Our Story
It all began back in the early 1980s when Anne Riggle and her two girlfriends stumbled upon a majestic property located in the Butcher’s Hill neighborhood. It was a grand three-story home with a spiral staircase, three marble fireplaces, and wooden floors throughout. You felt the spirit of the past as you entered the home through an elegant foyer. We were so excited about this home, we went to a coffee shop in Fellspoint, talked it over and decided that it was exactly the type of property we could get excited about restoring. So we did it….this was the beginning.
Our next adventure, took us to Canton. We started working in that neighborhood before anyone talked about Canton. Years later, people were calling Patterson Park, north of Canton. Every location was either north, south, east or west of the infamous Canton. Back in the day, there was virtually no place to go to socialize. Well, that’s not exactly correct; you could always go to the Sip & Bite which was open seven(7)days a week. There was only one grocery store, no dry cleaners and hardly any place to entertain your guests. Over time we restored historic homes on Fleet, Hudson, Foster, all over Canton, and the restaurants started to open on Canton Square. Today, on a Friday night you can barely get a table. Forget finding a seat during a Raven’s game.
In the 1990s we started developing in Patterson Park. Ellen Burke joined as a partner and we started renovating many homes in the Patterson Park neighborhood. It was very challenging in the beginning. Everyone wanted to live in Canton. Ellen use to meet people at the Safeway on Boston Street and drove them over to Patterson Park so they couldn’t get out of the car and run away. We had to do this because if we arranged to meet them at the property in Patterson Park, they would drive by and leave before we got there. This neighborhood had many advantages and once people saw the homes, the size of the homes, the architectural style, the historic features, the proximity to the park for pet walks, and heard about the unbelievable prices, many of them decided to live in the neighborhood. It was a success story because many people joined the team to make it a success story.
Apart of our success story is our commitment to the communities. It’s not just about building or restoring housing; it’s about building communities. We are passionate about building communities! A great example is the spectacular holiday party we orchestrated in Patterson Park. We brought the whole community together for this celebration. There were trolley buses escorting folks to see the types of homes we renovated. Every home was festively decorated, authentic homemade food was served, decorators discussed their home designs, and each house had it’s own music theme. Carolers sang in front of the homes and we even had an opera singer on Baltimore Street. There was such a wonderful feeling; all these people coming together and creating a friendly community.
In the 2000s, we started building town home communities. We built six communities. Each community had it’s own specific architecture and no two communities were alike. We always matched our new homes to the architectural style of the community. We tried as much as possible to capture and maintain the historic features.
Starting in 2007, we began working in the Hopkins Hospital area. We are currently working on 3 homes in the Oliver Community and our expectation is to complete nineteen homes in 2013. The homes are mostly located on Biddle, Bond, Caroline and Broadway . We are also working on the facade for the new library for the Henderson Hopkins School.
Future projects will include 31 homes on North Madeira Street right across from the new school. Also, we are working on land consolidation for a new apartment building. Most importantly, we are developing our minority business partnerships to help minority business owners participate in our development efforts.
We never knew back in the 1980s that we would be so successful supporting and mentoring other women; helping them grow and develop their own businesses. We are proud to say, looking back over all these years, that we did achieve our long term objective. We have a very successful Women Owned Business (WBE) and we intend to continue to grow and bring even more women along with us.
