On a sweltering June afternoon, one day after the Summer Solstice, over 20 community members walked along the streets of East Towson. Led by Nancy Goldring, President of the Northeast Towson Improvement Association (NeTIA) and NeighborSpace Board Member, the group toured Baltimore County’s oldest African American community and visited several historic sites.
Tour highlights included the Jacob House log cabin, originally built by a former slave on land in what is now the 400 block of E Pennsylvania Avenue and relocated to its current location for preservation; St. James A.U.M.P. Church, the oldest church of the three Black churches in Towson; and the East Towson Carver Community Center, which used to be Carver Colored High School. Children used to be bussed down to the school all the way from Phoenix because there was no other high school for Black kids. Some women left the neighborhood to attend high school in the city because Baltimore County didn’t allow colored students to graduate from high school and, even if they did, they received an incomplete education and weren’t taught higher math or sciences. Multiple women left and attended Saint Frances Academy instead.
Nancy further elaborated that the entire area around the Carver center once acted as a main street, with schools, churches, barbers, and businesses. Chesapeake Ave was called “the great Black way” by a local journalist because of all the Black families living along the avenue and because the avenue was thriving. On what used to be a ballfield used by Negro leagues to practice and 8 of the original houses, the BGE substation was built in 1965, in between East Pennsylvania Avenue and the former Ma and Pa Railroad. At its height, East Towson was comprised of about 300 families, including the former community of Sandy Bottom. A number of homes on Lennox Ave are still owned by the original families, and there are still 5 or 6 families currently living in East Towson who descend directly from slaves of the Hampton Plantation.
As well as sharing history about the area, Nancy shared with the group history from her own family and her own life. Nancy’s great-great-grandfather James H. Williams founded the Mount Olive Baptist Church, which Nancy and her family still attend, at the corner of York and Bosley. This area was known as the Sandy Bottom community, which has since disappeared. She also shared memories of the annual Juneteenth parades of her youth, sponsored by the Elks Lodge. The parade used to go down Pennsylvania Avenue and everyone who was connected to East Towson in some way would come back and celebrate. This year, NeTIA hosted a small parade with a BBQ at the Carver Center playground after. Once Elks Lodge renovations have been completed, NeTIA plans to bring back Juneteenth parade in full force. Nancy and NeTIA are also leading the effort to construct a trail that will connect the historic sites of East Towson with the Hampton National Historic Site. The Road to Freedom Trail is an opportunity to use history to heal, to do something positive for the community while still acknowledging its origins.
After the walk, the group joined NeighborSpace friends and community members in Adelaide Bentley Park (named after Nancy Goldring’s grandmother, a longtime East Towson resident and community activist) for our Start of Summer Social. Featuring jazz piano, fresh pit beef, and ice cold beverages, NeighborSpace was thrilled to welcome over 40 attendees to relax under the shade of the mature trees in the park, which reduced the temperature about 10 degrees from the street!
NeighborSpace would like to thank everyone who attended the History Walk, which we were fortunate enough to be able to host for free thanks to a Marilyn Hatza Memorial SHINE grant from Maryland Humanities. And we would like to thank everyone who attended our Start of Summer social. With generous donations given by attendees, NeighborSpace was able to meet our annual fundraising goal with a week left in our fiscal year! You are the reason we do this work, and we cannot thank you enough for your support. Happy summer!
