MLR Development Corporation.

4107 Walrad Street

Thanks to a strong commitment to historic preservation by local developer Michael Rock, a long neglected 1893 gem in Irvington has been restored. A young couple has a gorgeous “new” home in a convenient Baltimore city neighborhood. The stunning transformation of 4107 Walrad Street earned Michael and his MLR Development Corporation a 2018 Baltimore Heritage Award.

4107 Walrad Street before renovation. The house has boarded up doors and windows and white siding.
4107 Walrad Street before renovation

MLR purchased the property for $8,000 in 2014 at a One House At A Time auction. The buyer was not deterred by the missing doors and windows, collapsed porch, and water-filled basement. “It was a perfectly fine old house,” he said. “Baltimore’s 19th century architecture is an asset unique to only a few large cities in the east. In my opinion, much of Baltimore’s future lies in preserving more of it.”

4107 Walrad Street before renovation. Peeling paint and debris on wood staircase.
4107 Walrad Street interior before renovation

According to Michael, much of the interior was in good shape, as only a couple of families had owned the property over the years. However, the project was not without its challenges. Removing the partially collapsed porch and replacing it was “tricky,” he said. He studied photos in order to restore it to its original size and shape. There was so much water coming into the basement from underground streams that the developer had to build a “complicated interior drainage system” inside. “We definitely went to extra expense on that,” he explained.

"Baltimore has everything, if you just look."

MLR reclaimed the original siding and kept as much as possible. It is regular clapboard with a clamshell design. Where rotten boards had to be replaced, for example, around some of the windows, Michael had them made at a local shop to match the existing southern pine boards. Thomas Brown, Woodwright, also replicated one of the gingerbread details on the roof. The owner of this unique machine shop in Baltimore’s Remington neighborhood orders special wood from Fiji and works on historically significant buildings not just in Baltimore, but in Washington, DC, as well. “Baltimore has everything, if you just look,” said Michael.

Another challenge at 4107 Walrad was the very deep lot that backed up to an alley, but the alley had never been deeded to the city so it was essentially abandoned. “We had to fence it off because it had become a pedestrian thruway,” said Michael, who sold the property for $189,900 in 2017.

4107 Walrad Street interior after renovation. White painted walls with hardwood floors and staircase.
4107 Walrad Street interior after renovation

“Overall, this was a fun project,” said the developer, who believes historic preservation strengthens neighborhoods. “Many of Baltimore’s best examples of old houses are in areas like Irvington. If fine architectural examples in these areas become targets of preservation, the entire area could become hot. If successful, this strategy would make everybody who is interested in Baltimore’s future very pleased.”

Johns Hopkins, the executive director of Baltimore Heritage, would certainly agree. He called the transformational work on 4107 Walrad “almost unbelievable” in his remarks at the Baltimore Heritage Award ceremony honoring MLR Development Corp. “I think I can speak for all of us here tonight, please keep finding houses like this one in Irvington and all of the other Irvingtons out there in Baltimore.”

 

 

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