Upton Featured Apartment:
Baltimore-Upton - We've got a newly-renovated one bedroom unit in Upton that has a great layout for roommates who need their privacy but also need a one-bedroom sized rent. In this apartment, we've put a door on the living room, so it can be used as a second bedroom. View More Listings -->
About Upton
Upton is a neighborhood in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. It is located
roughly between Freemont Avenue and McCulloh Street, extending from Dolphin
Street to Bloom Street. Its principle thoroughfare is Pennsylvania Avenue.
Upton was one of the most affluent African American neighborhoods in the United
States at the turn of the twentieth century. The Pennsylvania Avenue commuter
rail station on the Baltimore and Patomac railway was built in 1884. By the
1920s, Upton was home to most educated African American property owners in
Baltimore. To its south and west were the poor and working class African
American neighborhoods of "The Bottom," and to its east were German American and
Jewish American neighborhoods.
Pennsylvania Avenue was the premiere shopping strip for black Baltimorians,
inspiring comparisons to Lenox Avenue in Harlem. It was home to professionals
such as doctors and lawyers, retailers who served a middle class and upscale
clientele, jazz clubs, dance halls, theaters, and other public and private
institutions for the black community. Upton was also the staging grounds for
much of the local and national civil rights movement. Booker T Washington, W.E.B.
Dubois, and Marcus Garvey all visited local churches. The Baltimore chapter of
the NAACP was based in Upton. Cab Calloway grew up in Upton, and Eubie Blake
performed his debut in a club on Pennsylvania Avenue. The Royal Theater, at
Pennsylvania and Lafayette, became a mainstay on the Chitlin Circuit.
In the mid-twentieth century, Upton's population swelled due to the popularity
of the neighborhood and the pressures of segregation that kept African Americans
confined to certain areas. Single family homes were subdivided into small
apartments, and Pennsylvania Avenue's sidewalks crowded on Saturday nights, as
loud music and heavy drinking became popular vices of Upton residents. Upper
income black families began abandoning the area for neighborhoods further from
the center of the city. In the 1960s and 70s, controversial urban renewal
projects destroyed much of Upton's historic architecture, especially in the
southwestern portion of the neighborhood. The result ultimately only replaced a
portion of what was removed, as once the buildings were razed it was difficult
to secure developers to build new construction. The Royal Theater was demolished
in 1971.
The eastern section of the neighborhood, relatively untouched by urban renewal,
was declared a historic district in 1985. This area is today known as Marble
Hill. It contains many historic rowhouses of the Queen Anne and Italianate
styles with high ceilings, ironwork, and white marble steps.
Pennsylvania Avenue is now lined with sneaker shops, dollar stores, other
low-rent commercial uses, and many abandoned storefronts. The Avenue Market
sells produce and holds occasional events such as jazz shows.
According to the city, 60% of Upton families with children under 5 are living in
poverty. The median home sale price in Upton in 2004 (not including Marble Hill)
was $28,054. Many of the rowhouses in the neighborhood are vacant, either
abandoned by their property owners or owned by the city.