SITE SPECIFIC - CLASS

Class was sited in the Evergreen House garden of Johns Hopkins University in north Baltimore.  The installation referenced the relationship between the owner of the Evergreen House, John Work Garrett, president of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad at the time he bought the house in 1878, and the immigrant railroad workers who lived in the various classes of houses near the rail yards in south Baltimore. The piece consisted of 100 cast glass row-houses in 3 different sizes, each representing different classes of workers’ houses. The largest rowhouse was owned by the merchant or upper class home owners.  These homes were often 14 feet wide by 3 stories tall.  The woodwork and interior and exterior detail was finer and more elaborate than smaller homes. The smallest homes were for newly arrived immigrants and were called alley houses.  They were about 10 feet wide and often housed more than one family. The medium sized houses were owned by those on their way up the class structure.

The Baltimore row-houses near the B&O rail yards were used for models.

100 cast glass “rowhouses” on steel poles

rowhouses - 3 different sizes

area of siting: 50ft. x 40ft.

rowhouse heights from 8ft. tall to 15ft. tall 

Rowhouses on tall poles like birdhouses gather across the east garden and perch on top of the hill. Imagine residents of the rowhouses, like birds crossing boundaries, flocking to the country garden at the Evergreen House for fresh air and a view.