Architecture  

This collection includes minutes, ledgers, blueprints, correspondence, membership cards, audit reports, payroll books of the Roland Park Civic League, incorporated in 1907. Notably, it contains the minutes of the Roland Park Civic League spanning the years 1955 and 1972, and of the Roland Park Roads and Maintenance Corporation dating between 1911 and 1973, with large gaps between 1953 and 1959.

Unfortunately, the collection does not span the original years of Roland Park, nor does it contain records of the Roland Park Company.

Blueprints and specifications document a significant number of houses and garages built or altered in the north Baltimore neighborhoods which were once served by the Roads & Maintenance Corporation.

For further information on individual property records see the Series Descriptions (linked below).

The Roland Park Company, under the management of Kansas City developer Edward H. Bouton, developed Roland Park section by section: building streets; laying water, sewer and electric lines; and selling property lots. The Company’s first architect was George Edward Kessler of Kansas City, a student of Frederick Law Olmsted, Sr., who laid out Plat 1 in the picturesque curvilinear style of his teacher. He was succeeded in the subsequent plats by Olmsted’s own son and successor, Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. Following the development of Roland Park, the Company developed similar projects such as Guilford, Homeland, Northwood, the Orchards and other projects in Baltimore County.

The Roland Park Covenants, among the first such covenants in the United States, were developed by Bouton to incorporate service fee requirements and land-use restrictions on each property deed. Terms of the Covenants require that any building, addition or alteration to landscapes or structures must meet with the prior approval of an Architectural Committee. The Covenants also mandated fees to be paid by property owners annually for lighting and repair of streets, the collection of garbage and ash, and the maintenance and operation of the sewerage system. (Water was supplied by a separate company, the Roland Park Water Company.) After annexation to the city, these became municipal responsibilities but the Covenant fees were retained to pay for removal from pathways of debris, leaves and snow; trimming of curbside grass, plants and shrubbery; and general repair of lanes and sidewalks.

The Roland Park Civic League, whose membership consists of most of the residents of Roland Park, was established in 1895 and soon realized its primary goal of opening and outfitting the Roland Park Firehouse (now the oldest active station in the Baltimore City Fire Service). Incorporated 26 January 1907, the Civic League’s concerns broadened to all aspects of the community and it eventually succeeded to the Company’s Covenant rights and responsibilities.

The Roland Park Roads and Maintenance Corporation was incorporated 15 July 1909 by the Civic League and the Company, the former having controlling interest and the latter a quarter stake. On 27 May 1952, the Company transferred its stake to the Civic League. The Corporation’s purpose is to collect mandated fees, provide mandated services and otherwise enforce the Covenants. Beyond Roland Park, the Corporation carried out these duties for other communities covered by the Covenants. Even after the Civic League took full control it could be contracted to perform these duties for the Company, and for successors to its Covenant rights and responsibilities such as the Homeland Association, the Guilford Association, The Orchards Homeowners Association and the Greater Northwood Covenant Association.