This Italianate building is the only intact nineteenth-century market house in Baltimore. It was one of eleven municipal market houses operating in the city during their late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century heyday, and one of the few that incorporated both a market and civic meeting hall.
Baltimore has a long tradition of public market houses that began with the first in 1763, providing a venue for local farmers offering fresh produce and other food-stuffs. Although the preferred plan was for an open shed-like structure, a few market houses such as Hollins included a second-floor hall that in its day was the only available space for traveling shows, balls, and public receptions. It replaced a typical shed form (similar to the rear addition) built in 1838 to serve the working-class community that developed around the B&O Railroad shops.