Neighborhood Geography
For the purposes of this project, Old West Baltimore is defined as the boundary of the Old West Baltimore National Register Historic District, bounded by North Avenue, Madison Avenue, Dolphin Street, Franklin Street, and Fulton Avenue. Some of the current sites of our research lie outside of these boundaries, however they all connect directly to the central Old West Baltimore area which may be considered to be a kind of cultural epicenter of Baltimore’s black community.
According to Karen Olson (“Old West Baltimore: Segregation, African-American Culture, and the Struggle for Equality.” In The Baltimore Book: New Views of Local History), Old West Baltimore became the first predominantly African American residential area in Baltimore when it was occupied by African Americans who migrated there, largely from South Baltimore and rural areas, beginning in the late 19th century. African Americans moved there for better housing conditions. In general they followed a similar north-northwest path to that of migrant Germans and Jews before them, occupying many of the buildings that these groups vacated.
Old West Baltimore traditionally housed a diverse range of socio-economic groups. Black professionals owned their own homes on the avenues, middle class folk rented smaller homes, and the poorest folk occupied dwellings in the back alleys.
Today, the differences in the type and quality of the buildings is still visible, particularly as you tour the avenues starting at Madison, McCulloh and Druid Hill Avenues to the east of Pennsylvania Avenue and compare the structures there to those to the west.
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