So in late February and early March, I decided to do a tour of three neighborhoods I've been wanting to check out for quite some time: Oakenshawe, Waverly, and Ednor Gardens - Lakeside. I broke the tours down into two tours because Oakenshawe and Ednor Gardens have more similar vibes than does Waverly compared to each of them. These north central Baltimore neighborhoods reflect the diverse neighborhoods Baltimore offers within such a small amount of space.
Oakenshawe is a very small but very beautiful neighborhood. It was nearly all brick but there were sections of the neighborhood that weren't a part of its main development. There were lots of joggers and I could tell this neighborhood was full of a lot of professionals and particularly those from Hopkins. The neighborhood was very quiet as I had expected and the vegetation made it homey. It’s pretty compact and parking seems like a nightmare. Still, a gorgeous neighborhood that doesn't receive any attention for how high quality it is in Baltimore.
Oakenshawe is a prime example of a streetcar suburb located directly above Charles Village and two blocks east of Johns Hopkins University. The name Oakenshawe comes from Henry Wilson’s estate located here before the neighborhood was built. Brother architects Flournoy and Flournoy laid out and constructed 337 buildings on this land between 1916 and 1924. They did it in the style of English garden suburbs. They used Georgian Revival building materials: red brick, gray slate roofs, wood sash and casement windows. Away from this development is Calvin Avenue, which includes Victorian homes from the late 1800s. According to the Maryland Historical Society, Calvin Avenue was one of the first, if not the first, integrated streets in the United States. Oakenshawe is on the National Register of Historic Places
Here is their Improvement Association website -
http://www.digitalaudiorock.com/~sud...ghborhood.html
Here's to establish where in Baltimore these neighborhoods are
From Google Earth
And here's a more local view of where they are and some surrounding areas. That's Johns Hopkins University in the bottom left corner
From Google Earth
So let's begin in Oakenshawe, but lets first show some of how beautiful Baltimore looks during sunrise
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Down St. Paul, Baltimore by
urbanfeel, on Flickr
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Now for Oakenshawe!
Here are two advertisements for Oakenshawe when it was first constructed, both from
here
8.Here's an interesting aspect of the neighborhood, where apartment towers, I'm thinking student housing for Hopkins, tower above this tiny neighborhood
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12. Intersection of E University Parkway and E 33rd, makes a flatiron-like building
Baltimore Flatiron by
urbanfeel, on Flickr
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15. I don't really know either
16. Mr. Poe!
17.This is Calvin Avenue, the oldest section of the neighborhood
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19. Birkwood Place is architecturally different from the rest of the neighborhood
20. Barclay St. is adjacent to Calvin and is again part of the older section
21. Back on 33rd
And now for Ednor-Gardens - Lakeside. We will start with Ednor Gardens which is most known for being the backdrop to the Memorial Stadium that is no more. I'll show the former Memorial Stadium site in the Waverly Thread
I found Ednor Gardens to be an absolutely beautiful neighborhood. The landscaping and mature trees make it that much nicer. It’s so interesting because the way so many neighborhoods in Baltimore developed was through individual developers developing large sections, which is noticeably visible when you cross the threshold into another developer’s section. I think this reflects the different histories of a neighborhood and Ednor Gardens-Lakeside is no different. Ednor Gardens is full of rowhouses with lots of details to the south and when you cross a certain street as you move north, the rows turn to red brick and the elevation starts going up. East of the rows is lakeside, which to the south is another developer which developed single family homes which are cute, though not all that much to look at. On the northern side of lakeside, you again can see the different developers of the rowhouses because these brick rouses noticeably change styles in different sections. Ednor Gardens in particular took a hit in home values when Memorial Stadium was demolished but has since recovered.
The land that today is Ednor Gardens-Lakeside was previously a part of a 500 acre estate owned by revolutionary war, Congressman, Senator, and Mayor of Baltimore, General Samuel Smith. He fought beside the French during the American Revolution and honored their win at the battle of Montebello in 1800 by naming his house as such, where Lake Montebello gets its name. John W. Garret of the B&O railroad and later ambassador of England would later attain this land. In this acreage lay a stone quarry and brickyard which gave birth to the bricks of Baltimore’s early rowhouses. This brickyard was replaced by a wooden stadium called Baltimore Stadium or Venable Stadium (which became home to the Orioles in 1944 when their stadium in nearby Abell burned down) in the 20s that would give way to Memorial Stadium in 1954 seating 65,000. Memorial Stadium was demolished fully in 2002. This would make room for a YMCA, a community park, and an “award winning” retirement community known as “Stadium Place”.
The neighborhood of Ednor Gardens, which is a national historic district, was developed starting in WWII until the 1950s, begun by Edward G. Gallagher and his sons Edward and Norton for which the neighborhood is named. This portion of the neighborhood is located on the west side of the neighborhood. Lakeside, located to the east of Ednor Gardens, is named after nearby Lake Montebello and consists of single family homes in contrast to the rowhouses of Ednor Gardens. Lakeside has a diverse array of styles.
In 1929, Ednor Gardens was advertised as "the favorite residential suburb for those who appreciate comfort, beauty and modern conveniences." It is still a very quiet neighborhood with beauty and convenience. According to the neighborhood website, “The architectural styles range from individual homes built in the Georgian style, Spanish influence and Brick Saltboxes, to several styles of semi-detached homes and a number of row homes built in English Tudor, French Norman and more traditional styles.” Gallagher set out to create "the English village in the city", targeting the middle class. He was inspired by the English-style mansions of Guilford and Roland Park, but wanted to make this style available to the middle class, so he made this style into rowhouses. The first homes rose on 25th street and unlike other developments at the time, did not include streetcar access. Gallagher therefore decided to allow rear access garages for each house, correctly predicting the automobile age.
Here is their neighborhood website
http://ednorgardenslakeside.com/
Here's some historic photos from the Maryland Historical Society
http://mdhsphotographs.tumblr.com/po...hughes-company, by the Hughes Company
http://mdhsphotographs.tumblr.com/po...hughes-company, by the Hughes Company
22. 36th street, the oldest part of this neighborhood
23. Pink Flamingos - How Baltimore
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26. Skyline from E 36th street
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31. Looking down 36th into Waverly
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34. As you move north, the elevation increases and the homes turn to brick with less detail
35. You can see the Baltimore WTC peaking its head beyond the rows
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43. This is a former covenant called Sisters of St. Francis of Assisi that turned into apartments. Very interesting
read. This is on 12 acres.
44. I walked onto the property because its perched on a hill overlooking the city but there were too many trees blocking views of downtown. Still, I could see the the Clifton mansion, Sparrows Point, and the Chesapeake which was wonderful
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And now we get into Lakeside, which is characterized by its single family homes. They are rather modest
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47. Looking down 35th street as it slopes into Lake Montebello, where the neighborhood gets its name, and the Mayfield neighborhood in the background
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49. There are three mansions next to the lake that are beautiful. Here's one
50. The neighborhood gets a lot of use out of the park space, like with Maryland's state team sport, lacrosse (Jousting is our state sport, though you don't see as much of that around Lake Montebello from some odd, unknown reason)
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54. Nothing too fancy but I find it cute
55. Across The Almeda (That's a street), the neighborhood turns into rowhouses again, these ones being newer and less ornate than those in Ednor Gardens. In the foreground are the rows of Lakeside, in the middle ground is the detached side of Lakeside, and in the background is the former Eastern High School which is now offices for the administration from Johns Hopkins University
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57. The Montebello Water Treatment plant is located in Lakeside. That's the Coldstream-Homestead-Montebello (CHUM) neighborhood in the background with the Clifton mansion peaking its italiante top over the rows
58. Some cute rows
Thanks for looking! Next up is the neighborhood located in between these two, Waverly!
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