A neglected brick rowhouse at 1318 Druid Hill Avenue was once the residence of Baltimore鈥檚 first black City Councilman Harry S. Cummings.
Harry S. Cummings, his wife Blanche Teresa Conklin and their two children Louise Virginia and Harry Sythe Cummings, Jr. moved to 1318 Druid Hill Avenue in 1911. The family hadn't moved far. They had moved to 1234 Druid Hill Avenue in 1898 and Cummings' sister continued to live in the house up through the 1950s. This house, later known as Freedom House for its' role as offices for the local chapter of the NAACP, was torn down by Bethel AME Church in November 2015.
The rowhouse at 1318 Druid Hill Avenue听was not only a family home but also a place for politics. Cummings campaigned and won re-election to the City Council in 1911 and 1915. In 1912, Cummings hosted the Seventeenth Ward Organization at his home where local Republicans met to endorse President William Howard Taft. Unfortunately, Cummings fell ill at age fifty-one and, on September 5, 1917, the Sun reported that Cummings was "critically ill at his home, 1318 Druid Hill Avenue, of a complication of diseases and a blood clot on the brain. It was said last night that he had not spoken since last Friday."
Cummings died on September 7, 1917, at his home. On Monday, September 10, thousands of people, both white and black, visited the Metropolitan M.E. Church on Orchard Street to see the 鈥渞emains lay in state鈥 and hundreds of people visited his home. Rev. Leonard Z. Johnson, the pastor of Madison Street Presbyterian Church, conducted a brief service at 1318 Druid Hill Avenue, remarking:
鈥淭his life is a token and a proof of Negro possibility in the sphere of life achievement, if given its chances to fulfil itself, and while such Negro possibility shows there shall none, of right reason, decry the Negro people and race and reuse right and a place of common human respect and equal opportunity of strong life in the citizen life of the nation.鈥
Blanche T. Cummings continued to live in the house up until her death on January 12, 1955, and the property remained in family ownership up until 2005. Despite the deteriorated condition of the building today, the backyard still holds a reminder of the Cummings family鈥攁 rare American Elm planted on Harry S. Cummings, Jr.鈥檚 seventh birthday. Neighbors hope to see the history of this home and memories of the听Cummings family preserved of for generations to come.
1805 Madison Avenue was built around听1886, when the property was first advertised听in the听Baltimore Sun听as available to rent for听$35 per month.听In July 1888, Benjamin and Rosetta Rosenheim purchased the home and moved in with their two young children. 听Benjamin was a lawyer with an office at 19 East Fayette Street. When Rosetta needed help at home听in January 1889, the听Rosenheim household placed an advertisement in the听Sun seeking a 鈥淲hite Girl, from 15 to 17 years to nurse two children, aged 2 陆 and 4.鈥澨齋imilar advertisements appeared again in June 1889 and March 1890 seeking a caretaker for the two children.听The family didn鈥檛 stay long, however, and听on May 29, 1893, Benjamin and Rosetta Rosenheim sold the home to Julia Gusdorff.
The home sold again in 1902听and听1914. In the late 1910s and early 1920s, many of the听German Jewish immigrants听who had occupied the Madison Avenue homes for the past couple decades began moving northwest into new neighborhoods like Park Circle northwest of Druid Hill Park. Replacing these residents were African Americans听home-owners and tenants. In 1923,听Keiffer Jackson, husband of the well known civil rights activist Lille Mae Carol Jackson, purchased 1805 Madison Avenue for $3200.
Lillie Mae Carroll and her husband Kieffer听Jackson never lived at 1805 Madison Avenue but rented the property to African American tenants from a wide range of backgrounds. In February 1928, Frank H. Berryman, the manager of William 鈥淜.O.鈥 Smith and K.O. Martin, publicly sought to 鈥渁rrange either local or out-of-town bouts for one or both of his fighters鈥 noting managers could reach him at 1805 Madison Avenue.听Mrs. Lizzie Futz听lived听at the house in 1931听when she was quoted in the听Afro American听criticizing a move by the听Baltimore school superintendent to segregate white and black children on a recent field trip to Fort McHenry:
鈥淚 honestly think that the principal was unquestionably wrong in asking that the two groups be separated. There was no reason for the separation. School children of today get along better than their elders. It鈥檚 such segregation acts that breeds prejudice in the future.鈥
Born in Baltimore on April 29, 1922, Parren James Mitchell moved around as a child. Early on, his family lived on Stockton Street near Presstman Street just south of Saint Peter Claver Church which had stood听on North Fremont Avenue since听September 9, 1888.
He was seven years old when his family moved into听a new home at 712 Carrollton Avenue.听The new neighborhood had started life as an听elite suburb built between the 1870s and 1880s within a short walk of听Lafayette Square or听Harlem Park. Prior to the 1910s and 1920s, the population of the neighborhood was largely segregated white (although many African American households lived in smaller alley dwellings on the interior of the district鈥檚 large blocks). Segregation in the听听was enforced through deed restrictions, local legislation and even physical attacks on black families that attempted to move into the neighborhood.
Parren Mitchell鈥檚 move to the house on Madison Avenue came at an important moment in the nation鈥檚 relationship to struggling cities in the wake of the riots in Baltimore and cities around the country in 1968. The home was a source of pride and provided Mitchell with a perspective on city life that few other representatives in Congress听could match.听In June 1974, during a discussion of 鈥渦rban homesteading,鈥 Parren Mitchell shared the success of the听city鈥檚 new homesteading program (established in 1973) seen from his own front stoop, remarking:
鈥淐ome to my house at听1805 Madison Avenue听in the heart of a ghetto in Baltimore听City and look at the home across the street which was sold for $1 under the Homestead Act. If you do you will see a beautiful and decent residence for a family.鈥
During hearings on the听, Mitchell repeated the offer:
鈥淚 will take part of my 5-minute time to extend an invitation to visit my home in Baltimore, Md. I live at 1805 Madison Avenue, which is deep in the bowels of the city. It is the ghetto. Four years ago, I purchased a home in the 1800 block of Madison Avenue at 1805, using conventional financing. I have rehabilitated the home, and I think it鈥檚 attractive enough for you to come to visit me on a Saturday morning in the 1800 block of Madison Avenue.鈥
The听renovation to the house cost $32,000 and combined听the first and second floor of the building with a new staircase returning the stories into a single unit. He rebuilt the third floor as a rental apartment, a configuration that remains in use at the building today.
The home may have been a source of pride and a sign of his strong commitment to Baltimore but it was also a site of conflict between Congressman Mitchell, the Baltimore City Police Department, and even the Ku Klux Klan. Between 1968 and 1974, before Mitchell鈥檚 move to 1805 Madison, the听Baltimore Police Department Inspectional Services Division (ISD) kept his home under twenty-four-hour surveillance, illegally bugged his home and office telephones for eight months, and placed paid informers in his congressional campaigns. Beginning in 1971, Mitchell began calling听for the resignation of Baltimore Police Commissioner听. When the ISD surveillance program (and its close ties to the FBI) were revealed, Congressman Mitchell extended his criticism to the ISD.
In 1977, Parren Mitchell and his neighbors secured Madison Park听designation by the Baltimore Commission for Historical and Architectural Preservation听as a local historic district 鈥 the first in an听African American neighborhood.听The lead champion of the historic district was听Michael B. Lipscomb, an aide to Parren Mitchell and office manager at the Congressman鈥檚 Bloomingdale Road office.
Lipscomb was a resident in Madison Park and the vice-president of the Madison Park Improvement Association. In his testimony before CHAP, Lipscomb observed that the district was the 鈥渃ity鈥檚 first all black historic district,鈥 continuing:
鈥淚 came here because I love the house. I love the size of the house, the rooms, the old architecture, the high ceilings, the 10-foot high solid wood doors, the marble fireplaces, the stained glass windows. To get a house built like this would be astronomically expensive.鈥
Other residents in Madison Park were also听active in the city鈥檚 civic organizations, including John R. Burleigh, II, a resident of 1829 Madison Avenue and director of Baltimore鈥檚 Equal Opportunity program听and Delegate Lena K. Lee who听lived at 1818 Madison Avenue. Delegate Lee also supported the historic district designation, testifying:
鈥淲e have been working in this area since 1940 to clean it up and keep the intruders out, to keep it from being overrun by bars, sweatshops and storefront churches that stay a little while and then pack up and go. We want to make it purely residential by getting out all business.鈥
Parren Mitchell sold the property to Sarah Holley in 1986 and moved just a few blocks away to听1239 Druid Avenue. He remained at that location until 1993 when he returned to Harlem Park and lived at听828 North Carrollton Avenue where he remained until 2001. This property has been featured on 91视频 of Lafayette Square and is now used as offices for the Upton Planning Council. Sarah Holley lived at the 1805 Madison Avenue听from 1986 through 1989听and,听since 1989, the property has been maintained as a rental property.
During the War of 1812, Fell Street ran down a narrow stretch of land, with valuable water on both sides. William Price, who owned a shipyard at the east end of Thames, lived on Fell Street at 912 (built by 1802) and owned 903 to 907 (built 1779 -1781). One of the city's largest slaveholders with 25 enslaved workers, Price also employed 100 men at his shipyard. He built a dozen letter of marque schooners (more than any other ship builder in Baltimore) and also invests in three cruises.
In 1814, Price's tenants at 903-907 Fell Street included Peter Weary, a wood measurer, and widow Sarah Day. Price鈥檚 son and partner, John, lives at 913 Fell (built ca.1790). In the spring of 1813, Price helped to move 56 heavy cannon from his warehouse to Fort McHenry and nearby batteries. Salvaged from a French warship, the 10,000-pound cannon are loaned to Baltimore by the French Consul鈥攖hey later played a crucial role in the fort's defense.
Another Fell Street resident who played a role in the War of 1812 is George Stiles who became General Sam Smith鈥檚 most trusted aide. Stiles owned substantial property in Fell's Point, including 910 Fell (built ca. 1810). A skilled sea captain, Stiles was a risk taker who acquired four letter of marque schooners. His Nonesuch received the nation鈥檚 first commission in 1812. The much admired Stiles, whom Niles鈥 Weekly Register called the savior of Baltimore was later elected mayor in 1816.
Farther down, at 931 Fell (built ca.1790), was the home of Elizabeth Steele, widow of shipbuilder John Steele, a carefully restored example of the fine townhouses that once dominated this street.
A novelist, playwright, poet, and essayist, Gertrude Stein is remembered as a literary innovator who fearlessly experimented with language in the early twentieth century. Today, Gertrude Stein is still renowned as a magnet for those who would profoundly change art and literature. In 1892, at age 18, newly-orphaned Gertrude and her brother Leo moved to Baltimore. Her experiences in Baltimore paved the way for her later successes, as she wrote in her biting 1925 piece "Business in Baltimore": "Once upon a time, Baltimore was necessary."
The siblings lived briefly with their Aunt Fanny Bachrach in Baltimore before moving to Massachusetts for college. In 1897, the duo truly settled in Baltimore, living at 215 East Biddle Street, marked by the traditional Baltimorean marble front steps. The unique environment of Mount Vernon introduced Stein to a variety of people and perspectives that would influence both her literature and her life.
The Steins' five-bedroom rowhome was luxurious, dictating a certain lifestyle. Like their neighbors, the Steins kept servants. Through her familiarity with the neighborhood servants, who generally were African American women, along with her experience caring for African American patients during clinical rotations, Gertrude developed an understanding of "black language rhythms" and a knack for reaistic characterization of African Americans, both of which later appeared in her writing.
Like their servants, Biddle Street residents also influenced Stein. The gossip that filled the parlors of Biddle Street and the affairs that occurred in the bedrooms above reappeared in several of Stein's works. For instance, Wallis Simpson of 212 East Biddle Street, future Duchess of Windsor, inspired Ida, while Stein's own relationship with May Bookstaver and the ensuing love triangle created by Bookstaver's lover, Mabel Haynes, provided the plot for the novel Q.E.D.听as well as the story "Melanctha."
Life in Baltimore influenced more than just Stein's literature. Her experiences, particularly while studying medicine at Johns Hopkins University, prompted her lifelong habit of challenging societal standards. She learned to smoke cigars, confronted sexist professors (thereby earning the nickname "old battle ax"), took up boxing, rejected feminine stereotypes and instead "went flopping around...big and floppy and sandaled and not caring a damn," as one male classmate remembered.
Stein left Baltimore in 1903 after leaving Hopkins following her third year of medical school. However, despite her 39-year absence, Stein claimed Baltimore as her "place of domicile" in her will, as, in her words, she was "born longer [in Baltimore] because after all everybody has to come from somewhere."
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