Belvedere: Exploring Baltimore’s Neighborhoods
A steady stream of cars is heading northeast on Belvedere Avenue on this humid late-August day. Parking spots along the street leading up to Belvedere Square are at a premium. The sidewalks are filled with lawn-chair-carrying concert-goers – young and old, black and white – heading to the final “Summer Sounds at the Square” event of the year.
The scene here encapsulates all that is attractive about Belvedere – and all that frustrates some residents of this North Baltimore neighborhood.
- Belvedere Square (Handout photo)
- The opening of Belvedere Square in 1986. (Baltimore Sun archives)
- The parking garage on top of Belvedere Square Market. (Emma Patti Harris/Baltimore Sun)
- “Visit us at Belvedere Square Market” is painted on a building right around the corner. (Emma Patti Harris/Baltimore Sun)
- 2008 – A statue of a chef holds a sign alerting customers of higher prices at Greg’s Bagels in Belvedere Square shopping center. Due to inflation in fuel and food costs, many restaurants have reluctantly been forced to pass the increased price of doing business on to customers. (Glenn Fawcett/Baltimore Sun)
- 2012 – People gather in Belvedere Square for the weekly Friday evening concert series Summer Sounds. (Brian Krista/Baltimore Sun)
- Grand Cru at Belvedere Square. (Colby Ware/Special to the Baltimore Sun)
- Women’s-only health club, Lynn Brick’s is housed in 5911 York Road, which originally was the Hochschild Kohn department store. (Emma Patti Harris/Baltimore Sun)
- Hochschild Kohn on Belvedere Ave in 1954. (Baltimore Sun archives)
- Hochschild Kohn on Belvedere Ave in 1983. (Baltimore Sun archives)
- Renderings for Belvedere Square. (Baltimore Sun archives)
- January 2000 — The Belvedere Square shopping center in North Baltimore is now faced with a large percentage of unoccupied space. (Doug Kapustin/Baltimore Sun)
- 2002 – Belvedere Square. (Jed Kirschbaum/Baltimore Sun)
- 2004 – The view from above the food market in Belvedere Square during lunch on Tuesday. The 10,000 square-foot area has more then 10 merchants and has been an anchor in Belvedere Square since 1986.(Christopher T. Assaf/Baltimore Sun)
- A mural showcasing hands that spell the word “love” adorn a building near The Senator. (Emma Patti Harris/Baltimore Sun)
- February 16, 1988 – Baltimore director John Waters and drag queen Divine, aka Harris Glenn Milstead, share a light moment outside the Senator Theatre at the world premiere of “Hairspray.” (Amy Davis/Baltimore Sun)
- Joe Belsinger, Belsinger Sign Works, Inc., paints a portion of “The Senator” sign on the historic York Road theatre. In addition to painting, the company will install lighted panels on the marquee. (Kim Hairston/Baltimore Sun)
- 1989 – Alex Karvounis, of “Double Trouble” fame, was one of many performers on hand for the opening of “Her Alibi” at The Senator Theatre. (Kim Hairston/Baltimore Sun)
- The lobby of The Senator features the original terrazzo floors and other art deco accents from when the landmark was built, all designed by architect John Jacob Zink. (Emma Patti Harris/Baltimore Sun)
- The sidewalk in front of The Senator features a “walk of fame” which highlights local cinematic accomplishments. (Emma Patti Harris/Baltimore Sun)
- Clark Burger is located next door to the historic Senator Theatre. (Emma Patti Harris/Baltimore Sun)
- Sachin Duggal, right, of Pigtown snuggles with his daughter Selena, 2, during the Trick Or Treat at the Square event at Belvedere Square in Baltimore, MD on Sunday, October 27, 2013. (Jen Rynda/Baltimore Sun)
- January 5, 1996–Theressia Hein owns and manages Old World Gourmet at Belvedere Square Market. (Perry Thorsvik/Baltimore Sun)
- April 2011 – Subway and TCBY are two national chain stores that have moved into Belvedere square. (Kim Hairston/The Baltimore Sun)
- 2000 – Residents in Northeast Baltimore are looking at the status of the troubled Belvedere Square shopping center, and recent actions by the city to bring in a new owner. (Amy Davis/Baltimore Sun)
- January 2000 — The Belvedere Square shopping center in North Baltimore is now faced with a large percentage of unoccupied space including this former site of a Gap store. (Doug Kapustin/Baltimore Sun)
- 2000 – Residents in Northeast Baltimore are looking at the status of the troubled Belvedere Square shopping center, and recent actions by the city to bring in a new owner. The north building of Belvedere Square has many vacancies, including the space formerly occupied by “Framin’ Place,” which has a sign in its window, announcing its closure due to the “shopping center’s incurable” deterioration. (Amy Davis/Baltimore Sun)
- 2002 – Contractors widen the entranceways and roadway at Belvedere Square. (Jed Kirschbaum/Baltimore Sun)
- Swallow at the Hollow at 5921 York Road. (Kenneth K. Lam/Baltimore Sun)
- The intersection of E. Belvedere Ave. and York Rd. bustles with rush hour traffic. (Emma Patti Harris/Baltimore Sun)
- Row houses dating back to the 1950’s line the streets on E. Belvedere Ave. (Emma Patti Harris/Baltimore Sun)
- Govans Presbyterian Church, one of the touch points for the Belvedere community. (Emma Patti Harris/Baltimore Sun)
- Govans Presbyterian Church on York Rd, dedicated in 1846. (Baltimore Sun archives, 1940)
- A peaceful garden sits beside Govans Presbyterian Church. (Emma Patti Harris/Baltimore Sun)
- Down Orkney Road, Belvedere turns more residential. (Emma Patti Harris/Baltimore Sun)
- A Little Free Library sits on the corner of St. Dustans Rd. and Clearspring Rd. (Emma Patti Harris/Baltimore Sun)
Belvedere
» Border streets: Belvedere Ave., York Rd., Benninghaus Rd., Bradhurst Rd.
» Neighboring areas: Chinquapin Park, Cameron Village, Mid-Govans, Rosebank
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“This is one of the things we deal with as a result of business development,” LaVerne Nicholson Sykes, president of the Belvedere Improvement Association, says over the sound of blaring car horns earlier in the day. “It’s a headache, but because of special events only on Fridays for a certain amount of time, we tolerate it well. Parking becomes an issue, but we know that and just kind of deal with it.”
Such is the price of living in one of the city’s most attractive neighborhoods. An incredibly diverse, relatively safe area with strong housing stock and proximity to I-83, Belvedere has basically everything you’d want in a city neighborhood. At least that’s how Sykes saw it growing up near Douglass High in West Baltimore and making the occasional trip to the Hochschild Kohn department store on Belvedere and York.
“I grew up in a neighborhood where we walked to the library, we walked to shopping centers, we walked to the movies,” says Sykes, who’s lived in Belvedere for 25+ years. “We had accessibility, and that’s what drew me here. And my kids. I wanted my kids to have that same experience.”
The development of Belvedere dates back to the establishment of York Road as a wagon trail in the 1700s and later as part of the Baltimore-to-Pennsylvania turnpike in the 1800s. Frame houses were built near the thoroughfare and other major streets, such as Orkney Road, throughout the 19th century. Home construction continued through the ensuing decades, giving Belvedere a varied housing stock with bungalows, stone and brick colonials, traditional row homes and more.
The influx of residents into the area led to the development of the commercial hub at the intersection of York and Belvedere. The Senator Theatre, which underwent a significant rehabilitation in 2014, has been an anchor institution for the neighborhood since 1939. Hochschild Kohn and the Hess shoe store were stalwarts back in Sykes’ youthful days. Today, the Belvedere Square Market features a variety of restaurants, food stands and retail shops. Lynne Brick’s gym sits nearby, as does a Loyola University clinical center.
“When I moved here, there was a fear 15 years ago that – matter of fact it wasn’t an unfounded fear – the whole idea of Belvedere Square expanding and taking our homes was right in front of us,” says Kris Taylor, an active BIA board member who’s lived here for 15 years. “They said they needed more parking, and the only way you could get more parking was going south, and the only way south was our homes. They unveiled a map with our homes having buildings on top of them. It’s a Belvedere legend that someone stood up and said, ‘That’s my f****** house!’ And then the fight began.”
The residents won that round, but occasional battles have persisted throughout the years. Belvedere’s commercial district is rounded out by a handful of bar/restaurants, including Ryan’s Daughter, Grand Cru, Zen West and the venerable Swallow at the Hollow. Favorites Pub (better known to Loyola students as Craig’s) was shut down in January for a variety of reasons. Still, with 11 liquor licenses in a one-block radius of York and Belvedere, problems do crop up from time to time.
“I made an executive decision that we reach out to our elected officials and say, ‘Wait a minute, we want to make sure there are some controls in place so that the number of establishments with liquor licenses doesn’t get out of control,’” Sykes says. “As a result of that, the business community, Belvedere Square specifically, became upset because they felt like it was going to stymie their growth, and that’s not what it was intended to do. But what it did allow for was, and we negotiated and had a year in the delay of the implementation of the law to allow us to come together to talk, to agree on some things, and to really go back to the table and come up with what everybody felt was a fair provision.”
For Taylor – who grew up in Northwest Baltimore and spent a decade in suburban Chicago before buying her house in Belvedere – occasional frustrations with encroaching businesses and petty crime are surpassed by her love for the community. She’s disappointed when young families leave Belvedere for the suburbs in search of alternative schooling options, and she worries that some people are increasingly priced out of the neighborhood. But the plusses, for her and hundreds more, easily outweigh the minuses.
“I wanted to be able to walk to get a cup of coffee,” Taylor says. “The other part is we’re hugely racially and economically diverse. For me, that was important, to have a good mix of couples and singles and gays and straights. I couldn’t think of a better place to live for that – especially in Baltimore.”