About the Neighborhood

Tuscany Canterbury

Tuscany Canterbury is residential in character and has no stand-alone commercial buildings. Commercial activity that exists in the district such as restaurants, cafes, and flower shops takes place inside apartment buildings. With one of the highest concentrations of multi-storied, communally owned private residences in Baltimore, the district still maintains a sense of intimacy. This reflects a successful integration of townhouses, multi-storied apartments, condominiums and cooperatives as well as a scattering of detached houses. English Style Row houses, Half-Timbered Tudor Revival style buildings, and various early 20th century revival style buildings are well represented in the district.

The district is strongly reminiscent of architectural styles from certain parts of Europe, especially England and Germany. Many of the buildings along Ridgemede and Tuscany Roads emulate a village in southwest Germany, while Cloverhill Road and part of Canterbury Road suggest an English garden suburb in the late 1800’s. The grouping of the Tuscany and Lombardy Apartments and the secluded gardens of Guilford suggest European neighborhoods close to the Mediterranean. The scale along North Charles Street is a mixture of single, detached houses, mid-rise and high-rise apartments, and condominiums.

The first Tuscany-Canterbury high-rise apartment house was the Warrington in 1927. The earliest buildings along West University Parkway are mid-rise in scale are made with brick, stucco, stone and glass. Although ranging from one to eighteen stories, the excellent proportions mollify the scale changes. The composition of row house sections and apartment and condominium buildings are interwoven comfortably with the insertion of a few institutional and religious buildings in the neighborhood.

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