809 SOUTH BOND STREET

The same house under two numbers.

The doorway we chose stands at 809 South Bond Street in Fells Point, one of Baltimore’s oldest waterfront neighborhoods.

The house is barely thirteen feet wide. Its history is considerably larger.

Before Baltimore’s late-nineteenth-century street renumbering, today’s 809 South Bond Street appeared in city records as 310 South Bond Street.

The number changed. The occupations changed. The people changed. The doorway remained.

John Miller — shoemaker — 310 S. Bond

The earliest occupant we have found so far at the historic 310 South Bond Street address is John Miller.

In the 1855–56 Baltimore city directory, Miller appears simply as:

John Miller — shoemaker — 310 S. Bond

He remained at the address in the following directory.

It is a small entry, but it establishes something important: by the mid-1850s, this narrow house was already part of the working life of Fells Point.

The directories that follow place a succession of working Baltimoreans at 310 South Bond Street.

Among them were laborers, a baker and a ship carpenter.

By 1864, John Morrison, a ship carpenter, was associated with the address.

Richard D. Clark, a baker, appears there in the late 1860s and again in 1870.

John Morrison appears again in 1873.

The directories tell us who was associated with the address. They do not always tell us precisely how the household was organized.

By 1881, Charles Makosche and Mina Makosche were listed at 310 South Bond Street.

Charles was a laborer. Mina was a dressmaker.

Earlier directories trace the pair through other nearby Baltimore addresses and show Mina associated with several occupations over time, including confectionery, mantua making and dressmaking.

By 1890, Baltimore had renumbered the street.

The directory now placed them at 809 S. Bond Street.

Same house. New number.

The directory records an occupation—not the shape of the shop.

The 1890 directory introduces another change.

Charles Makosche was listed as a laborer.

Wilhelmina Makosche was listed simply as: cigars.

Both were at 809 South Bond Street.

The directory establishes Wilhelmina’s association with the cigar trade at this address. It does not tell us what the physical business looked like.

By 1903, another household appears at 809 South Bond Street.

The directory lists Charles Tuckerman — clerk; Minnie Tuckerman — cigars; and William A. Tuckerman — carpenter.

Once again, the doorway was connected with both domestic life and paid work.

In 1908, the directory gives us an unusually revealing snapshot of the household at 809 South Bond Street.

It lists Charles A. Tuckerman — clerk; Charlotte Tuckerman — music teacher; and Minnie H. Tuckerman — cigars.

Minnie’s entry also identifies 809 South Bond as her home address.

One small Baltimore house was simultaneously associated with clerical work, music instruction and the cigar trade.

The alphabetical directory is not the only evidence.

Elsewhere in the same 1908 directory, Baltimore businesses were organized by trade.

Under CIGARS AND TOBACCO — RETAIL appears: Tuckermann Minnie — 809 s Bond.

This independently establishes 809 South Bond Street as the address of a retail cigar-and-tobacco business.

In 1890, Wilhelmina Makosche was associated with cigars at 809 South Bond Street.

Thirteen years later, another woman, Minnie Tuckerman, was selling cigars from the same address.

By 1908, the city directory specifically classified Minnie’s business under “Cigars and Tobacco—Retail.”

There are clues suggesting the Makosche and Tuckerman households may have been connected. But so far, we have not found the record that proves it.

The history of 809 South Bond Street is not built around a famous resident. That is precisely what makes it interesting.

A shoemaker. A ship carpenter. A baker. A laborer. A dressmaker. A clerk. A music teacher. And two women associated with the cigar trade.

Different decades. Different households. One very small Baltimore house.

The narrow wooden house still stands at 809 South Bond Street. The current doorway gives the records a surviving visual anchor; the historical claims in this file come from the directories and address evidence, not from the appearance of the house today.

• Baltimore city directory, 1855–56 — Maryland State Archives

  • John Miller, shoemaker, at 310 South Bond Street
  • Page 235

• Baltimore city directories — 1860s and 1870s

  • Directory entries associating John Morrison and Richard D. Clark with 310 South Bond Street

• R.L. Polk & Co.’s Baltimore City Directory, 1890

  • Charles and Wilhelmina Makosche at 809 South Bond Street
  • Page 810

• Baltimore City Directory, 1908

  • Charles A., Charlotte and Minnie H. Tuckerman at 809 South Bond Street — page 1956
  • Minnie Tuckerman under Cigars and Tobacco—Retail — page 2268

• Baltimore street-number records and property research

  • Used to connect historic 310 South Bond Street with current 809 South Bond Street

The contemporary doorway image retains its original Google attribution. The Doorway Files does not claim authorship of that image.