[Baltimore Sun] Local nonprofit renovating Radnor Park gatehouse for community use
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There’s a miniature Windsor Mill Road structure that looks like it belongs to elves — or maybe a good witch or Harry Potter wizard.
Officially, it’s the gatehouse to the University of Maryland Rehabilitation & Orthopaedic Institute, known for decades as Kernan Hospital.
The gatehouse comes with one of those delightful Baltimore tales. James Kernan, a successful theater owner, ruled the northern part of Howard Street in downtown Baltimore with his “Million Dollar Enterprise.”
He loved being a showman, building the Auditorium Theater, later the Mayfair, and Kernan’s Hotel, now the Congress Hotel — along with another theater, The Maryland. All the buildings were interconnected by a passageway system. Kernan and his architects even elbowed in a small art gallery for Kernan’s collection of oil paintings and bronzes.
The man left his mark on Baltimore. The Congress remains in business as an apartment building, and the Mayfair is set to have its facade reconstructed to front a new apartment building.
The old Maryland Theater was demolished for a parking lot years ago, but there is still an outline of the balcony visible from the corner of West Franklin and Eutaw streets.
But that’s not all.
The story goes that Kernan was generous when asked for help. The manager of the old Hospital for Crippled and Deformed Children, which operated out of a single rowhouse at Charles and 20th streets in the Old Goucher neighborhood, asked Kernan for a piano to entertain his patients.
Kernan visited the cramped Charles Street hospital and said, “You don’t need a piano; you need a new hospital.”
Kernan then bought the Northwest Baltimore estate Radnor Park. In 1911, he deeded Radnor Park and its Victorian mansion to a new entity — the James Lawrence Kernan Hospital and Industrial School of Maryland for Crippled Children. Over time, the hospital came under the control of the University of Maryland Medical System.
It was quite an estate, accessible by carriage, motorcar or the Dickeyville streetcar. It came with stone entrance pillars and a gatehouse, described by historian Matthew Mosca as a “combination of arts and crafts style and Romanesque Revival.”
Enter Jack Lattimore, volunteer project manager of the Gatehouse Renovation Project on the grounds of the Maryland Rehabilitation & Orthopaedic Institute.
Jack Lattimore, Gatehouse project manager, is working on funding to complete the interior restoration of the historic Radnor Park gatehouse on the grounds of the former Kernan Hospital, now the University of Maryland Rehabilitation & Orthopaedic Institute. The exterior, which dates back to the 1860s, has been restored. Lattimore’s Forest Park Action Council would like to see the gatehouse on Windsor Mill Road used for the enrichment and safety of the surrounding communities.(Amy Davis/Staff)
His Forest Park Action Council, a local nonprofit, is renovating the structure for community use as the Gatehouse Community Resource Center. They’ve had success, up to a point.
The group doesn’t own the gatehouse; it has a 30-year lease, Lattimore said.
“We’ve spent $287,000, with $44,000 coming from individual donors and our board,” Lattimore said. “But just as all the exterior and structural work — the new roof, masonry repointing, and oak floors — was complete, we hit a hard bump. The university announced it was shutting down the hospital but later, with community input, decided to keep the facility open by developing a new mix of health care services. It’s such an important institution in our community.
“Large philanthropic foundation funders told us that due to the uncertainty of the hospital’s future, they were pulling back support. They would not fund the completion of the project,” Lattimore said.
“We still need about $220,000 to complete the interior,” Lattimore added. “We need new plumbing, electrical work, and HVAC, plus drywall.”
The entire Maryland Orthopaedic/Kernan campus is on the National Register of Historic Places, including the gatehouse, which was built between 1860 and 1867.
“We have an agreement with the Maryland Historical Trust to maintain the historic integrity of the building’s exterior,” Lattimore said.
Before the gatehouse was vacated due to lead paint, asbestos and mold, it served as a neighborhood anti-drug and crime center, the Kernan Police Substation. The police presence was needed due to the violent drug trade across the street at a filling station.
“It’s been a long road, but all the basics are complete. Now we need to finish. We know the gatehouse has helped move the drug trade off the corner,” Lattimore said. “I’m optimistic. We’ll get across the finish line. I see it becoming an education and historic preservation resource center for the community.”
Have a news tip? Contact Jacques Kelly at jacques.kelly@baltsun.com and 410-332-6570.
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