Building History

The Phoenix Club Circa 1891

1505 Eutaw Place has deep roots in Baltimore’s cultural and social history. In 1891, the Phoenix Club, one of the most popular social clubs for Baltimore’s Jewish community at the time, constructed a building for its growing membership on the 1505 Eutaw Place parcel. The club closed in the 1950s and the building was sold to The Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers of America. The Union tore down the original building to construct the current structure, which opened in 1964. The 30,000 square-foot building was one of the first mid-century modern-style structures in Bolton Hill. 

During this time, blocks of row homes in the area were razed to follow the city’s racist and harmful “urban renewal” plans. The result of this initiative not only displaced many Eutaw Place residents, but it also left a large vacant tract at the corner of Eutaw Place and McMechen Street, surrounding the Union building. In 1964, Memorial Episcopal Church established the nonprofit Memorial Apartments Corporation (MAC) to construct and operate Memorial Apartments (now called Linden Park Apartments), a HUD 202 providing housing to low-income seniors, on part of  that vacant lot. Contrasting the politics of the time, the building was built to be integrated, affordable, and accessible to the whole West Baltimore community.

The Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers of America occupied the 1505 Eutaw Place building through the late 1990s, after which it experienced prolonged periods of vacancies and short-lived tenants, including the Empowerment Temple Church, which provided community services in the space as the Freddie Gray Community Center.

Baltimore Unity Hall prior to redevelopment in 2019 (courtesy of the Baltimore Fishbowl)

Becoming Unity Hall

In 2019, Somerset Development Company, LLC and Memorial Apartments Corporation purchased the vacant and dilapidated building with plans to transform it into a community asset. Together, they formed an Advisory Committee that hosted several community events, listening sessions, and workshops to gather firsthand information on how the space could best serve the community. In 2020, Baltimore Unity Hall, Inc was formed as a non-profit to redevelop and operate the building. While the COVID-19 pandemic slowed the process of finalizing its renovation, Somerset and MAC broke ground in July of 2021, and renovations were completed less than a year later. Baltimore Unity Hall opened its doors to the public in June 2022.

Today, Unity Hall boasts a beautiful public space created with the Central West Baltimore community in mind. The building offers three fully equipped event spaces of varying capacity and designs, including a 300-seat banquet hall, a 230-seat auditorium, and a large art gallery with streams of natural light from floor to ceiling windows. The building also features a state-of-the-art commercial kitchen, which supports event operations. Unity Hall has seven office spaces that are leased to local nonprofits in the arts, education, and workforce development fields. Unity Hall also includes six artist studios, a coworking space for 10 individuals, a conference room, a wellness room, and a communal kitchen and gathering space. 

In 2023, Unity Hall architect Ziger|Snead and the Somerset Development team earned recognition from the American Institute of Architects with an award for Excellence in Design for Social Equity and an Honorable Mention for Good Design = Good Business, as well as a Wavemaker Award from the Urban Land Institute.

Baltimore Unity Hall post-redevelopment and construction