The Sanitary Laundry Company Building is a historic building located at Baltimore

Baltimore

Baltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore...

, Maryland

Maryland

Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...

, United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. It is a five-bay wide

Bay (architecture)

A bay is a unit of form in architecture. This unit is defined as the zone between the outer edges of an engaged column, pilaster, or post; or within a window frame, doorframe, or vertical 'bas relief' wall form.-Defining elements:...

, five-story brick loft

Loft

A loft can be an upper story or attic in a building, directly under the roof. Alternatively, a loft apartment refers to large adaptable open space, often converted for residential use from some other use, often light industrial...

 building constructed in 1883. The façade

Facade

A facade or façade is generally one exterior side of a building, usually, but not always, the front. The word comes from the French language, literally meaning "frontage" or "face"....

 features a cast-iron storefront

Cast-iron architecture

Cast-iron architecture is a form of architecture where cast iron plays a central role. It was a prominent style in the Industrial Revolution era when cast iron was relatively cheap and modern steel had not yet been developed.-Structural use:...

 at street level and the elaborate decorative brickwork and terra cotta

Terra cotta

Terracotta, Terra cotta or Terra-cotta is a clay-based unglazed ceramic, although the term can also be applied to glazed ceramics where the fired body is porous and red in color...

 ornamentation on the upper floors reflect the influence of the Queen Anne

Queen Anne Style architecture

The Queen Anne Style in Britain means either the English Baroque architectural style roughly of the reign of Queen Anne , or a revived form that was popular in the last quarter of the 19th century and the early decades of the 20th century...

 style. It was built originally as a slaughterhouse

Slaughterhouse

A slaughterhouse or abattoir is a facility where animals are killed for consumption as food products.Approximately 45-50% of the animal can be turned into edible products...

 and meat packing plant until 1897, when it was converted to a commercial laundry

Industrial laundry

Large institutions that require a constant flow of clean linen, working-clothing or uniform, will often employ the services of an industrial laundry. Hospitals, prisons and hotels, for instance, will usually have their own laundry departments. The organized collection, laundering and timely...

.

The Sanitary Laundry Company Building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places

National Register of Historic Places

The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...

in 1994.

External links

• Sanitary Laundry Company Building, Baltimore City, including photo from 1997, at Maryland Historical Trust