Originally built as the headquarters for the Eutaw Savings Bank,[2] it is a two-story building with brownstone front and brick sides.

[2] Founded in 1794, the Baltimore Equitable Society is one of the oldest corporations in the city and the third-oldest fire insurance company in the United States.

[7] In 2023, Baltimore Equitable Insurance changed offices again, moving to their current location in the Harbor East neighborhood.

[citation needed] On January 21, 1794, a number of respectable citizens assembled to establish a fire insurance company similar to that created in Philadelphia by Benjamin Franklin.

By February 10, 1794, a constitution had been drawn to govern the new company, the Baltimore Equitable Society for Insuring of Houses From Loss By Fire.

Policy Number 1 was issued on April 10, 1794, to Humphrey Pierce on his three-story brick house on Baltimore Street.

Nearly two years after incorporation, on December 4, 1796, the Society sustained its first loss from fire when William Hawkins' two brick houses at Light and Baltimore Streets (now the site of the Nations Bank Building) were destroyed.

Francis Scott Key watched the bombardment of Fort McHenry from the harbor where he penned the poem which became our national anthem.

Six months after the British forces were defeated at the Battle of Baltimore and the city had been spared the destruction it had feared, the Society expressed its relief.

By this point in its history, through judicious investments and careful management, the Society had accumulated a surplus sufficient to enable it to write policies for an indefinite period.

It was during this period of economic struggle that the Society created its Fire Museum, that was housed in its offices on Eutaw Street and has recently been closed.

The years from 1941 to 1945 saw thousands of Baltimoreans called to military duty in Europe and the Pacific Theater during World War II.

Yet Baltimore Equitable continued to write policies on homes which met underwriting requirements without regard to the invisible "red line" which was said to surround the city.