Retro: College students explore Cherry Heights, Baltimore County enclave once reserved for Black residents

Frederick N. Rasmussen, Baltimore Sun
·4 min read

It was the design of Cherry Heights Woodland Garden, a small pocket park in Overlea, that led four Towson University students, Collin Bates, Ja ‘lyn Hicks, Shepsura Page and Tyler Roberts, on a voyage of discovery as to the historic origins and roots of a Baltimore County neighborhood that was strictly designed as a home for African Americans in 1909.

The project, a collaboration between NeighborSpace of Baltimore County Inc., which commissioned the research, and BTU (Baltimore-Towson University), a university partnership, was under the direction of Sya Buryn Kedzior, a Towson associate professor in the department of geography and environmental planning, who is also assistant director of the university’s environmental science and studies program.

NeighborSpace acquired the garden on Beech Avenue in Overlea in 2015, and in 2021 approached Towson University and BTU, which then organized the research team.

Cherry Heights, is one of 37 historic Black enclaves in Baltimore County, and was “developed and marketed as the first community for African American homeowners in Baltimore County,” according to the report released earlier this year.

“Development of Cherry Heights occurred within the context of, and in direct response to, the passage of segregation ordinances within Baltimore City that significantly limited housing options, and in some cases led to the legal expulsion of Black residents from White-majority areas of the city,” the students reported.

The community, just east of Belair Road and the city-county line, was established by Ernest J. Jones, who was president of the Cherry Heights Realty and Construction Co., which had an office at 17 E. Saratoga St.

“A New Suburb for Colored People” proclaimed a newspaper ad from Christmas Day in 1909.

Related Articles

“They were bucolic country homes in rolling hills of Overlea. Many were vacation or retirement homes,” Kedzior said.

The roads in the community were named after trees: Ash, Spruce, Cedar, Hickory, Chestnut, Walnut, Willow, Beech, Poplar, Elm and Linden streets.

The construction company’s legal representation was Hawkins & McMechen, a Black Baltimore law firm headed by William Ashbie Hawkins, a Howard University graduate, and George W.F. McMechen, who earned his law degree from Yale in 1899.

On New Year’s Day in 1910, an ad in the Baltimore Afro-American announced the sale of lots that ranged from $100 to $450, with terms that stated $10 down and $1.25, with the admonition, “NO TAXES, NO INTEREST UNTIL LOTS ARE PAID FOR.”

Lots were 40 by 150 feet or 6,000 square feet of land, the ad boasted. Cottages were outfitted with electricity and water heating. Potential buyers were advised to take the Belair Road streetcar to its terminus where “our representative will meet you. It is only two blocks from the cars.”

It was not only the promise of “bucolic country living,” Kedzior said in a telephone interview, but also the convenience of a 30-minute, 5-cent streetcar ride to the city.

Daniel Murray, a wealthy local Black professional, who was an assistant librarian at the Library of Congress, eventually purchased 231 lots, which made him the largest landowner in the community.

Deeds came with restrictions, “no alcohol sales, no slaughterhouses or other ‘offensive operations,'” according to the report. No swine or other “animals of offensive character” would be allowed in the neighborhood. Wells were to be cement-lined and houses had to cost at least $1,000 and be set back no less than 15 feet from the street.

Until 1939, when the first African American high school, Carver, opened in Towson, students in Cherry Heights were not allowed enrollment in existing high schools and were forced to endure streetcar and bus rides to attend segregated schools like Frederick Douglass High School, for instance.

Kedzior said residents were not immune from the segregationist activities that made them leave the city in the first place, and the report highlights that surrounding communities weren’t always so welcoming.

“The students found stories about some violence and cross burnings. And on weekends, Black and white children would fly kites and play sports and then on Monday returned to their segregated schools,” Kedzior said.

“Later sources describe efforts to limit neighborhood access, prevent construction of a local school, and to otherwise harass and threaten Black residents,” according to the report.

“Within this context, successive generations of Cherry Heights residents thrived, establishing active community organizations and producing a long line of influential community leaders. These stories are written into the landscape of the Overlea-Fullerton community.”

To preserve the historic nature of the community, in 1990 Baltimore County purchased 17 lots to prevent them from being developed alongside cottages that dated to its founding.