Yes, Hampden, there will still be a miracle on 34th Street.
One of Baltimore's most unforgettable holiday spectacles, the block-long strip of decorated rowhouses on West 34th Street attracts hordes of visitors every year, people who come to gawk and smile at tens of thousands of Christmas lights, candy canes, gingerbread men, plastic elves, toy trains, angelic dolls, drummer boys and anything else even remotely linked to yuletide cheer.
But when "For Sale" signs went up earlier this year in front of five of the block's 13 homes, some residents worried that this might be the year the lights went out.
In the end, though, there was a lesson to be learned - there's something more to this street than just decorations. At the urging of the older residents and the Realtors selling the properties, the street's newcomers are carrying on the block's traditions, as will be proved when the giant Christmas displays are turned on tonight.
"The show does go on," says Tom Thompson, proprietor of the Coffee Mill shop around the corner from the iridescent 700 block of W. 34th Street. "It's too much to stop."
Bright lights, neighborliness and a decorative mania bordering on the absurd are covenants of sorts in the block's real estate contracts.
Happy to be here
The enthusiastic newcomers include a 26-year-old Jewish graduate student who has become a Santa Claus aficionado thanks to his new home, and a gay couple whose holiday decor includes a string of Christmas lights shaped in the style of the gay pride rainbow flag.
"I didn't know what I was getting into," said Zak Mooney, the graduate student who is renting one of the newly sold homes. He's from Ohio, and plans to go to graduate school in social work. But in the meantime, he's tacking up hundreds of lights and propping up a 5-foot Santa figurine, a present handed to him when he signed his rental agreement.
At the other end of the street, Bob and Darlene Hosier, longtime 34th Street residents who work for a trucking company and a supermarket, are ready to take care of ornamental business. Perched near the front steps of their Formstone home, an array of toy trains, elves, wreaths and drummer boys is already assembled, waiting to be put in place.
Bob Hosier would never let the tradition end. He said he and his wife keep guest books signed by visitors from all over the world.
"I probably have a thousand new friends," he says. Yet, he added, the motive isn't exactly that. "I could live on a dead-end street in the desert and still do this."
Not a word of the street's pageantry is written in real estate transactions, but there is an understanding that helps old-timers on the block keep the faith with newcomers. "They tell me, 'Now be sure, we want them to cooperate,'" Alex Smith, a real estate agent with Coldwell Banker, said in describing conversations with residents. "They want the new people to decorate with the rest."
Smith calls Hampden "a real upswing neighborhood," comparable to Canton's waterfront streets several years ago, which soared in value. Well-kept three-story rowhouses, like the 1900-vintage stock on West 34th Street, often sell for more than $100,000, he said, which was not true even 18 months ago.
Residents who keep a keen eye on comings and goings say the houses on the market recently are rental properties being bought, fixed up and sold as investments - not owner-occupied dwellings. But this year they say there has been more change than usual - not only more property flux than anyone remembers, but a divorce in one family, a death in another.
More than a mortgage
Through it all, the neighborhood has put a premium on a new resident's love for Christmas, particularly Christmas decorating.
"People need to know that when they buy a house here, they're contracting for more than just a mortgage," said Melanie Kearns, 27, a schoolteacher who lives across the street from the house she grew up in.
One of the highlights of this year's decorations is the gay rainbow flag in lights, squarely in the middle of the light show, topped off with some small pink flamingo statues. "I think the neighborhood has become more tolerant over the last 10 years," said Dan Brewer, the homeowner who put the flag of lights up. "I never would have done something close to this before."
Brewer, 44, grew up in Hampden and works at an insurance company. He and his partner, Brian Delp, plan to hold an open house tonight for the great lighting, he said, and feel at home in the close-knit enclave.
Hosier, a longtime resident, will spend a lot of his time up on the roof this month, and not only his own. He'll light any dark, empty house and help any neighbor who asks. While nobody is officially in charge, the Hosiers say they are sure things will come together for the grand lighting, which takes place by custom the Saturday after Thanksgiving.
And they should know: The whole affair got going in full-dress splendor 10 years ago when Bob Hosier surprised his wife by re-creating the homecoming scene from her favorite movie, It's A Wonderful Life. He strung lights across the streets and, eventually, connected the houses on the streets with lights to make the outdoor night scene appear as a whole.
The Hosiers' family life seems to echo the small town portrayed in the movie. The middle-aged couple lives in the same house Darlene Hosier grew up in. Kearns, their daughter, lives in a nearby rowhouse with her husband, Larry, 30, who's training to be a city firefighter.
Explaining matter-of-factly how the extravaganza became a runaway hit backing up traffic every year, Bob Hosier said, "I've been putting up lights ever since that day [in 1992], and the whole world shows up to see it. I put up that string of lights, and the rest is history."
Hosier used a light post and a telephone pole to connect lights across the street to the home of the Wolfs, a family who enjoyed the porch-to-porch familiarity of West 34th Street for 50 years. Lloyd O. Wolf, better known as "Mister Lou," a retired warehouseman and "Miracle" booster, died at 77 on Oct. 28.
His death left a hole in the hearts of the neighbors, especially this time of year, since he would sit on the porch all day in all weather - wind, rain, cold - to watch Bob Hosier prepare and put up Christmas lights throughout the street. He did it just to give Hosier moral support. And when the strangers started coming, Wolf would be the first to invite them into the living room.
"The day he died, he had stayed outside to watch me work," Bob Hosier said.
Wolf's widow, Regina, 77, said her daughter and son live within walking distance and will help her carry on the Wolfs' starring part in the show near the Chestnut Avenue entrance.
Not about money
Hosier is often asked to accept donations and said he refuses every time. "I return checks in the mail. I'm adamant about that. You can feel good without giving away money," he said. "That's not what this is about."
Contrary to what some think, nobody gets a break on his electricity bill, he added. And also contrary to popular belief, the electric bills for the holiday light show aren't that bad - residents say their bills are up only about $25 or $30. It's certainly worth the extra cost, and then some, says Darlene Hosier.
She grew up in a very different Hampden - a world with a confectionary shop perfect for a young girl - but said she enjoys the varied boutiques, cafes, galleries and gift shops that have sprung up on 36th Street, the main "Avenue."
Hers is not the only family with firmly planted roots on West 34th Street. Another is now counting its fourth generation there.
"My family moved here in 1936," Shirley Burke, 57, said as she surveyed "Miracle" work in progress from the sidewalk. "I inherited the house. ... Hampden doesn't move."
As a demonstration, she said her 27-year-old son, Donald Burke Jr., and his wife live a few doors down with their two small children, D.J. and Makenna. Chrissy Burke, her daughter-in-law, comes from another part of Maryland, Prince George's County - an "import," Shirley Burke said, half in jest.
Burke said she takes pride in the openness of the neighborhood and how it welcomes people of all kinds, regardless of their holiday religious beliefs. She pointed to not only Mooney but another Jewish resident on the block who hails from Tel Aviv and usually puts up a menorah - the symbol of Hanukkah - for all to see.