Only four streets, but lots of history is here

Presidents Hill residents reflect on history, future of their neighborhood

A mural of Presidents James Madison, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln, painted by Jeff Huntington and Future History Now, is painted on the side of a home on Madison Place in Presidents Hill in Annapolis. (Joshua McKerrow / Baltimore Sun Media Group photos)

Resident historian Mike Parker holds a photo of himself taken for The Capital by Mark O’Dell in the early 1990s at the same location in Presidents Hill in Annapolis. ( )

Tucked away in Ward 1 behind the Arts District, Presidents Hill is made up of four streets — Munroe Court, Madison Place, Hill Street and Jefferson Place.

Although Presidents Hill historian Mike Parker said there have been no former presidents that have resided in the neighborhood, many have likely passed by the Annapolis neighborhood.

“[George] Washington made 20-some trips to Annapolis,” Parker said. “In the early days, up until the railroads took over, every president that came to Annapolis would have ridden past West Steet.”

Parker, a resident and former Naval Academy professor, published his book “Presidents Hill: Building an Annapolis Neighborhood, 1664-2005” in 2005 and is considering publishing a revised version of the history to include new material that is now available on the Internet.

Since 2005, Parker has unearthed information about the “pre-neighborhood history” of Presidents Hill, including material from the 18th and early-19th centuries.

Parker said he’s used the Internet to learn more about the historic neighborhood. He’s been able to connect with people who have roots in Presidents Hill.

“Once you publish on something it’s almost like a magnet. When you write a neighborhood history, people that weren’t interested before are now interested,” Parker said.

The historian has accessed old photographs and he’s started corresponding with descendants of notable figures from Presidents Hill’s past.

One such figure is Judge Nicholas Brewer, whose family led Annapolis forces during the War of 1812. Brewer owned a “good portion” of Presidents Hill, Parker said.

“Brewer was a really important Maryland judge,” Parker said. “He was a slave owner but, at least twice in his life, defended abolitionists.”

He was a “staunch unionist,” Parker said.

The Presidents Hill neighborhood is tucked behind the approximately two-tenths of a mile of West Street between the Gulf Station and My Brother’s Keeper Barbershop and has about 115 homes, some dating back to the early-1880s.

The neighborhood is behind the Arts District and is home to a few local businesses that operate on its West Street border, including Fin Art.

Despite what the name suggests, not every street in Presidents Hill is named after a commander in chief. There’s Hill Street, and Munroe Court got its name from former Anne Arundel County state’s attorney, James Middleton Munroe, not the fifth president of the United States — James Monroe, said Parker.

It wasn’t until the 1980s that the neighborhood got its name. Residents, who were worried about the decline of West Street, dubbed it “Presidents Hill,” Parker said.

Artist Jeff Huntington painted a mural featuring former presidents James Madison, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln on Madison Place in 2016.

David Hodgdon and Tino Motomal live on the same street as the mural. They love living in President’s Hill.

“It’s an affordable, eclectic neighborhood,” Hodgdon said. “There’s a history, which is comforting. I moved to Annapolis for the history.”

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