Originally known as The Emerson Tower, The Bromo Seltzer Arts Tower has been a Baltimore landmark since its construction in 1911 — and was Baltimore’s tallest building at the time. Designed by Joseph Evans Sperry and built by Captain Issac Emerson, the inventor of the headache remedy Bromo Seltzer, the building was modeled after Florence, Italy’s Palazzo Vecchio, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
After an extensive renovation, the Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts officially opened The Bromo Seltzer Arts Tower with studio spaces for local visual and literary artists in 2008.
The most interesting — and noticeable — feature of the building is the still-functioning clock tower, which displays the words BROMO-SELTZER instead of numbers. Designed by Seth Thomas in 1911, it was the largest four-dial, gravity-driven, non-chiming clock in the world. A full restoration of the clock was completed in 2017 — and you can actually go on a tour of the clock’s interior.
Along with the artist space, the Tower is the home of the Emerson/Maryland Glass Museum, which features the largest collection of Bromo Seltzer and Maryland Glass in existence. (Maryland Glass is a gorgeous and dreamy, cobalt blue by the way.)
