Albert Smith House

The building is located on the SW corner of Frederick Road and Bloomsbury Avenue. It
was located there when Bloomsbury Avenue was a lane leading to the Lurman Estate
(Bloomsbury Farm, with the residence being called Farmlands). Farmlands were razed in
the 1950s to build the (fourth) Catonsville High School. The house is a small stone
(gabbro) Victorian dwelling with a peaked gable; a modern storefront has housed many
businesses; today it is a sign shop. It housed the Catonsville Post Office from 1840 to approximately 1860; John K. Smith was postmaster in 1840, and apparently ran a country produce store as well. In 1881, the building housed the area’s first steam mill for cutting wood and milling grain, as well as the newly established Argus’ (Catonsville Times predecessor) office and shop. It was a drug store in 1910. The structure could have been built as early as 1795, and was one of the first 6 houses in Catonsville.