Ulysses (hotel)
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| Ulysses | |
|---|---|
 | |
 | |
 Interactive map of the Ulysses area | |
| Alternative names | Latrobe Building |
| General information | |
| Architectural style | Early Italian Renaissance Revival |
| Location | 2 E. Read Street, Baltimore, Maryland |
| Coordinates | 39°17′59″N 76°36′56″W / 39.299817°N 76.615502°W |
| Completed | 1912 |
| Opened | 2022 (Ulysses hotel) |
| Owner | Ash (also developer) |
| Technical details | |
| Floor count | 9 |
| Design and construction | |
| Architects | Edward Hughes Glidden, Clyde Nelson Friz |
| Other information | |
| Number of rooms | 116 |
| Number of restaurants | 1 |
| Number of bars | 2 |
| Website | |
| ash | |
Ulysses is a boutique hotel in the Mount Vernon neighborhood of Baltimore. The hotel has 116 guest rooms, an all-day restaurant, and a late-night lounge. Its design is maximalist with inspirations from the time the structure was built as well as the films of director John Waters, along with elements of Indian design.
The hotel opened in 2022 in the nine-story Latrobe Building, designed by Edward Hughes Glidden and Clyde Nelson Friz in the Italian Renaissance Revival style. It was constructed in 1912 as The Latrobe, to house 44 apartments, though office space gradually increased in the building. The interior was significantly renovated for office use in the 1980s, although this use declined by the 1990s, and it was sold at foreclosure in 2016. Ash, a design and development firm, purchased and renovated the building, opening the hotel in September 2022.
The building is within the City of Baltimore's Mount Vernon Historic District.[1]
The building stands on the site of the Latrobe House, a mansion built for lawyer and inventor John H. B. Latrobe. At the time, the area had numerous large mansions owned by prominent Baltimore residents. Latrobe died in 1891, outlived by his wife, who died in 1903. The property was sold and its redevelopment was announced in 1911. Clinton L. Riggs redeveloped the property, demolishing the house along with his own house to the east, to create a nine-story apartment building. He named the building The Latrobe,[2] after the building it replaced[3] or after its owner or his son, Ferdinand C. Latrobe, a seven-term mayor of Baltimore.
The Latrobe Building was designed by Edward Hughes Glidden and Clyde Nelson Friz in an early Italian Renaissance Revival style.[4] It was constructed in 1912 as an apartment building for wealthy single men,[5][6] The building originally had 44 units, many of which were large, although there were also numerous small "bachelor flats".[2] The design also included communal dining and living spaces on the first floor.[7]
By the 1960s, the Latrobe was renovated for office use, and housed physicians, architects, and engineers.[2] The building was fully renovated for office use in the 1980s,[3] beginning in 1983, by Cochran Stephenson & Donkervoet at a cost of $3.5 million. The firm, which was based in the building, moved out in 1996, leaving the building practically empty.[8][9][10] The renovation had included constructing an addition with CMUs against the north façade of the building, infilling a setback area at the back of the building.[3] A 1984 plaque on the south façade of the structure commemorates prominent members of the Latrobe family and the building's renovation.[11]
The building was sold in a foreclosure auction in 2016 and resold in June 2017 for $3 million to Ash, a design and development firm. In 2018, the firm announced plans to convert the building into a 105-unit hotel in an urban, "edgy" style.[12] The opening of the hotel was part of a 21st-century revitalization of the Mount Vernon neighborhood, after a severe city-wide downturn in the 1990s.[13] Ulysses was designed and opened by Ash, a New York-based design firm and developer. It is the company's fourth hotel it opened, after completing hotels in Providence, Detroit, and New Orleans.[14] The firm bought the hotel reportedly "sight unseen" at auction[6] and began redeveloping the hotel soon afterward. Much of the construction took place amid the COVID-19 pandemic shutdowns, leading the work to go relatively unnoticed.[2] The hotel opened on September 21, 2022.[15]
