A Baltimore native, Florence Austrian attended Goucher College prior to studying at the Maryland Institute, College of Art with Leon Kroll and John Sloan (a member of the group of New York artists known as The Eight). Austrian was very active in civic affairs and was known locally as the person responsible for the renewal of the Eutaw Place neighborhood where she grew up and lived her whole life. The painting is of Emmanuel Church, located at the corner of Cathedral and Read Streets in the historic Mount Vernon neighborhood of Baltimore, not far from Austrian's Bolton Hill home.