Ten Hills Collection

The Ten Hills Community was established around 1909, by Baltimore realtor and developer Charles H. Steffey and his team. The community was developed on an estate known as Bellevue. Bellevue was formerly owned by the Chappell family, whose patriarch, Phillip S. Chappell, was in the chemical manufacturing business. The estate was shared by three prominent families as a summer retreat between 1855 and 1899. In the 1880s, the estate was renamed, “Ten Hills.” In 1899, a fire destroyed the estate, and after a battle over Phillip S. Chappell’s inheritance, the estate was sold to real estate developers Caughy, Hearn, and Carter. Charles Steffey, employed by Caughy, Hearn, and Carter at the time, began work to develop the land for a “country suburb.” Ten Hills was annexed by Baltimore City in 1918, and by the 1940s the community was fully engrossed in city life due to growing trolley lines and the mainstreaming of automobiles.

The Ten Hills Community Association (THCA) was formed in 1936, taking on the duties of maintaining the Ten Hills neighborhood that the Ten Hills Corporation had once managed. These duties included enforcing the strict covenants that were established to protect the architectural beauty and cultured environment that the Ten Hills Corporation envisioned for the place. The THCA was made up of its President, Vice-President, Treasurer, Secretary, and board members, who included past officers, committee members, those elected to the board. The members of the community association have worked together from the beginning, creating community clubs, organizing neighborhood events, and establishing committees to handle various aspects of the community’s life, such as education, security, and preserving the historical architecture of each house. In 2001, Ten Hills was designated a historical district by Baltimore’s Commission for Historical and Architectural Preservation (CHAP).

Stephen Israel moved to the Ten Hills Community in southwest Baltimore in 1999 and devoted much time to research and advocacy of the neighborhood. He received his Master’s degree in anthropology at the University of Oklahoma, finishing it after a tour in Vietnam with the US Army Map Services. After graduation, Israel began working as an archaeologist in historic preservation and restoration and research projects, following the Historical Preservation Act of 1966, and joined the Army Corps of Engineers office in Baltimore and undertaking environmental and archaeological studies. He worked there until his retirement in 2003. Stephen Israel was involved with the Ten Hills Architectural Review and Design Committee, working to preserve the architecture and history of the community. He also presented papers on the history of Ten Hills at local conferences and community events, and remained active in the archaeological profession. In 2012, he received the William B. Marye Award from the Archaeological Society of Maryland, in recognition of his five decades of contributions to the archaeology field in Maryland. In 2015, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Council for Maryland Archaeology.