LOCAL NEWS
Downtown’s Park and Mulberry, once home to Martick’s restaurant, turns a corner



A mural honoring musical legend Eubie Blake peers at the building which housed Martick’s, a privately owned French restaurant which has long been closed, now slated for an upcoming auction. Construction surrounds the building at the corner of an alley on Mulberry Street of a new apartment complex which replaced a parking structure at Park Av and Mulberry St in what has historically been known as Baltimore’s Chinatown district. (Karl Merton Ferron/Staff)

By JACQUES KELLY | jkelly@baltsun.com
PUBLISHED: June 29, 2024 at 5:00 a.m.

A few years ago an engineer and architect argued that the old Martick’s restaurant would be too costly and difficult to preserve. That sentiment did not go well with the corps of Martick’s fans who assembled that day at Baltimore’s Commission for Historic and Architectural Preservation.

This summer a new apartment building has risen around the successfully preserved but as yet unrestored bar and restaurant that was once a bohemian hangout for artists and musicians and members of the LGBTQ+ community. Martick’s was a safe space (certain nights of the week) in the days before community standards of acceptance and tolerance changed. ... Martick’s was a place where Billie Holiday was once a guest. There’s also a report Leonard Bernstein turned up there as well.

The outcry to save the fondly remembered Mulberry Street building proved successful. And while the site is under heavy construction, there’s no mistaking this improbable preservation victory.



The building which housed Martick’s, a French restaurant that has long been closed, remains with construction around it as work continues on a new apartment complex which replaced a parking structure at Park Avenue and Mulberry Street in what has historically been known as Baltimore’s Chinatown district. (Karl Merton Ferron/Staff)
The apartment house has risen on the site of a decrepit early parking garage. The developer is also stabilizing a group of 19th century homes along Park Avenue as a construction crane works away redeveloping the corner of Park Avenue and Mulberry Street. ... The site is west of the Central Enoch Pratt Free Library and the National Shrine of the Basilica of the Assumption.

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