Elmer V. McCollum House (Baltimore, Maryland)

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This house is a 2 1/2-story frame house in the Windsor Hills area of Baltimore. The name of the builder and its date of construction are unknown, but the section of Baltimore in which the house is located indicates that it was probably built around 1920. Althouth the house is a vernacular example of domestic architecture, in itself the building is of no particular importance. Features of the house are a hip roof with dormer windows, an entrance with sidelights, and a columned full length porch at the front. The interior, a side hall plan, has been divided into apartments. Elmer V. McCollum lived in this area during most of his career at Johns Hopkins. The house at 2301 Monticello Road was his home from approximately 1929 to 1939, when he moved to a nearby apartment. Although the 10-year period is a relatively short association, it is as long as McCollum lived in any single residence. The exterior of the building has undergone no significant alterations. The interior has been divided into three apartments. The building is relatively well maintained and there are no intrusions.

This building is significant for its association with one of its owners, Elmer V. McCollum. McCollum, who resided in the house for a 10-year period from 1929 to 1939, was a member of the faculty at Johns Hopkins University from 1917 until his retirement in 1946. The career of Elmer V. McCollum and his work in the discovery of vitamins illustrates a major direction of medical research in America during the first decades of this century. Employing experimental methods such as McCollum’s use of rats to identify vitamin deficiency diseases, researchers launched a systematic and highly specialized attack on disease in general. Elmer V. McCollum in his work on vitamins contributed to curing diseases such as night blindness (lack of Vitamin A) and rickets (Vitamin D deficiency) and his accomplishments in nutrition in general marked a significant improvement in human health.