Auctioneer Paul Cooper called out from the steps of the courthouse as downtown traffic passed. The future of Bertha’s Mussels would be determined in $25,000 increments. “$650,000 bid, do I hear 675 on it?” Cooper said, repeating himself in a rapid-fire cadence.

A few feet away, a man with his arm folded across his chest spoke into his cellphone, nodding then raising his hand. The numbers climbed. Another man put up his hand. 675. But as the numbers rose past $1 million, the bidding paused. Cooper chatted quietly with an attorney in a bow tie.

In the end, a private mortgage lender purchased the old Bertha’s Mussels for around $1.2 million at a public auction on the steps of the Clarence M. Mitchell Jr. Courthouse. The sale was part of a lengthy foreclosure process on the building. David H. Cole, an attorney for the lender and the trustee on the property, said the next steps include stabilizing the structure that has been vacant since the closure of Bertha’s in 2023. He declined to comment beyond that.

Bertha’s longtime operators Tony and Laura Norris had attempted to sell the building at another auction in the fall of 2022, but called it off when the bidding surged past $1 million but fell below their expectations. A subsequent attempt by a group of Bertha’s regulars to buy the building did not pan out. The Norrises could not be reached for comment Thursday.

The Norris family hosted an estate sale last weekend to get rid of furniture and decor, including a vintage oyster can and a sign that said “Guinness for strength,” according to an Instagram post. The $1.2 million sale price did not include the business’s liquor license or any furniture or equipment from the building.

Through decades in business, Bertha’s, which occupied a quirky footprint of two separate buildings at 730 and 734 S. Broadway, has fallen into disrepair, its upstairs sections long vacant. According to the auction listing, Baltimore’s Commission for Historical & Architectural Preservation must approve any changes to its exterior. A bar may have operated in at least one of the buildings since the 19th century: 730 S. Broadway is listed among the addresses petitioning for a liquor license in 1894.

The pub hearkened back to Fells Point’s freewheeling bohemian days when artists and preservationists flocked to the neighborhood in an effort to save it from demolition. At the time, city officials had purchased many of the buildings in the vicinity as they prepared to extend a highway into Fells Point and Federal Hill, leading to pushback from residents.

The current state of the property, combined with its unusual layout and historic nature, gave pause to would-be bidders Thursday.

“We saw potential, but we’d have to do a lot of work on it,” said Sridhar Ravula, who said he only had been willing to spend a total of $850,000 on the building. In addition to the sale price, the new owner had to pay the $186,000 remaining on the mortgage.

The Norrises founded the pub in 1972 as Bertha E. Bartholomew’s, quickly building it into a Baltimore institution known for music and mussels. Its green “Eat Bertha’s Mussels” stickers found their way everywhere from competing bars in the city to the South Pole.