In the decades following 1820, an unidentified schoolmistress introduced the format that came to be known as the Baltimore Building sampler. Large and dramatic, these embroideries often featured two-story buildings with fences, ornamental iron gates, and wide paths leading to imposing steps, all encompassed by wide floral borders. Possibly inspired by the painted furniture of John and Hugh Finlay, which depicted vignettes of important homes (examples can be seen in nearby galleries), many of these samples appear to represent private mansions. Others, however, portray public buildings. Elizabeth Blyden, the daughter of Fells Point tavern keepers, worked this picture of a two-steeple building resembling Baltimore’s First Presbyterian Church. The configuration is inexact, but the cross above the pediment and the memorials dedicated to Elizabeth’s grandparents within the fenced yard seem to signify a building with a religious purpose.