ESLC

The Eastern Shore Conservation Center

By Bill Thompson Editor’s note: The building known as Brick Row neighbors the former McCord building in Easton. Fire damaged Brick Row in 2012, and former owner Helaine White donated the building to Eastern Shore Land Conservancy late that year. The handsome yet unimposing brick structure at 130 South Washington Street in Easton, next door to the McCord building, has been known by several informal names. Lately, it is referred to as the “White Building” in honor of Helaine L. White, a longtime Talbot County Realtor who transferred the property to the Eastern Shore Land Conservancy in a deed dated December 28, 2012. For brief periods it was called “Lawyers Row” and, in the late 1800s, “Barrow’s Row” after the maiden name of Mary A. Hughes, who owned the building with husband William H. Hughes. But for most of its early life—it was erected in 1850 and possibly earlier—"Brick Row" was how local residents knew it and listed it in land records. The word “row” is significant in that what clearly today is a single two-story, multiple-unit structure with a shared façade may have been originally four separate buildings. In fact, a 1904 deed recording the sale of the property describes the premises as “four two story brick dwellings,” not one brick structure with four units. Whether the original Brick Row was one or multiple buildings, it is believed that it may have been designed as low-cost “factory dwellings,” according to a 1967 Maryland Historical Trust historic site report. That same report describes the building architecture as “a late Federal design” with “a gently pitched A-roof.” The report continues: “There are 4 entryways and each house is 3 bays wide. In the center of the row is an areaway with a rounded brick arch. This areaway permits access to the rear of the property. The windows are

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