The Staybridge Suites Baltimore, located just a few steps from the Inner Harbor, was originally designed as a five-story wood-frame Renaissance Revival building for the Commerce and Exchange that served the Port of Baltimore. It was completely destroyed, with the exception of masonry vaults, in the Great Baltimore Fire of 1904, and was re-built immediately thereafter as a masonry and steel structure, re-using the masonry vaults and building foundations. Since then, the building has had several different uses: the center of the city’s grain trade, a culinary school, and most recently, a higher education facility prior to this conversion and revitalization.

While maintaining many of the historic features of the building, the design team converted the school building into a Staybridge Suites hotel with 101 rooms. In addition to its unique lobby, the extended-stay hotel includes spacious rooms, fully equipped kitchens, and high ceilings that take advantage of the tall historic windows. The abandoned original 1905 water-hydraulic elevator system and bird-cage elevators were refinished and put back into service with new code-compliant equipment, restoring the on-floor lobbies to their original grandeur.