Run-down houses, rodents the size of cats and crowded multifamily units well over their legal limit threaten the sanctity of one historic neighborhood, where the ghosts of bullets and drug-infested corners still haunt people's minds. But there are signs that a decades-awaited revitalization is slowly under way.
Many of the homes have retained their grandeur of more than a century ago, appealing to a different breed of Baltimore urbanite -- the commuter. Welcome to Reservoir Hill's Upper Eutaw Place/Madison Avenue neighborhood, a four-block stretch of about 400 homes along the two streets between North Avenue and Druid Lake Park Drive.
"Most people think that some neighborhoods are good and some neighborhoods are bad. This is an area where you have fully restored houses next to abandoned houses," said Charles Duff, president of Jubilee Baltimore -- a community development organization that recently was awarded a state Community Legacy grant to support short-term lending costs and capital costs and help with property acquisition and renovation in the Eutaw Place/Madison area.
"It's a neighborhood in transition. Our job is to make sure it goes the right way, that it goes from vacancy to occupation, that it goes from absent ownership to owner-occupancy," he said.
"The main challenge is, if you buy a house for what it costs and fix it up for what it costs to fix it up, you can't sell it for what you've put in it, in most cases," Duff explained. "If somebody buys one of these houses and fixes it up, they're taking a pretty big risk. And if there are other people who care whether this neighborhood survives, they should be willing to share part of that risk. We're here because the state of Maryland was willing to share part of that risk, and was willing to put $350,000 into supporting the renovation of houses in Upper Eutaw/Madison."
Jubilee's initiative in the area began during the summer, with the idea that "if you want to fix up this house, buy it for what it costs and fix it up for what renovation costs, the state will plug your gap," Duff said.
It is the latest attempt to induce people to do what they might not otherwise consider, for fear of making an unwise, short-term economic decision. "If you get enough people to do it, it's a good long-term economic decision," Duff said.
In a community where one in eight houses is vacant, some might look at Upper Eutaw Place/Madison Avenue as a lost cause. Duff and his colleagues see it as an opportunity.
"Basically, it takes 50 years to build a neighborhood. ... We are a nonprofit corporation that has been around for 21 years. We help fix up buildings, advise people on fixing up buildings, do community planning and try to hold neighborhoods together," he said.
Most recently, Jubilee has been working for the Midtown Benefits District, creating the community plan for midtown, and staffing the Midtown Development Corp. and a revitalization effort in another section of Reservoir Hill.
"There are very large and elaborate late-Victorian houses that have about 5,000 square feet of living area inside," Duff noted. "Consider that 5,000 square feet is about twice as big as the average house being built today. But turn around 180 degrees and you are looking at houses that are 30 years newer and half the size. This diversity is a great asset that can attract more than just one type of person. It can attract people who have more than just one type of preference."
Nontraditional styles
Further, he added, Reservoir Hill retains an appeal to residents not originally from Baltimore because of its nontraditional styles.
"It doesn't look like Baltimore. It's the only Baltimore area I know that really looks like Washington, as well as other places. Friends of mine from Chicago say it really makes them feel like they're home in Chicago. The houses aren't flat; they're not red brick; they're not close to the street. They have a sort of high, wide and handsome feel to them.
"Henry James a hundred years ago described it as 'semi-suburban,' and it is," Duff said, pointing to the expansive Druid Hill Park and reservoir in view, just a few blocks away, and the many trees along nearby busy streets.
The city recently proposed $2 million to further property acquisition and improvement, along with a multiyear package of services to increase public safety, cleanliness and code compliance.
The $350,000 capital grant to be administered by Jubilee will be available for one year, with the hope that a year is long enough to accomplish some fairly ambitious goals.
In all, Jubilee aims to support eight major construction loans by current owners; eight sales to new buyers (over an 18-month grace period); and up to 16 owner-initiated home improvement investments. All are geared to improve consumer confidence in the area and attract new homebuyers.
As with any neighborhood, Duff warns, the ultimate selling point is the residents themselves. Looking around, he is optimistic.
"This an area that has a lot of good people and a lot of committed people. And the neighbors have the potential to be a very great sales force. People who already live in the neighborhood are always the best sales force," he said. "It's small enough to be a community, but it's big enough to be a community."
On cue, Bradley Grant appears. A middle-aged professional, he introduces himself and offers an unsolicited and unplanned tour of his home. He is eager to talk about life in Upper Eutaw/Madison.
As it turns out, Grant has been ushering in the changes with perseverance akin to a soldier who has been fighting an uphill battle with little ammunition, but refuses to give up. During that time, he has accumulated a long list of grievances.
"I would like to see enforcement of current codes," he announced, pointing to the house across the street, where a third-floor balcony hangs, tilted, about to give way. The city has failed to respond to his complaints, according to Grant, who warned them about another balcony that eventually collapsed onto the sidewalk.
He also is concerned about the subletting of multifamily units to more tenants than allowed by zoning restrictions, and the failure of some residents to park between the lines.
Details restored
He said he is interested in learning more about Jubilee, but has endured other city initiatives aimed at similar lofty goals that fell flat.
Grant's drive comes from a mixture of deep appreciation for the neighborhood that has been his home for 23 years and frustration over what he perceives as the failings of city government to act quickly.
Throughout the years, he has taken care to restore the home to its original details, including stenciled ceilings, parquet floors, stained-glass windows and another of the house's original fixtures -- an ornate gas-and-electric chandelier centerpiece in the formal dining room.
A health care administrator with the Commission on Aging for Frederick County, Grant commutes to work an hour each way. He is not alone. He quickly rattles off the names of other neighbors on the block who commute to Washington or nearby suburbs.
"We have easy access to [Interstate] 83, and we go straight down Eutaw Place and pick up [Martin Luther] King Boulevard," he explained. "So it's a clean shot toward Washington around King Boulevard. It's really convenient to hook up with 83, where we can end up in Little Italy or Fells Point or head north."
And convenience is likely playing a major role in attracting commuters to buy in Upper Eutaw Place/Madison Avenue or any of the other nearby areas of Reservoir Hill promoted by the city to District of Columbia residents as an affordable housing alternative.
"The best-kept secret is, it's the safest neighborhood in the Central District," said Grant, who also is the neighborhood association chairman for crime and safety. He has been block captain for the past two decades and regularly follows the city's reported crime rates, neighborhood by neighborhood.
"But the reputation [for having a high crime rate] will take a long time to die out. And, of course the association with Whitelock [Street] itself and the drug corridor that it was. ... The hope was to put back a community center there when the community is a little better established. Right now, there is no grocery store or pharmacy or anything in the neighborhood. You have to leave the neighborhood; there's nothing to walk to," Grant said.
From inside his 5,000- square-foot palatial and meticulously appointed rowhouse, it is easy to forget that just next door, on the other side of the wall, is a long-abandoned dilapidated structure that has all but fallen to the ground. Such is the dichotomous life in Upper Eutaw Place.
Late 1800s-era Victorian architecture on one side of Eutaw Place's 2300 block faces brick rowhouses from the early 1900s. Down the street are mid-1970s-style rowhouses sporting solar panels, and farther still are apartments in disrepair.
Blended society
It is an integrated and blended society of the poor, the working class and upper-echelon professionals. Some live in impeccably maintained houses originally built for large aristocratic families and a full, live-in staff, while others -- just a few doors away -- rent small apartments within sectioned-off corners of run-down and sometimes unsound remains of what were single-family dwellings.
Current real estate figures reflect a similar diversity, with three-story rowhouses on the market for $275,000 and abandoned properties selling for as little as $50,000.
Still, the past of this designated historic neighborhood is as much a curse as it is a blessing. While the district boasts a magnificent and varied display of house types, it also bears the reputation of having drug trafficking and the occasional drive-by shootings along Whitelock Street. Despite residents' insistence that those days are long gone, they acknowledge that the stigma remains.
Sharynne Shelton lives on Eutaw Place, in a three-story Victorian next door to Grant. She and her family moved to Upper Eutaw Place in 1983. A native of Baltimore, she retired from the housing authority and spends much of her time working on the house. Her husband is a dentist. They have modernized their late-1800s rowhouse from the basement up. They chose the area because it was affordable, they liked the architecture and the houses were big.
Like Grant, they intend to stay and have been careful to retain many of the qualities unique to these homes. While renovating the kitchen, they found a hidden working fireplace, one of five in the house.
"It's such a great area, and it's up and coming," Shelton said, tracing the progress. "At one time, nobody wanted these houses. They were just too big, and people weren't interested. But now, it's really getting nice. It's quiet; it's cleaner. Thank God," she said with a laugh, "because we went through some stuff. ... But I've got no complaints, since 1987. We're just happy to be here."