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Southwest Baltimore

Photo Credit: Union Square Online

Southwest Baltimore, also known as SoWeBo by the locals, is a colorful area full of local artists. This area was designated a National Register Historic District in 1967. This is a working class kind of neighborhood with a great mix of people of all ages. House-to-house, block-to-block the make-up of people changes adding to character of the neighborhood.

SoWeBo holds two major events throughout the year that couldn’t be more different in nature: the Union Square Christmas Cookie Tour and the SoWeBohemian Festival. Selected homes, decorated for the holidays and set out with the owners' favorite cookies, are featured at the Cookie Tour, which takes place the second Sunday of December. By contrast, the SoWeBohemian Festival, which began in 1985 and takes place the last Sunday in May, features alternative music, poetry readings and art exhibits.

Overall SoWeBo is a neighborhood that has seen its ups and downs but residents are hopeful about its future and many are actively working to improve the quality of life there.

Southwest Baltimore neighborhoods include:
Irvington | Tremont | Yale Heights | Dickeyville | Franklintown/Franklintown Road | Wakefield | Allendale | Edmondson | Uplands | Fairmount | Carroll South | Saint Joseph’s | Morrell Park | Hunting Ridge | Ten Hills | Union Square | Violetville

Irvington
Irvington is family-oriented community with residences built over a century ago. The neighborhood contains a three-block business district and is home to the 300-acre London Park Cemetery that was incorporated in 1853 and contains Union and Confederate graves on opposite “hills.”

Maiden Choice Run and other grassy areas bordering the community give it a very green atmosphere. Minutes from the beltway and served by both local buses and trains to Washington D.C., makes Irvington a very nice bedroom community. The name Irvington is far newer than the first inhabitants of the area. In 1874, C. Irving Ditty, an attorney and Collector of the Port of Baltimore bought a large section of land in the area that would later take his name. Ditty laid out and named the local streets, both of which, streets and names, are still used today.

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Tremont
Family-oriented, middle-income community with well-maintained and nicely landscaped properties, Tremont is only a few blocks from the County-City line and was originally a part of Catonsville until annexed by Baltimore City. Community residents have been organized ever since first moving there, and today Tremont Community Assn. is an active organization, promoting family values and morals within their community.

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Yale Heights
The area of Yale Heights is 90% homeowner occupied making it a neighborhood that takes pride in their homes and work together to maintain a safe, healthy and attractive community.

Yale Heights is family oriented neighborhood, mixed by both age and income. Maiden Choice Run borders the community adding to its greenery and beauty. There's a large children's playground within the community and the Frederick E. Leidig Recreation Center has programs for youth and adults.

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Dickeyville
A national historic site consisting of 134 houses, Dickeyville has all the makings of a 19th century setting in Southwest Baltimore. A surviving 19th-Century mill town is unusual in itself; that one is found within the boundaries of a major city is truly extraordinary. As Baltimore continues to grow and its density increases, the importance of Dickeyville as a small rural retreat within the City limits will increase. Its environmental contribution can be compared to that of the City’s parks.

Dickeyville’s reputation has already spread and many visitors to Baltimore make a special effort to see this unusual village with its lovely setting. Dickeyville can have an important role to play in Baltimore’s development as a tourist center.

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Franklintown/Franklintown Road
Franklintown is an historic mill village in Baltimore City. It is a Baltimore City Historic District, and has been nominated for the National Register of Historic Places. The community was planned, but never fully developed, as Baltimore County's first planned subdivision - a retreat for the middle class, and retains its rural character to this day.

Franklintown is adjacent to Gwynns Falls/Leakin Park, home to The Carrie Murray Nature Center and The Crimea Mansion. The neighborhood is also at the end of I70, which makes it an easy commute to Washington, Annapolis, Columbia, Ellicott City, and communities around the Baltimore Beltway. And Franklintown is only approximately 15-20 minutes from downtown and BWI and approximately 25 minutes from Towson.

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Wakefield
The community of Wakefield derives its name from a farm that existed on the site until the late 1950's. Originally, part of a land grant called Parkers Palace, patented in 1695, Wakefield has since passed through a succession of owners. The area appears to have been farmed from as early as the first decades of the 19th century, and in 1955 was described as the largest farm still in cultivation within the city limits.

Wakefield had been a dairy farm until 1929; after that year it was cultivated less intensively, primarily for fodder, as the farm's last owner, Mr. Malcolm Tebbs, kept stables and boarded riding horses. Mr. Tebbs opened his farm to amateur theatricals and equestrian pageants, and provided a modern cottage clubhouse for the Maryland League of Horsemen. After Mr. Tebbs' death, the Real Estate Development Company, Lee and Kornreich bought the 90-acre Wakefield farm from his estate and proceeded to plan the Wakefield Garden Apartments, a 1000 unit project, described at the time as "the largest undertaking in Baltimore apartment construction history."

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Allendale
Allendale is a well-maintained community with tree-lined streets, beautiful landscaping and attractive houses. It’s an ideal neighborhood to raise a family with Daisy Field Park at its borders with open fields perfect for ball playing.

Allendale has a total of 1500 houses including mostly brick rowhomes. There are also individual frame houses scattered throughout the community dating back to the 1920's. The Allendale Community Association was started in the 1950's when people met in each other's homes. The organization grew, and after the Mary E. Rodman Recreation Center was built in 1974, the Allendale Community Assn. began meeting there to accommodate larger groups.

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Edmondson
Six neighborhoods along Edmondson to Hunting Ridge were built up on the high ground beyond the Gwynns Falls between 1910 and 1930. They comprise Baltimore's most distant suburb of daylight rowhomes. Begun as residences for streetcar commuters — developers advertised them as a half hour from downtown Baltimore — these neighborhoods were completed with houses built with garages. New residents traveled neighborhood thoroughfares into the city and County. Elevation, and natural and built boundaries, bestowed an identity to the residential construction very similar to that of rowhouse architecture elsewhere. Cathedral Cemetery, which isolated the neighborhoods from Frederick Road industry and detached estates and country houses built in the county, and the Gywnns Falls, hemmed them in on the east and south.

Boundaries of Edmondson extend clockwise from the intersection of the Western Maryland Railway and along Edmondson, Woodington, Rokeby Road to just east of Seminole, thence north-northwest west to Gwynns Falls, and along the Falls and Railroad. Entirely residential, it includes five large churches, two schools, and one playground; forty percent of the acreage is green space and wooded land within Gwynns Falls Park.

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Uplands
Uplands is a close-knit family-oriented community with primarily owner-occupied, well-maintained properties. The neighborhood is conveniently located, only 15 minutes from downtown Baltimore, the Inner Harbor and BWI airport.

The Uplands HomeOwners Improvement Association, Inc. is extremely active, promoting a safe and clean community and ensuring that the original Constitution and Bylaws for the community are enforced.

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Fairmount
A beautiful wooded setting that is a small-secluded community that has the country nestled within the city limits with a running spring. Fairmount’s homes are all different in style and architecture. Here you’ll find colonials, bungalows, cottages, split-levels, mostly built in the 1900s, one right next to the other. Gwynns Falls Trail, Forest Park Golf Course, Cahill Performing Arts are all conveniently located to the community and downtown Baltimore is only 15 minutes away.

Circa 1912, Fairmount got its beginnings from the estate of James Carey, known as “the mount” designed in 1858. The Carey family completed further development of the neighborhood. Work is underway for historical and architectural preservation of “the Mount” as a historical neighborhood.

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Carroll South
Carroll has always been a strong community with the Carroll Improvement Assn. representing the residents' interests for almost 50 years. People have always been attracted to the neighborhood because of the natural beauty of Gwynns Falls Park and the good access for transportation by car or bus.

The neighborhood tends to attract families because of its close proximity to Gwynns Falls Park, which is primarily a naturally wild area along the Gwynns Falls stream, and to the Police Athletic League Center that has ball fields and other open space areas. Approximately 90% of the homes are owner occupied making it a strong stable community.

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Saint Joseph’s
Saint Joseph’s is a close-knit community filled with mature trees and open spaces. Comprised of a mixture of brick townhouses and single-family detached frame housing on every block, residents pride themselves on their well-maintained community. Many of the houses are from 50 to 75 years old.

Before construction of the brick townhouses, St. Joseph's was a rural area with a stream with footbridges where St. Joseph Street is now located. St. Joseph's has been a close-knit community for at least 40 years. In 1963 Mr. Calvin B. Quill, along with about 6 other residents, founded the St. Joseph's Improvement Assn. Their goal was the betterment and stability of this community.

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Morrell Park
Morrell Park, together with Westport, Violetville, and Mount Winans, once comprised an expansive 2,368 acre tract entitled “Georgia,” or “Georgia Plantation,” and later called “Mount Clare.”

Today Morrell Park is made up of both rowhouses and individual houses. In certain areas of the neighborhood you’ll feel more like you’re living in the country than in commuting distance to downtown Baltimore. Plus the community is close to Camden Yards Baseball Stadium, Carroll Park golf course, Ravens Football stadium, and St. Agnes Hospital.

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Hunting Ridge
Hunting Ridge is nestled between Leakin Park and built-up sections of Edmondson. The neighborhood is filled with gracious old trees and curving streets. So many old elm trees have made their home here that neighbors jokingly refer to Hunting Ridge as “the shady side of town.” The neighborhood’s hilly terrain has prompted some residents to break out their skis in the winter.

Hunting Ridge boasts a population that is racially diverse. All are represented and involved in the active community association which annually conducts community meetings, hosts a neighborhood block party, Christmas caroling, supports the local Thomas Jefferson elementary school, publishes a lively newsletter and welcomes new residents. The Presbyterian church, which is within the neighborhood’s borders reaches out to the community offering its facilities for community use.

Besides being a comfortable place to live, it is a real community where neighbors truly know each other, look out for each other and are very friendly. One resident was quoted saying that it's nice to live in a neighborhood with children, pets, and young and old adults around.

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Ten Hills
Ten Hills was created in 1910 from the old A.S. Chappel Estate, remembered in Chapelgate Lane. Most of the large, old homes that are characteristic of Ten Hills were built in the 1920's. The neighborhood has developed over the years, but there are still a few building lots in the neighborhood.

Single-family homes, ranging in style from Georgian, Tudor, American Foursquare, to very modern homes and modest-sized post-war ranchers make up the neighborhood. The community has easy access to downtown and area malls and highways. It’s only a 15-minute drive to the Inner Harbor, and just a short hop to the beltway. Residents can walk to Edmonson Village and Edmonson Square shopping centers. The Ten Hills Community Association is active in promoting community affairs and ensuring compliance with covenants and standards. The Ten Hills Garden Club promotes interest in landscaping and gardening, and sponsors plantings in public places in the area. And the Hunting Hills Swim Club is the neighborhood swimming pool.

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Union Square
The old saying goes “Home is where the heart is!” – and Union Square is a great place to call home. Union Square is a cosmopolitan mix of residential comfort and urban excitement.

Less than a mile from Camden Yards – the finest baseball stadium in the land – the Union Square/Hollins Market Historic District is sited on the rich historical ground of Southwest Baltimore known to locals as SoWeBo. The Inner Harbor, B&O Railroad Museum, Ravens Stadium, and University of Maryland-Baltimore are all within walking distance. A public golf course is nearby, next to the newly renovated Montgomery Park office building. Access to I-83, I-95 and the MARC commuter train to Washington D.C. are minutes away. The Union Square/Hollins Market District is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

An uncommon synergy prevails in the neighborhood as residents, both longtime and newly arrived, work together through various committees and forums to enhance the area’s quality of life. Toward that end, Union Square is also actively engaged in outreach with other nearby neighborhoods and non-profit groups. Pre- and post-Civil War architecture, period street lamps, brick sidewalks and stately row homes mark this historic neighborhood, one of Baltimore’s friendliest.

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Violetville
Named for the beautiful flowers that appear each springtime, Violetville is a well-kept Baltimore neighborhood that has retained the charm and friendless first exhibited when it was a small, country village. Springtime also turns the focus to “Field Day,” a parade that signals the start of the adult and little-league sports season. These teams take advantage of the large neighborhood park that features several fields, courts, playgrounds, and even a refreshment stand. Bordering residential Violetville are an office and business park, and industrial park, and a commercial area straddling the conveniently located I-95 corridor (Caton Avenue Exit). For residents, this can mean a short walk to work or public transportation.

Many residents take pride in this family-oriented community (where some have lived their whole lives) and work toward ever increasing the quality of living and schooling that underlie this neighborhood’s stability and success.

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