Union Square: Exploring Baltimore’s neighborhoods
From the exterior, the rowhouse at 1524 Hollins Street is indistinguishable from the other grand, three-story Victorians overlooking Union Square. Since 1997, when Baltimore closed its City Life museums, the interior has been left largely unkempt, save for some general maintenance efforts by the Friends of the H.L. Mencken House. But in the backyard blooms a lush urban garden, dutifully maintained by Betsey Waters and the Society to Preserve H.L. Mencken’s Legacy.
- Union Square Park (Kalani Gordon/Baltimore Sun/2014)
- Union Square Park (Baltimore Sun photo/Dec. 7, 1969)
- Union Square Park (Kalani Gordon/Baltimore Sun/2014)
- The rehabilitated garden in the backyard at the H.L. Mencken House in Union Square, across from Union Square Park. (Kalani Gordon/Baltimore Sun/2014)
- Building facades in Union Square in Southwest Baltimore. (Kalani Gordon/Baltimore Sun/2014)
- Hollins Market, near Union Square, in Baltimore. (Kalani Gordon/Baltimore Sun/2014)
- A garden grows outside a rowhome in Union Square ahead of a Bloom Your Block competition. (Kalani Gordon/Baltimore Sun/2014)
- Inside the H.L. Mencken House in Union Square, across from Union Square Park. (Kalani Gordon/Baltimore Sun/2014)
- The rehabilitated garden in the backyard at the H.L. Mencken House in Union Square, across from Union Square Park. The tiles were handmade by Mencken. (Kalani Gordon/Baltimore Sun/2014)
- Black Cherry Puppet Theater on Hollins St. in SOWEBO. (Algerina Perna/Baltimore Sun file/Jan. 2005)
- Outside the H.L. Mencken House in Union Square, facing south to Union Square Park. (Kalani Gordon/Baltimore Sun/2014)
- A 75-person staged mock funeral June 26, 1977, symbolically burying a proposal to expand the Union Square historic area. (William Holtz/Sun photo/1977)
- Union Square in 1970, when it was being eyed as the city’s fifth historic district. (Sun photo/April 1970)
- Mike Aubele, left, and Todd Wetzelberger, right,principals in Anchor Development, are helping to reshape the Union Square area by using city and state historic tax credits to rehab Victorian-era rowhouses for an affordable price. They are walking in the 1700 block of E. Lombard Street where they have completed one historic rehab, and are in the process of doing a second, the brick rowhouse at left. Buyers get a big break on their city taxes for ten years, and a percentage back on the purchase price from the state. (Amy Davis/Baltimore Sun photo/May 2008)
- The fountain in Union Square. (Alerina Perna/Baltimore Sun file/Jan. 5, 2005)
- Baltimore scenes are painted on the brick facade of the Hollins Market which is in the Hollins Market Historic neighborhood, near Union Square. (Algerina Perna/Baltimore Sun/Oct. 2008)
- Row homes border Union Square, which was established in 1847, at the Hollins Market/Union Square border. (Algerina Perna/Baltimore Sun/Oct. 2008)
- The historic firehouse on S. Carey St. (Kim Hairston/Baltimore Sun/Jan. 2002)
- Mary Ernish took advantage of the pleasant sunny weather to scrape excess paint after stripping and repainting the window frames on her Hollins Street rowhouse in Union Square. She and her husband are using Maryland Historic Trust tax credits for the restoration of their 1886 Italianate rowhouse to its original appearance. (Amy Davis/Baltimore Sun/May 2010)
- Assembling the fountain in Union Square, across from the H.L. Mencken house. (William H. Mortimer/Baltimore Sun/File photo first dated 06/22/1976)
- Hollins Market in 1957, dates back to 1836. (A. Aubrey Bodine/Baltimore Sun/October 27, 1957)
- The community pays the city to put up the banners promoting the area. Residents of Union Square, including former neighborhood association president Chris Taylor, have successfully decreased the vacancy rate in their neighborhood from 50 percent. (Jed Kirschbaum/Baltimore Sun/Aug. 5, 2011)
- Hollins and S. Carey Streets are on the border of the Union Square area. (Jed Kirschbaum/The Baltimore Sun/Aug. 2011)
- Homes in the 1300 block of West Lombard St. in 2011. Residents of Union Square, including former neighborhood association president Chris Taylor have successfully decreased the vacancy rate in their neighborhood from 50 percent. (Jed Kirschbaum/Baltimore Sun/Aug. 2011)
- Kristine Balazs stands in the doorway of her Lombard St. home she is renovating.(Jed Kirschbaum/Baltimore Sun/Aug. 2011)
- USA Day in 1977. The summer event with a patriotic theme traditionally was held on the Saturday of Flag Week, sponsored by the Union Square Association, Inc. (Baltimore Sun file/June 17, 1977)
- USA Day Festival, June 12, 1977. (Baltimore Sun file)
- Visitors flock to a home tour in the 1500 block of Hollins in Union Square. (Richard Childress/Baltimore Sun/Oct. 16, 1978)
- The Union Square Park in Southwest Baltimore. (William H. Mortimer/Baltimore Sun/June 1971)
- A home built in the late 1850s across from Union Square in Southwest Baltimore. (Ellis J. Malashuk/Baltimore Sun/Oct. 19, 1980)
- Rowhome facades in Union Square. (Baltimore Sun file/March 6, 1956)
Union Square
» Border streets: Frederick Ave./Booth St./S. Carey St./W. Pratt St./ S. Fulton Ave.
» Neighboring areas: Franklin Square, Hollins Market, New Southwest/Mount Claire, Carrollton Ridge
“When we came to ask [the city] for a presence in the house, they couldn’t find the front door key. The garden was all ivy. You couldn’t have seen the brick,” said Waters, whose goals for the home of the legendary writer and long-time Baltimore Sun scribe are to pursue a lease with the city, tap into some of a $3 million endowment for the house for select renovations, set up a center for writers, and create a museum and give tours to visitors. The garden is an important initial step in a quest for urban renewal.
Throughout Union Square and the adjacent Hollins Market, passion projects created by residents to improve quality of life are seemingly everywhere. The strong housing stock, rich history of the neighborhood, proximity to highways, public transportation and downtown, and sense of community are among the reasons why the neighborhoods have drawn new residents in droves.
Chris Taylor, the president of Union Square’s community association, was in the market for a home about a decade ago. He and his wife wanted something in Bolton Hill and also considered Reservoir Hill, but eventually zeroed in on Union Square, despite its well-documented problems with crime and vacants.
“I did feel like it was sort of like an island,” said Taylor, the co-owner of Urban Space Developers. “That scared me a little bit, and it was 10 times worse, I mean really bad back then. We’re talking 11 years ago. A lot of vacants, a lot of activity in the neighborhood.
We just took a chance and bought a house on the park that was a fraction of what we were going to pay in Reservoir Hill even, and Reservoir Hill was still a transitional neighborhood, too. For half the price we get the same house but [could] be in a similar situation. We saw the potential with the downtown and the [Hollins] Market and everything. Luckily it’s worked out. It’s changed drastically.”
Curbing the vacancy rate has been the biggest step toward improvement. Taylor said that in 2006, the neighborhood association took a survey of Union Square and found that the number of vacants was just below 50 percent. Now he estimates that “we’re probably around 10 or 11 percent.”
All around the neighborhood there’s evidence of renewal. During our walking tour of the area last month, front porches and window sills displayed potted plants and flowers as part of Union Square’s annual Bloom Your Block competition. On one corner lot, a screen was painted onto the side of a garage so community empowerment documentaries could be shown through a partnership with Maryland’s school of social work.
“All these lots used to be overgrown,” said Bif Browning, a Mississippi native who moved to Union Square in 2006 and serves as Taylor’s vice president on the neighborhood association. “We got rid of the negatives and turned them into positives. … We’re also pushing for a regional library and working to establish five-to-10 parks around the city.”
Business is picking up in the area, too. In addition to Hollins Market, you can find pizza (Zella’s Pizzeria), Tex-Mex (Mi Ranchito), Peruvian chicken (Primo Chicken), pub food (Patrick’s of Pratt Street), coffee (CUPS) and a number of other food options nearby.
The final stop of our Southwest corridor tour is the University of Maryland BioPark on West Baltimore Street, where plans are in place for a cancer treatment center specializing in proton therapy. Jane Shaab, the assistant vice president for economic development, says that the BioPark is also working toward 2 million square feet of commercial space, “predominantly for life sciences … and other technology innovation companies.”
Progress has been quicker here compared to development in Union Square and Hollins Market, but the efforts of people like Browning and Taylor are similarly valuable, Shaab said.
“These smart neighbors, about two years ago, came to BioPark and the University of Maryland and said, ‘If you will work with us, we have a great ambition to really bring our neighborhood to fulfillment.’ It’s working and we’re on our way together.”
This is part of an ongoing series from The Baltimore Sun about the history, culture, and future of Baltimore’s neighborhoods. Have a suggestion for what neighborhood to explore next? Let us know.