The Baltimore Exchange Building, also known as the first Baltimore Custom House, the Merchants' Exchange Building, and the

Baltimore Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the 30th-most populous U.S. city. The Baltimore metropolitan area is the 20th-large ...

Government Building was a structure in

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...

, United States that housed an eclectic array of commercial enterprises and government offices during the 19th century. The Merchants' Exchange Building site was bounded by Water Street, Gay Street, and Lombard Street.

Construction

The H-shaped Exchange Building was designed by

Benjamin Latrobe Benjamin Henry Boneval Latrobe (May 1, 1764 – September 3, 1820) was a British-American neoclassical architect who immigrated to the United States. He was one of the first formally trained, professional architects in the new United States, dr ...

and

Maximilian Godefroy J. Maximilian M. Godefroy (1765 – 7 April 1848) was a French-American architect. Godefroy was born in France and educated as a geographical/civil engineer. During the French Revolution he fought briefly on the Royalist side. Later, as an ant ...

, and constructed under the supervision of Jacob Small beginning in 1815. The U.S. government paid for the erection of the custom-house wing in 1817. The building opened to the public in 1820.

1830s and 1840s

The Irish comedic actor

Tyrone Power Tyrone Edmund Power III (May 5, 1914 – November 15, 1958) was an American actor. From the 1930s to the 1950s, Power appeared in dozens of films, often in swashbuckler roles or romantic leads. His better-known films include ''Jesse James (193 ...

visited Baltimore in the 1830s and described the building as a handsome failure: An 1845 advertisement marketing the hotel within the building promised "large and airy" rooms, and that it was "located convenient to all the PRINCIPAL STEAMBOAT LANDINGS and RAILROAD DEPOTS."

Property of the federal government

In its day it was "the most important structure in Baltimore," even hosting the offices of Baltimore City Hall for a time. The federal government acquired most (but not all) of the building with purchases in 1853 and 1857. Before the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

there was a hotel on the Gay Street side. In 1884 a newspaper reporter interviewed an old American slave trader named Jack Campbell, and asked if he knew of any surviving remnants of the

slave trade in the United States The internal slave trade in the United States, also known as the domestic slave trade, the Second Middle Passage and the interregional slave trade, was the mercantile trade of enslaved people within the United States. It was most significant af ...

, and Campbell replied, "More than you'd think...Go into any Southern hotel that was built before the war and ask them to let you go down into the cellars. See if you don't find these old cells where the servants of travelers were shut up at night. The Baltimore Custom House was once a hotel, and there are more than two dozen cells under it now."

Funeral procession of Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was the 16th president of the United States, serving from 1861 until Assassination of Abraham Lincoln, his assassination in 1865. He led the United States through the American Civil War ...

's body lay under the dome on April 21, 1865, during his multi-day

funeral procession A funeral procession is a procession, usually in motor vehicles or by foot, from a funeral home or place of worship to the cemetery or crematorium. In earlier times the deceased was typically carried by male family members on a bier or in a cof ...

from Washington, D.C. to Springfield, Illinois. According to a history of U.S. federal buildings, the dome was "decorated with paintings of the Maryland coat of arms and

seals Seals may refer to: * Pinniped, a diverse group of semi-aquatic marine mammals, many of which are commonly called seals, particularly: ** Earless seal, or "true seal" ** Fur seal * Seal (emblem), a device to impress an emblem, used as a means of a ...

, and representations of commerce and the 'Dignity of the United States,' and supported by 12 Ionic marble columns, quarried, cut, and polished in Italy."

Post office building

Circa 1869, a directory of Baltimore described the Merchants' Exchange, located on Second and Gay Streets, and Exchange Place, as "a large and elegant structure...The whole is surmounted by an immense dome, the apex of which is 115 feet above the street. In the reading room, newspapers from all parts of the world may be found." Part of the building housed the post office, and the customs office occupied the south wing, at Gay and Lombard. Circa 1874, the building hosted the offices of the U.S. customs collector, U.S. surveyor, and the U.S. internal revenue office.

Demolition

At the turn of the century, it was "heated by hot water, open grates, and stoves. The number of rooms occupied is fifty-eight, assigned principally to the customs service, pension office, subtreasury, civil service, and Light-House Board." The building was demolished in 1901 or 1902, and replaced with the new

Customs House A custom house or customs house was traditionally a building housing the offices for a jurisdictional government whose officials oversaw the functions associated with importing and exporting goods into and out of a country, such as collecting ...

References

{{reflist 1820 establishments in Maryland Commercial buildings completed in 1820 1810s in Baltimore 1820s in Baltimore 1901 disestablishments in Maryland Buildings and structures demolished in 1901 Demolished buildings and structures in Baltimore Benjamin Henry Latrobe buildings and structures Federal buildings in the United States Government buildings in Baltimore Commercial buildings in Baltimore Abraham Lincoln Slave jails in the United States