Site 8. Lorraine Avenue
Ghost Rivers: Sumwalt Run
Remington itself was an intricate human ecosystem.
In the 1940s and 50s the neighborhood bubbled with activity. Stores on almost every corner supplied meats and produce, fresh bread and sweets, shoes and hardware. Churches like Guardian Angel and Oak Street AME were hubs of community, hosting regular services and events. Many residents shopped and worked within walking distance, and multiple trolley lines connected Remington to all corners of the city, making the expense of car ownership optional. High’s Dairy, Sanitary Laundry, Potts & Callahan, and other neighborhood businesses provided numerous jobs.
Access to work, education, transportation, credit, and housing — these are waters that give a community life. Severing these wellsprings disrupts the social landscape.
From the 1960s through the ‘90s the fortunes of Remington mirrored countless other places across America. Reliable blue-collar jobs dried up; savings evaporated. Unemployment, drugs, and crime percolated through the neighborhood. Some residents fled to the suburbs. For others, race, money, class, and education were barriers to mobility. Despite community efforts in the ‘70s and ‘80s that built grass-roots social service programs and a new rec center, the neighborhood fortunes and population declined. These were difficult decades for Remingtonians and for Baltimore at large.
Since the early 2000s improved safety and renewed interest in city living have reshaped the neighborhood, bringing in younger, more diverse residents and an inflow of new businesses and capital. Like successful stream restoration efforts at nearby Stony Run, investments in the neighborhood ecosystem are helping Remington thrive again.
In Baltimore, change tends to happen gradually. The tides of gentrification carry complex outcomes as well as mixed emotions. Many long-time Remingtonians welcome improved amenities, safety, and public spaces, even as they worry about being priced out. Who are the new stores and restaurants for? Will new residents sustain the sense of community that has glued together generations of Remingtonians?
“Everyone knew everyone.”
Two young Remingtonians have a tea party on the sidewalk, ca. 1905–10. Throughout its history Remington has been a tight-knit community. (Courtesy Maryland Episcopal Diocesan Archives)
Milk delivery carts lined up in front of the Hygeia Dairy in 1912. (Special Collections, USDA National Agricultural Library.)
In the early and mid-20th century, the bustling local economy supported hundreds of steady jobs in Remington and in the nearby mills of the Jones Falls. The Hygeia building later became the site of live/work artist studios before being heavily damaged by a fire in the 1990s. Its former location is now the site of the community-maintained green space, Sisson Street Park.
Looking south past some of the neighborhood businesses along Remington Avenue in 1972. (Baltimore News American Collection, Special Collections, University of Maryland Libraries.)
The Impact of Redlining
Detail of the federal Home Owners' Loan Corporation map of 1937, grading Remington (in red at center, D6) as a “hazardous investment.” Property owners in D- and C-graded areas often found it impossible to get financing.
The HOLC assessment justified its D-grade for Remington in part by noting an “infiltration” of “Foreign-born: 35%” and “Negro: 35%” residents.
Earlier in the 20th century, bankers and city planners looked at a map of Baltimore and drew red lines around Remington and other parts of the city. Banks and insurance companies considered these neighborhoods of Black families, immigrants, and working class whites “undesirable” and “risky investments.” As Baltimore’s population swelled with migrants from Appalachia and the South, this redlining cut off access to home loans and property investment for many Remington residents, who already faced financial and housing discrimination. Like a river trapped in a concrete channel, redlined neighborhoods began to lose vitality.
““Remington was segregated. African Americans lived on Remington [Avenue] or the bottom parts of Fox Street, and the surrounding areas were all white. It was especially dangerous for outsiders if you were African American. My father actually couldn’t come onto Lorraine [Avenue] without being questioned or stopped. The neighborhood only started to change 20 years ago.””
Resources & Readings
For more on the history of Remington check out Kathleen C. Ambrose’s wonderful book, Remington: The History of a Baltimore Neighborhood
