Jonestown: Exploring Baltimore’s Neighborhoods
Ask anyone in Baltimore where the Shot Tower is and they likely can tell you, but many wouldn’t be able to name the neighborhood.
If locals can’t identify Jonestown, boosters wonder how tourists will find the neighborhood north of Little Italy that’s home to several landmarks and historic homes. Even Baltimore’s tourist maps overlook the area, colorfully highlighting such nearby destinations as the Inner Harbor, Federal Hill, Harbor East, Fells Point and Canton, while leaving Jonestown and other areas in a drab gray.
- This is the sign of “Jonestown” at the corner of Lombard and Lloyd streets. Community groups and museums in Jonestown have come together to create a master plan with a new brand and proposal to try to spur interest in the neighborhood. (Photo by Chiaki Kawajiri for The Baltimore Sun, Oct. 5, 2015)
- Mike Watts, who is visiting from Electra Texas, looks at a display at the Flag House and Star-Spangled Banner Museum, where Mary Pickersgill sewed the flag that flew over Fort McHenry and inspired the national anthem. (Baltimore Sun photo by Barbara Haddock Taylor, June 11, 2014)
- Visitors from Lambertsville (N.J.) Public School stand outside the Flag House and Star-Spangled Banner Museum, where Mary Pickersgill sewed the flag that flew over Fort McHenry and inspired the national anthem. (Baltimore Sun photo by Barbara Haddock Taylor, June 11, 2014)
- As part of the Flag House Courts revitalization project, a new community of townhomes is rising north of Little Italy. John O’Dea, in front, and Mike DiPietro, in back , utility technicians who work for a subcontractor, R. Norton Co., struggle with a long, heavy gas pipe they are installing in the 900 block of Granby St. (Baltimore Sun photo by Amy Davis, Sept. 7, 2004)
- This pillar, at Lombard and Central, used to promote Corned Beef row. Then, under Martin O’Malley, it was repainted to say BELIEVE. With that paint job wearing off, the city has repainted it again. (Baltimore Sun photo)
- At the Apple Festival, on the Shot Tower plaza downtown, Comptroller William Donald Schaefer has his photograph taken with Rosalind Heid, left, member of the Womens’ Civic League. (Baltimore Sun photo by Barbara Haddock Taylor, Oct. 14, 2004)
- Roofer Tom Constine of York, Pa., works on the roof of the Flag House, which was the home of Mary Pickersgill and the site where she sewed the Star Spangled Banner garrison flag she made for Ft. McHenry. (Baltimore Sun photo by Jed Kirschbaum, April 21, 2006)
- The city has agreed to turn over operation of the Shot Tower and Carroll Mansion to Baltimore County innkeeper Anne Pomykala. She plans to reopen both city-owned landmarks as museums and put a bed-and-breakfast and restaurant near the mansion. The Blaustein Building, which was originally part of the Fava Building, will feature a banquet hall on the fourth floor. (Baltimore Sun photo by Jed Kirschbaum, Jan. 4, 2002)
- The first residents of the Flag House Courts development near Pratt Street and Central Avenue are scheduled to move in within the next 60 days. (Baltimore Sun photo by Elizabeth Malby, Feb. 2, 2004)
- The first residents of the Flag House Courts development near Pratt Street and Central Avenue are scheduled to move in within the next 60 days. (Baltimore Sun Staff /ELIZABETH MALBY / Feb. 2, 2004)
- Bruce Davis sweeps debris from the sidewalk following demolition of the Flag House Courts high rises on Feb. 10, 2001. (Baltimore Sun photo by Doug Kapustin)
- The Flag House Courts high rises come crashing to the ground in about six seconds on Feb. 10, 2001. A stiff breeze from the northwest blows dust towards Little Italy and East Baltimore (in the background). (Baltimore Sun photo by Doug Kapustin)
- Bruce Davis sweeps debris from the sidewalk following demolition of the Flag House Courts high rises on Feb. 10, 2001. (Baltimore Sun photo by Doug Kapustin)
- The first-ever Great Flag window, made of glass panels with the Star-Spangled Banner flag design, is being installed at the Flag House and Museum on May 13, 2003. (Baltimore Sun photo by Amy Davis)
- The city has agreed to turn over operation of the Shot Tower, far left, the Fava Building, left, and Carroll Mansion (center) to Baltimore County innkeeper Anne Pomykala and the 1840s Corporation run by Anne and her husband Ronald Pomykala. She plans to reopen both city-owned landmarks as museums and put a bed-and-breakfast in the three buildings on the right in this photo, including the 1840 House, far right, as seen looking northeast across Lombard St., on Jan. 4, 2002. (Baltimore Sun photo by Jed Kirschbaum)
- Homicide Production Designer Vince Peranio and Location Manager Kathi Ash go around the city to find locations to shoot the television show. They are at Recreation Center in Flag House Court and near Oldtown Mall on Oct. 31, 1996. (Baltimore Sun photo by Perry Thorsvik)
- A view of Lombard Market on Lombard Street looking east to Central Avenue. “Corned Beef Row” and Attman’s Deli are also seen in this 1939 Baltimore Sun file photo.
- The Star Spangled-Banner Flag House located at 844 East Pratt Street is pictured in December 2002. Behind the Flag House is the new Star-Spangled Banner Museum, which is under construction. (Baltimore Sun photo by Lloyd Fox)
- The Star Spangled-Banner Flag House located at 844 East Pratt Street is pictured in December 2002. Behind the Flag House is the new Star-Spangled Banner Museum, which is under construction. (Baltimore Sun photo by Lloyd Fox)
- The Star-Spangled Banner Flag House is located at 844 East Pratt Street near Little Italy in downtown Baltimore. Free and metered parking is available next to the house. (Baltimore Sun photo)
- Naval recruits are pictured at the Flag House in Baltimore on “Avenge Pearl Harbor Day” in June 1942. (Baltimore Sun file photo)
- Naval recruits salute after taking the oath at the Flag House during the playing of the National Anthem. (Baltimore Sun photo, June 8, 1942)
- Pigeons and homeless congregate in front of St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church on Feb. 7, 2007. (Baltimore Sun Staff / Karl Merton Ferron)
- Pigeons and homeless congregate in front of St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church on Feb. 7, 2007. (Baltimore Sun Staff / Karl Merton Ferron)
- The Lloyd Street Synagogue on 15 Lloyd Street is pictured on Oct. 5, 2015. The Lloyd Street Synagogue was built in 1845 by the Baltimore Hebrew Congregation. It was the first synagogue erected in Maryland, and today it is the third-oldest standing synagogue in the U.S. (Photo by Chiaki Kawajiri for The Baltimore Sun)
- The McKim Center at 1120 E. Baltimore Street is pictured on Oct. 10, 2015. (Photo by Chiaki Kawajiri for The Baltimore Sun)
- Northbound Aisquith Street is closed between E. Baltimore and Fayette streets, and as a result a reader says that drivers sometimes drive the wrong way on the southbound lanes to reach Fayette Street. Building pictured is the McKim Free School. (Baltimore Sun photo by Glenn Fawcett, Dec. 16, 2008)
- A portion of a rainbow rises behind the Shot Tower on June 28, 2013. (Karl Merton Ferron/Baltimore Sun Staff)
- A patch with three threads from the original Star-Spangled Banner was stitched onto the National 9/11 Flag on June 14, 2012 at a ceremony at the Flag House. Dozens of invited guests and children in attendance participated in adding a stitch to the patch on the flag that flew in N.Y. at 90 West Street after 9/11. (Baltimore Sun photo by Amy Davis)
- This is a view of the front gate at the Star Spangled Banner Museum and Flag House on June 3, 2014. (Baltimore Sun photo by Barbara Haddock Taylor)
- A small fire on the third floor of the US Post Office in the 900 block of Fayette St. closed the main post office about 10:50 am on Feb. 25, 2009. (Baltimore Sun photo by Algerina Perna)
- Attman’s Deli is pictured during the Baltimore riots of ’68. (Baltimore Sun file photo)
- Customers at Attman’s walk along Lombard St., on Feb. 8, 2010. (Baltimore Sun photo by Jed Kirschbaum)
- Attman’s Deli owner Seymour Attman is pictured by the Corn Beef Row street sign. (Baltimore Sun photo by Jed Kirschbaum, Nov. 1, 2001)
- The father of Seymour Attman, 75, bought the Attman’s deli in the 1930s. After watching the city’s famed Corned Beef Row nearly die off in the 70s and 80s, with only his Attman’s Deli and two others delis hanging on, Seymour Attman, 75, is amazed that the city is now planning to build dozens of new stores around him as part of the redevelopment of the Flag House Projects site. (Baltimore Sun photo by Algerina Perna, May 29, 2001)
- Attman’s Delicatessen turns 100 in 2015 after the Attman family opened its first store in 1915. (Lloyd Fox/Baltimore Sun/March 19, 2015)
- Arthur Meisnere drives from Washington D.C. to gets sandwiches from Attman’s Deli. (Lloyd Fox/Baltimore Sun/March 19, 2015)
- Attman’s Top 10 of the last 100. No. 2 Cloak & Dagger. The Attman’s Delicatessen is celebrating 100 years in business since opening its doors in 1915. (Lloyd Fox/Baltimore Sun/March 25, 2015)
- Flag House Courts Housing Project residents are pictured April 7, 1954. (Baltimore Sun file photo)
- Isbel Gavilano of Washington D.C., visits Baltimore’s Star-Spangled Banner Flag House Museum in Jonestown Neighborhood. (Kenneth K. Lam/Baltimore Sun/Oct. 6, 2015)
- Townhouse development on Pratt Street near the Reginald F. Lewis Museum is pictured on Oct. 6, 2015. (Baltimore Sun photo by Kenneth K. Lam)
- The Shot Tower, left, is pictured with the Star-Spangled Banner Flag on Oct. 6, 2015. (Baltimore Sun photo by Kenneth K. Lam)
- The Shot Tower, located in the Jonestown neighborhood, is pictured against Baltimore’s downtown. (Baltimore Sun photo by Oct. 6, 2015)
- The Shot Tower, erected in 1828, is located within the Jonestown neighborhood. (Baltimore Sun photo by Kenneth K. Lam, Oct. 6, 2015)
- The new Reginald F. Lewis Museum of African-American History and Culture is still under construction but is scheduled to open in the spring. (Baltimore Sun photo by Amy Davis, October 7, 2004)
- The Reginald F. Lewis Museum is in the Jonestown neighborhood. (Baltimore Sun photo by Kenneth K. Lam, Oct. 6, 2015)
- The Jonestown neighborhood, foreground, looking south from Attman’s Deli, lower left, on Lombard Street on Oct. 6, 2015. (Baltimore Sun photo by Kenneth K. Lam)
- Corned-beef Row in the 1100 block of E. Lombard Street is pictured on March 7, 2014. (Lloyd Fox/Baltimore Sun)
- At the Flag House Courts highrise at 26 S. Exeter Street, Mary Williams is still coping with the murder of her 8-year-old son, Marvin Wise, on Feb. 25, 1996. Apt. 12C was where Wise’s body was found, now boarded up. (Baltimore Sun photo by Amy Davis, March 8, 1996)
- Members of the Historic Jonestown Business Association pose for a picture on July 6, 1987. (Baltimore Sun photo by Jed Kirschbaum)
- The procession of flags at the Flag House in Jonestown. (Baltimore Sun photo by Joshua S. Cosden, June 12, 1950)
- A view of the Flag House in Jonestown on June 12, 1950. (Baltimore Sun photo by Joshua S. Cosden)
- A view of the Flag House in Jonestown on Sept. 9, 1953. (Baltimore Sun photo by Dick Stacks)
- A sketch of the Flag House in Jonestown. (Baltimore Sun file photo)
- A portable swimming pool was brought into the Flag House basketball courts on Aug. 3, 1967. (Baltimore Sun photo by William G. Hotz)
- A view of the Flag House Courts in Jonestown on Feb. 8, 1954. (Baltimore Sun file photo)
- The Flag House Courts housing projects are being built on March 5, 1955. (Baltimore Sun photo by W.M. Klender)
- A look at a kitchen in an apartment in the Flag House Courts housing project in Jonestown on Oct. 11, 1956. (Baltimore Sun photo by Albert D. Cochran)
- A view of the basketball courts at the Flag House Courts housing projects in Jonestown on Oct. 12, 1956. (Baltimore Sun photo by Albert D. Cochran)
- A view of the Flag House Court housing projects on Nov. 25, 1955. (Baltimore Sun file photo)
- The Shot Tower industrial park site is pictured during demolition on Nov. 17, 1960. (Baltimore Sun photo by Ellis Malashuk)
- Ground breaking for the Flag House Court housing projects begins on Feb. 4, 1954. (Baltimore Sun photo by W.M. Klender)
- A view of the Flag House Courts on Aug. 29, 1955. (Baltimore Sun file photo)
- The Jewish Museum of Maryland on Lloyd St. is pictured on Sept. 18, 2002. (Baltimore Sun photo by Jed Kirschbaum)
- Views of the new Shot Tower/Market Place Metro Station, part of metro expansion to open to the public May 31. (Baltimore Sun photo by Amy Davis, May 26, 1995)
- Views of the new shot Tower/Market Place metro station, part of metro expansion to open to the public May 31, 1995. (Baltimore Sun photo by Amy Davis)
- A view of East Lombard Street in 1963, when food stores in the street’s glory days included Wartzman’s bakery, Smelkinson’s dairy, Pastore’s fruits and vegetables, Tulkoff’s horseradish, Yankeloff’s chickens, Attman’s deli, Holzman’s bakery, Spivak’s chickens, Gottlieb’s dairy, and Stone’s bakery. In the spring of 1967, following the assassination of the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., many of these buildings gave way to empty lots. (Photo from the Sandler book: “Jewish Baltimore: A Family Album.”)
- This was the scene of the Baltimore Shot Tower, as seen from the 600 block of E. Fayette Street, dated sometime between 1901 and 1904 according to Baltimore City directories at the Enoch Pratt Library. At one time the Shot Tower was the tallest building in the United States until the Washington Monument in Washington D.C. was built. (Baltimore Sun file photo)
- This is a view of the Baltimore Shot Tower, as viewed from the 300 block of East Fayette Street on July 23, 2014. (Robert K. Hamilton/Baltimore Sun)
- The Baltimore Coalition to End War and Terrorism held a “flag washing” to symbolically clean off blood and oil from the U.S. flag at the historic Star Spangled Banner Flag House on March 22, 2003. (Baltimore Sun photo by Chiaki Kawajiri)
- A view of the Shot Tower from Silo Point on April 22, 2014. (Kim Hairston/The Baltimore Sun)
- Taionna Ball, 7, a day camper with the McKim Community Association’s summer camp, cools off in a sprinkler on E. Fayette street on July 15, 2013. (Barbara Haddock Taylor/Baltimore Sun)
- The Shot Tower is photographed in August 1929. (Baltimore Sun file photo)
- The interior of the Shot Tower as seen from the base in March 1940. The Shot Tower is 234 feet high. The base 40 feet in diameter with walls that are 4 1/2 feet thick. The tower was built in 1828 and was used until 1892. The city bought the tower in 1925. (A. Aubrey Bodine/Baltimore Sun file photo)
- In July 1926 Steamships Talbot, Joppa and Viginia docked in Baltimore harbor. In the background is the Shot Tower. At one time the Shot Tower was the tallest building in the United States until the Washington Monument in Washington D.C. was built. (Baltimore Sun file photo)
- In May 1969, a bulldozer cuts its way through dirt during construction of the new Federal Post Office Building on East Fayatee Street. The neighbor for the post office is the historic Shot Tower. (Baltimore Sun file photo)
- The Baltimore Shot Tower is pictured in July 1924. (Baltimore Sun file photo)
- The McKim Community Center on E. Baltimore Street, pictured on March 20, 2012, is one of several historic properties which might be sold by the city. (Baltimore Sun photo by Barbara Haddock Taylor)
- Marvin Pinkert, executive director of the Jewish Museum of Maryland, is leading a master planning process to brand the Jonestown neighborhood in order to drive traffic to the cultural institutions, museums and to encourage investors to go forward with developments. (Kenneth K. Lam/Baltimore Sun/Oct. 6, 2015)
- The Reginald F. Lewis Museum, left, The Star-Spangled Banner Flag House, center, and the Shot Tower are all located in Jonestown. (Kenneth K. Lam/Baltimore Sun/Oct. 6, 2015)
- Marvin Pinkert, executive director of the Jewish Museum of Maryland, is leading a master planning process to brand the Jonestown neighborhood in order to drive traffic to the local cultural institutions, museums and to encourage investors to go forward with developments. (Kenneth K. Lam/Baltimore Sun/Oct. 6, 2015)
- A view of the Shot Tower overlooking the house at 9 North Front Street, where the second Mayor of Baltimore, Thorowgood Smith, once lived. (Kenneth K. Lam/Baltimore Sun/Oct. 6, 2015)
- A view of the Shot Tower, one of several historic Baltimore buildings that has been repurposed. (Baltimore Sun photo by Kim Hairston, March 23, 2012)
- Michael Hood, a tour guide for the Carroll Museums, Inc. looks upward from the ground floor exhibit area as he helped show prospective volunteer docents around the Shot Tower on April 13, 2014. (Baltimore Sun photo by Amy Davis)
- Seen from the first landing. Paula Hankins, executive director of Carroll Museums, Inc., showed prospective volunteer docents around the Shot Tower on April 13, 2014. (Baltimore Sun photo by Amy Davis)
Jonestown
» Border streets: N. Gay St., S. President St., E. Pratt St., Central Ave., E. Fayette St., Colvin St.
» Neighboring areas: Little Italy, Inner Harbor, Downtown, Penn-Fallsway, Oldtown, Pleasant View Gardens, Washington Hill
» More neighborhoods
» Help us catalog the signs of Baltimore City’s neighborhoods
“You see Canton and Fells Point and even Pigtown, but you don’t see Jonestown,” Marvin Pinkert, executive director of the Jewish Museum of Maryland, said of the maps. “It’s very hard to be successful, if, from a geographic point of view, you’re perceived as being in the middle of nowhere.”
Pinkert, who was named head of the museum in 2012, organized an effort designed to change that view, placing Jonestown on the city’s mental and physical map by branding it as a historic neighborhood, proud of its diversity and service organizations.
With $70,000 in donations from area foundations, the Jewish Museum commissioned a master plan, complete with a logo and slogan, that calls for adding life to the neighborhood’s streets with an urban farm, a playground, festivals and temporary street exhibits housed in large shipping containers. It also suggests improvements to make the Shot Tower park more inviting and calls for redeveloping the neighborhood’s roughly half-dozen publicly owned vacant sites.
Those sites were supposed to be built up as part of the mixed-income Albemarle Square housing project, but the lots were never developed.
The hope is to bring the neighborhood into the mainstream visitor circuit and build confidence in its redevelopment prospects after decades of being passed by.
Pinkert had selfish reasons for commissioning the plan. About 10,000 people visit the Jewish Museum each year. Increasing that number, even with high-profile exhibits, such as one on musician Paul Simon scheduled to open Oct. 11, can’t succeed without changing the perception of the neighborhood and its reality, Pinkert said. The museum is also eyeing longer-range expansion plans.
But Pinkert’s ambitions extend outside his institution.
“Having a brand, having a plan, has to improve the prospects, not just for people who depend on visitors,” he said. “It is something that lifts all boats.”
Located east of downtown across President Street, Jonestown was one of the earliest settlements in Maryland, founded by the same immigrant farmer who gave his name to the Jones Falls. In the 19th century, the area was home to Mary Pickersgill, who sewed the flag that inspired the “Star-Spangled Banner,” as well as thriving immigrant and Jewish communities whose imprints remain with synagogues and delis.
It has also been marked by experiments in urban renewal, with tenements razed in the postwar period to make way for the 13-story Flag House Courts public housing projects. They were demolished in 2001, after falling victim to disrepair and violence and replaced with the Albemarle Square mixed-income housing development, erected in 2005.
The area today is a mix of owned and rental homes, industrial buildings and museums, a northern border to the flourishing Little Italy and Harbor East.
The logo — an American flag modified with references to the area’s history with the tagline “Proudly we hail” — is supposed to foster a sense of neighborhood cohesion and steer outsiders past negative associations, said Tom McGilloway, a principal at Mahan Rykiel Associates, a Baltimore landscape architecture firm that worked with South Carolina’s Arnett Muldrow & Associates on the plan.
Jonestown has “kind of been fractured over the years for a number of reasons, and since the Albemarle Square has been built … the community as a whole has never really developed this overall identity,” McGilloway said. “They need to kind of take control of their identity or else the negative identity will take control of them.”
Jonestown shares a name with the settlement in Guyana where a mass murder-suicide took place under American cult leader Jim Jones in the late 1970s.
Jonestown has had just three shootings since 2010, compared to more than 20 in nearby Oldtown, according to Baltimore City crime data based on victims’ reports. But the neighborhood still suffers from crimes such as car break-ins, with more than 700 reported since 2010, about 200 more than in Little Italy.
“The basic problem with most places in Baltimore City is feeling safe,” said Dwight Warren, executive director of the McKim Community Association on East Baltimore Street in the neighborhood. “That needs to come first.”
Warren, who grew up in the Lafayette Courts housing project, which was dynamited in 1995, and has worked at the McKim Center since 1967, said he worries that efforts to improve the neighborhood will price out low-income residents. Others said they want to see open space reserved as park area for the neighborhood’s children.
But Warren said he supports the effort, hoping that redevelopment, as well as increased tourism, improves quality of life, creates jobs and builds a sense of history.
“Everyone should benefit from that,” he said, “When you say Jonestown to probably 80 percent of the folks around here, it’s ‘Jones-what? Where?’ They’ve been overlooked.”
As part of the master plan, institutions and community members have reorganized Historic Jonestown Corp. to act as a nonprofit advocate for the plan’s implementation and the neighborhood.
Those involved are trying to figure out ways to fund the group, including considering a special tax district, said president Lindsay Thompson, who moved to Jonestown from Roland Park in 2005 and is a professor at the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School, where she teaches a class focused on the neighborhood.
Pinkert and others said their institutions have not yet committed any money to the plan, but they expect it to help with fundraising, as well as guide their priorities.
“It’s amazing how willing funders are when they know you’ve got a road map and you’ve got goals laid out for you, especially when those goals are going to contribute to the betterment of the whole,” said Paula Hankins, executive director of Carroll Museums Inc., which oversees the Shot Tower and Carroll Mansion nearby on East Lombard Street.
Already some development is starting to take shape. The Ronald McDonald House Charities of Baltimore Inc. plans to break ground next year on a new, $20 million-$25 million five-story 55,000-square-foot facility that will replace its current location, and the city has promised improvements to McKim Park as part of that project.
On Wednesday, the city’s Board of Estimates approved the sale of 1107 E. Fayette St. for $180,000, a deal that was approved by the Baltimore Development Corp. in 2013. The sale is connected to the $45 million conversion of the former Hendler Creamery into 270 apartments by The Commercial Group, which purchased the property for $1.1 million in 2012.
Efforts to redevelop the other vacant parcels, which remain publicly owned, have been hindered by deed restrictions that give the developers of Albemarle Square rights to shape future land use there, officials said.
About six months ago, the Baltimore Housing Authority restarted negotiations with Urban Atlantic, Albemarle’s lead developer, in hopes of removing the deed restrictions and issuing a new request for proposals, officials said. Urban Atlantic, a Bethesda firm, did not respond to a request for comment.
“There’s always concern about giving up control but we think we’re moving forward with them in a good way at this point and do expect to be able to get this done,” said Peter Engel, a deputy commissioner at Baltimore Housing.
Pinkert said he expects implementation of the plan to proceed in stages, with more activities in the neighborhood a first sign of success. A new banner with the logo welcoming people to Jonestown was installed last week.
Some of the advocacy appears to be paying off. The map in the most recent version of the Visit Baltimore visitors’ guide circles the Jonestown name in red and a spokeswoman there, while she did not respond directly to questions asking what prompted the change, said she expects further updates when a new guide is released in January.
“Every piece is dependent on all the other pieces,” Pinkert said. “Having a sense of where we’re going not just this year and next year, but the direction we’re going in five or 10 years is really useful.”