On the Market: 101 Cotswold Road

As a child attending the Cathedral School, I’d frequently see this house, perched on a rise with a sweeping green lawn, and dream about how perfect it was. Decades later, I realized that its architects were personal favorites, Palmer & Lamdin, who designed it in 1935. In fact, several houses on Cotswold Road were designed by the firm.

The back of the house is actually what you see from Cotswold Road,

the front is accessed by a long driveway, leading to the ivy-covered stone house, complete with its own turret!

The house shows off some of Palmer & Lamdin’s hallmarks, including steeply pitched roof-lines, advancing and receding planes, casement windows, and quirky details. The front door is recessed in an arched cove which leads to a large entry hallway with arched doorframes. At this point, the house is only one room wide, with huge steel-framed casement windows on either side and throughout the house.

One of the most interesting things about this house is that on the ground floor, along with the walnut-paneled living and dining rooms, library, music room, office space, and kitchen, it has always contained the primary suite for the owners. From a 1932 article, it’s described as “the owners' sleeping apartment consists of a large bedroom, two dressing rooms and two baths [with newly installed heated floors].”

The second floor contains additional bedrooms and bath, with one of the most charming rooms, not home to a home office, set under the double peaked roofline, with floor-to-ceiling windows, built-in bookcases, and Juliet balconies.

While the third floor originally contained several small bedrooms for servants, there is now a large children’s playroom and loads of storage space.

The basement is finished with a family room with fireplace. There is also a built-in three-car garage, with plenty of space for parking outside. The grounds are full of old growth plantings, sweeping views from the bluestone terraces, and a sense of being in the heart of the country, maybe even the English Cotswolds!

Cotswold Road is situated between Northern Parkway and Charles Street. It’s almost a hidden road in the middle of the private school section of Baltimore. It’s convenient to either Eddie’s, many schools, the Jones Falls Expressway and more. But at the same time, it’s a secluded little part of Baltimore.

This house is handsome in its own simple and dignified way, with a particularly notable feature being the greenish stone obtained from the mountains of Western Maryland. When it’s said that they don’t make houses like this anymore, this house is exactly what they mean. The listing for the house is here.   

All photographs from the listing.