Site #6: (Old) West Baltimore, 1978-1980
Dates
- 1978-1980
Conditions Governing Access
The collection is open for research use.
Historical Note
During the 1970s, the main neighborhoods in West Baltimore were Edmondson Village, Walbrook, Sandtown-Winchester, Harlem Park, Lafayette Square, and West Arlington. The majority of the BNHP interviewees from this site lived in Sandtown-Winchester.
The neighborhood’s name derived from two sources. The first part was a result of sand deposits from the number of wagons hauling sand from the sandpits to the glass quarry and asphalt sites (Ryon 110). The second part was from George Winchester, a president of the Baltimore Susquehanna Railroad. The neighborhood was first a white, middle-class neighborhood; by the end of World War II, it was Baltimore’s largest, solidly African American neighborhood. Some of the highlights of the neighborhood included it being the first sites of the two institutions that would become Morgan State University and Coppin State University; and it was the location of Frederick Douglass High School, which was the first city high school for African Americans. This school received a visit from Eleanor Roosevelt in 1923.
At the time of the BNHP, Sandtown–Winchester was, like several Baltimore City neighborhoods, part of an urban renewal program. The focus here was to renovate, rather than demolish the homes. It also led to the construction of Harriet Tubman Elementary School in 1976.
The BNHP records for this site sometimes label the cassettes with the term “Old West Baltimore.” One interview, #002: Inez Royster, is misidentified on the tape label as being a part of Site #VII when it actually should be included in this site.
Sources:
Portia Burrell, “Harlem Park” in Livelier Baltimore Committee of the Citizens Planning & Housing Association Beyond the White Marble Steps: A Look at Baltimore
Neighborhoods (J.W. Boarman Co., 1979) (PAM 10,988)
Roderick N. Ryon, West Baltimore Neighborhoods: Sketches of their History,
1840-1960 (University of Baltimore, 1993). (MF 225 .B2 R996)
Extent
37 Items : 37 oral histories
Language of Materials
From the Collection: English
Scope and Contents
The Baltimore Neighborhood Heritage Project Oral History Collection contains paper records and audiocassette recordings from 1978 through 1980. The paper records are composed of the files kept on each narrator (the person being interviewed) and the administrative needs of the project. Narrator records contain biography forms, interview notes, and tape indexes for approximately 212 narrators. The interview notes briefly describe the circumstance surrounding the interview(s) session. The tape index includes the name of the narrator, the name of interviewer, the number of tapes, the tape(s) length, and the primary subjects covered. Seventy-nine of the records include transcripts. Transcript length ranges from 8 to 65 pages. Some are single-spaced; others are doubled-spaced. The interviews range from twenty-five minutes to three hours in length. One file, #183, and its accompanying cassette(s) were removed from the collection.
Thirty-two interviewers participated in the project. Typically, the interviews were one-on-one sessions between interviewer and narrator; however, single interviewer and double-narrator situations occurred, as did three group “nostalgia” sessions. Most interviews were prefaced by unrecorded, pre-interview sessions that occurred days before the recorded interview.
Each narrator abstract includes the following information when available: the BNHP interview number; the name of the interviewer; the date of the interview; the place of the interview; the length of the interview; the number of tapes used; the length of the transcript; and the file contents, such as subject index, interview notes, and biography form. The abstracts follow the numerical order of the interview number. However, interview numbers are not consecutive, but site specific. That is to say, any omitted number within a site can be found in another site.
When controversial or outdated terms, especially those referring to race and ethnicity, are mentioned in the abstract, the politically-correct term is used and the term or terms used by the narrator has been placed in parenthetical (“ ”) quotation marks. Specific terms from the interviews and textual uncertainties are often placed in parentheses alone ( ). Maiden names of female narrators are placed in brackets [ ].
Repository Details
Part of the H. Furlong Baldwin Library Repository
H. Furlong Baldwin Library
Maryland Center for History and Culture
610 Park Avenue
Baltimore MD 21201 United States
4106853750
specialcollections@mdhistory.org