Working together:
This mural reflects the diversity of the Park Heights community. (Photo by Jessica Garrett, Special to SunSpot)
Park Heights is bordered to the north by Slade Avenue, to the east by Greenspring Avenue, to the south by Park Circle and to the west by Wabash Avenue (or the Western Maryland Railroad right-of-way).
Highway boundaries indicate more than just neighborhood lines. Northern Parkway bisects the neighborhood. African-American residents traditionally live to the south of the busy highway and white residents tend to occupy the north.
Building and Rebuilding
Before the neighborhood's downturn in the late 1970s (resulting from several plant closings and an upsurge in violence in Baltimore), Park Heights easily attracted new residents. Baltimore's largest neighborhood -- with a population of more than 40,000 in 2000 and occupying 1,737 acres -- began the 20th century as home to Russian immigrants and Jewish residents. In the 1950s, the Jewish presence multiplied as Jews of other national origins moved to the city's periphery. Further ethnic shifts occurred with an influx of African-American residents in the 1960s. Most recently, the neighborhood has become home to Baltimore's largest Jamaican community. The area along Garrison Avenue up to Northern Parkway is known as Little Kingston. However, the Jewish community has remained strong throughout the population shifts, as documented in local historian and author Gilbert Sandler's "Jewish Baltimore: A Family Album" (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000).
Tranquility in the city:
Western Run stream runs between Cross Country Boulevard and Western Run Drive in Park Heights. (Photo by Jessica M. Garrett, Special to SunSpot)
Current revitalization efforts can be traced to the early 1970s when Park Heights was first established as an urban renewal project. The campaign gained form in 1975 with the publishing of the booklet, "A New Life for Park Heights," by Moshe Safdie. Safdie, a well-known architect and urban planner, originally wanted to redesign two square miles of the neighborhood, refurbishing transportation systems and residential and commercial areas. However, the booklet's main focus was on a plan for the residencies.
The rebuilding focused on the residential 4700 block of Reisterstown Road. The block remains a continuing community project that has cost $2.6 million, mostly raised from a combination of federal, state and city grants. Forty-seven houses with white siding and neatly kept yards stand out in an area filled with homes in disheveled disrepair and boarded up windows.
Urban renewal projects continued in the 1980s and '90s. In 1987 CHAI: Comprehensive Housing Assistance, Inc., a non-profit housing-focused agency of The Associated: Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore, began an extensive revitalization project. In 1992 the Park Heights Corridor Task Force was created from an amalgamation of various neighborhood groups. That Task Force helped retain a $10,000 public grant, matched with a $7,500 state grant for the community.
Main street:
Park Heights Avenue is home to many of the businesses and churches in the neighborhood. (Photo by Jessica Garrett, Special to SunSpot)
The Agape Love Center also contributes to the community. Run by Reverend Eleanor Bryant, the center grew out of her ministry at the Agape Fellowship Miracle Church and was first known for neighborhood anti-violence campaigns. Originally named the Family Empowerment Center and housed in an industrial building, the center now provides programs for single mothers (such as classes on parenting and after-school programs for children). Counseling and Bible studies round out the center's work.
High Stakes
Pimlico Race Course serves as Park Heights' fiscal (and fun) center.
They're off!
Pimlico Race Course, the home of the Preakness Stakes, is one of the neighborhood's best known features. (Photo by Jessica M. Garrett, Special to SunSpot)
Pimlico is also one of the homes to the Maryland Jockey Club (the other is in Laurel), which maintains an in-house library of American thoroughbred history. The track is named for Pimlico, the neighborhood that preceded the establishment of Park Heights. It was first named by an anonymous Englishman in 1699 who was homesick for the British locale of the same name. The neighborhood originally spanned less than 500 blocks and housed a cotton mill.
Shopping Bags
Now Park Heights is home to a number of privately owned stores and small ethnic take-out restaurants. One of the most popular is Tov Pizza, a kosher pizza place on Reisterstown Road.
The primary commercial districts run along Reisterstown Road and Park Heights Avenue. Larger chains such as Marshall's and Home Depot appear in The Plaza.
The Pimlico Farmers Market opens the track's parking lot to local farmers to sell their produce every Wednesday afternoon from June through November. Stop by to pick up a variety of homegrown vegetables and fruits.
Living and Learning
What's going on:
The Jewish Community Center in Park Heights offers programs and activities throughout the year. (Photo by Jessica Garrett, Special to SunSpot)
Another Jewish landmark provides classes to the community, as well. The Baltimore Hebrew University offers both undergraduate and graduate courses to Jewish scholars and is the only Jewish university in the Baltimore area. Its Joseph Meyerhoff library is considered a premiere archive of Judaica and is located on campus, but can also be accessed online at www.bhu.edu. The university opens its doors to interested non-academics through spring and fall lecture series. Recent topics included a lecture entitled "Snakes, Scorpions and the Ark of the Covenant."
Shift focus from fauna to flora with a visit to Cylburn Arboretum, a few minutes away from the Park Heights neighborhood on the eastern side of Greenspring Avenue. The 207-acre estate features plenty of green spaces and a mansion housing a museum. The Arboretum brings garden and woodland preservation to the urban area and also offers educational courses, lectures and hikes in various topics regarding horticulture and natural history.
As a community, Park Heights may have faced more obstacles than many Baltimore neighborhoods. However, revitalization efforts could aid its progress in becoming one of Baltimore's more culturally rich and ethnically diverse up-and-coming areas.
