E.J. Gallagher Realty Company Records

The E. J. Gallagher Realty Company, a real estate business located in Baltimore City, was incorporated in June 1909 and became active in January 1915. Its founder, Edward Joseph Gallagher (b. 1865 - d. 1933), was a builder who had been constructing houses in Baltimore since the 1880s. The company built and sold houses between 1915 and 1950, and in particular developed the residential area of northeast Baltimore known as Ednor Gardens. Gallagher also founded in 1917 the Acreage Land Company and in 1924 the Montebello Land Company. These two firms, subsidiaries of the realty company, served to acquire and hold land, and to create ground rents.

Originally located in an office leased within the Munsey Building located in downtown Baltimore, the realty company and its subsidiary firms moved in 1929 to the company's own building at 3501 Ednor Road in Ednor Gardens. By then the realty company and its subsidiaries were managed by Gallagher's two sons', Edward Joseph, Jr. and A. (Albert) Norman Gallagher. The realty company conducted little business after 1950, except to manage remaining assets. The Acreage Land Company had already been dissolved in 1938, and the Montebello Land Company was dissolved in 1952. By then, Norman Gallagher's sons had established their own firm, the Gallagher Construction Company.