Upton's Marble Hill Community

Upton's Marble Hill Community

UPTON'S HISTORIC MARBLE HILL

The Marble Hill Community is located in the Historic Old West Baltimore Neighborhood of Upton. Marble Hill is important as one of Baltimore's earlist African American middle class communities and for the well preserved architectural detailof it's housing stock. The lengthy list of historically prominent residents includes Harry S. Cummings, Sr., one of the first two African Americans admitted to the University of Maryland Law School (1887, and the first African American Baltimore City Councilman, T. Willis Lansey, who founded the Ideal Federal Savings and Loan (1920). Others were Henery Hall, a prominent engineer and educator, John Murphy, Sr., founder of the Afro-American newspaper, and Violet Hill White, Baltimore's first African American female police officer.

With a proud history of African American cultural distinction, linked to historic Upton, the Marble Hill area was a point of destination for many of the "Who,s Who" among African Americans in the early to mid-twentyth Century.
This ingathering of many of the best minds in the the nation of African Ameican religious, educational, social and civic leadership produced an incubator for political thought. In numerous meetings held in churches and civic buildings in this community key aspects of the African American strategic struggle for human dignity and civil rights were fostered.

With the victories and advantages of the civil rights movement many middle class residents fled from this community to the suburbs. This mass exodus, experienced in most major cities, left in it's wake an unchecked blight of poverty, a creeping scourge of drugs and a raising epedemic of crime.

Now after many years of neglect by politicians, redlinning by banks and steering by realitors change is on the horizion. With the new urban renaisance taking place in Baltimore and thanks to the cooperative spirit of a dedicated core of community residents, Marble Hill is poised for social and policitcal transformation.

Marble Hill is once again emerging as a point of destintination and a community of choice not only for African Americans but for anyone interested in city living. There are plenty opportunities for real development in this National Historic District.

A MASTER PLAN FOR RENEWAL, REVITALIZATION AND RESTORATION

In 2003, after a series of meetings with representatives of the Upton Planning Committee in 2002, the Bethel Outreach Center recieved funds from the City of Baltimore's Community Development Block Grant program and joined forces with the Upton Planning Committee to create the Upton Master Planning Committee.

With a focus on RENEWAL, REVITALIZATION & RESTORATION and the slogan WE HAVE THE POWER TO LIFT UP UPTON; this group oversaw the creation of a strategic Plan designed to be implimented in phases.

The implimentation of phase(I)of the plan began with the acquistion of 72 properties and the selection of a developer to undertake rehabilitation in the Upton West Community adjacent to the Heritage Crossing complex. Phase(II) of the plan is a Homesteading Program offering 16 homes in the MARBLE HILL COMMUNITY.

THE HOMESTEADING PROJECT

As phase (II) of the Master Plan the Community of Marble Hill under the auspicious of the Upton Planning Committee and in partnership with the Baltimore City office of Housing and Community Development is launching a communtiy initiative to offer 16 properties through a Homesteading Program.

More details will be forthcoming.

=>If you are interested in more information about The Marble Hill Community, please contact the President/CEO of the Marble Hill Community Association Atiba Nkrumah at 410-383-9997 or by
E-Mail ankrumah@douglaschurch.org

About our association

MARBLE HILL COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION, INC.

The Marble Hill Community Association, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) tax exempted and a Maryland State Charitable Fund-raiser. (Tax numbers are available on request to interested parties).

The Marble Hill Community Association.Inc. and its two components, the Marble Hill Development Corporation and the Marble Hill Messenger, are headquartered at 418 Mosher Street in Baltimore MD.

Regular membership meetings are held the third Tuesday of each month from 6:30pm to 8:00pm at the designated locations in the community. Membership card fee is just $10.00 per person, and must be renewed annually starting on November 1st. Monthly dues is $5.00 per member. The membership fee and paid up dues entitle each active member to ALL the privileges of the association as stated in the by-laws.

OFFICERS of the Marble Hill Community Association, Inc.:
President and CEO: Atiba A. Nkrumah
Vice President: Ms. Joy Smith
Secretary: Ms. Louvinia Thomas
Treasurer: Ms. Joan Davis


BOARD of DIRECTORS of the Community Association:
Atiba Nkrumah, Interim Chairperson
Joan Davis, Interim Finance Officer
Louvinia Thomas, Interim Recording Secretary
Joy Smith
Moses Gardner
James Hyman
Dr. Willie Richardson
Ethel Witherspoon

ASSOCIATION COMPONENTS

Marble Hill Development Corporation, Officers and Board
Executive Director: Marion Blackwell

Marble Hill Messenger (quarterly newsletter)
Co-Publishers & Co-Editors: Atiba Nkrumah & Jamile Stoakley

COMMUNITY BLOCK REPRESENTATIVES

1600 block Division St.:
500 block McMechen St.: Mr. George Washington
1700 block Druid Hill Ave.:
1600 block Druid Hill Ave.: Ms. Joy Smith
1500 block Druid Hill Ave.: Ms. Ethel Witherspoon
1400 block Druid Hill Ave.: Joan & Howard Davis
1300 block Druid Hill Ave.:
1200 block Druid Hill Ave.:
1200 block McCulloh St.:
1300 block McCulloh St.:
1400 block McCulloh St.: Atiba Nkrumah
400 & 500 blocks Mosher St.:
1500 block McCulloh St.:
1600 block McCulloh St.:
400 block Wilson St.:
500 block Islam Way:
1700 block McCulloh St.:
1700 block Madison Ave.:
1500 block Madison Ave.:
1400 block Madison Ave.: Mr. Moses Gardener
1300 block Madison Ave.:
1200 block Madison Ave.:

To volunteer to become a Block Representative
Call: 410-677-0135

Email us
ankrumah@douglaschurch.org