[3] The neighborhood captures its name from the nineteenth century grandeur of Baltimore's elaborate summer estates and small country villages along radiating turnpikes from the center of the city to the outlying major towns.

A 1923 article in the Baltimore Sun mentions that the real estate developer Frank Novak built racially "restricted" houses in Montebello.

[citation needed] The neighbourhood is located in northeastern Baltimore, is bounded by Harford Road on the east; Loch Raven Boulevard on the west; 25th Street on the south; and 32nd and 33rd Street on the north and includes Baltimore's scenic Lake Montebello, a holding pond for the city's Department of Public Works regional water system and the Montebello Filtration Plant (constructed 1913) to the immediate north.

It was founded for young men in downtown Baltimore on the former Courtland Street (now Saint Paul Place/Preston Gardens area) in 1839, and re-located to its fifth site at the present Collegiate Gothic landmark building in 1928.

Facing the 33rd Street Boulevard, it was inspired by the garden parkway plans for Baltimore in the early 20th century of Frederick Law Olmsted, famed landscape architect of New York City's Central Park.

It was razed in 2004 after much controversy, and replaced by a mixed development called Stadium Place, consisting of housing and facilities for the YMCA of Central Maryland.

[6] Residents of C-H-M actively work to better their neighborhood through the Coldstream-Homestead-Montebello Community Corporation which meets every second Thursday at 7 p.m. on the campus of the Baltimore City College (B.C.C.