No Permit Used In Demolition Of West Baltimore Building
BALIMORE (WJZ) -- According to city housing officials, contractors didn't have a permit when they demolished a historic building in West Baltimore last week.
Our media partners at The Baltimore Sun report that the city issued a "stop work" notice on Saturday but the building was still torn down.
The former St. Vincent Infant Asylum was built between 1860 and 1910. It was originally home to Catholic nuns to provide housing and medical services to dependent children and women. It had then been converted into the Carver Hall Apartments that offered affordable housing units.
The property had been vacant since 2013 due to disrepair. It also suffered a fire in 2015 that required over 100 firefighters to extinguish.
Baltimore Housing issued the "stop work" order after the owner was unable to get a demolition permit, spokeswoman Tania Baker said to The Sun.
Neither the contractor that demolished the property last week or the property's owner, a New York City-based LLC called 1411 Division Street LLC could be reached for comment by The Baltimore Sun.
The 32,400-square-foot property was valued at $696,533 as of July 2017.
The building lies in the district of Baltimore City City Councilman Eric Costello who said the owner is "facing some pretty significant penalties."
Carver Hall Apartments has an entry on the Baltimore Heritage's website outlining it's history and the reasons it's considered by some to be "an important landmark reflecting Baltimore's legacy of philanthropy, nationally significant Catholic history, and the history of African-American housing during the mid-20th century."
Despite this, some local residents had a positive reaction to the news of the demolition, saying it's been vacant for years and is "nothing but an eyesore."
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