- Building: Hodge House
- Use: Originally Sunday School classrooms and Gymnasium. Currently studio/workshop space.
- Architect: George William Archer
- Builder: John Cowan
- Date: 1887
- Substantially renovated in 1924
- National Register of Historic Places (in process)
ABOUT HODGE HOUSE
For over a century, the Hodge House at First and Franklin Church has connected the congregation with the surrounding communities of Baltimore residents. In October 1887, the First Presbyterian Church received a permit to build "a two-story brick building... to be used for Sunday-school purposes." In 1924, under the leadership of the church's ninth pastor, Rev. Dr. Hugh Lennox Hodge, the church house underwent a major renovation. By October 1924, the church house reopened, "equipped with some of the more modern devices" and a new flexible configuration, as The Sun reported:
"By the turning of a few keys, the Sunday-School room can be converted into a recreation hall with a stage that comes out of the wall and floor, complete with posts curtain and footlights; or a motion-picture room with a projecting machine that operates from a fireproof booth; or a dining hall, or basketball court."
Past uses of the space:
- Entertaining and housing GIs during WWII, theater
- Sunday school
- Areas for crafting and sewing
- Downtown Child Care center
- Providing clothing and training for people coming out of incarceration
- “The Center” a retreat center and dormitory for visiting ministry.
It is currently used for artist studio space and by a group teaching historic renovation.
