The area currently known as Highlandtown was established in 1866 and named because of the views it offered over the City. Highlandtown also historically hosted a large Polish, Czech, Italian, Irish, Greek, and Ukrainian populations as the neighborhood has a long history of being a very working class community. The community got the nickname of “Little Appalachia” around the World War II era as many Appalachian migrants settled in Baltimore. More recently Highlandtown has seen a large increase from the Latino community and has also become an increasingly popular neighborhood for young professional families. The Latino immigration in particular helped keep the neighborhood afloat after it suffered a period of decline during the 1970s when manufacturing declined and department stores closed on Eastern Avenue. Now Eastern Avenue’s retail is largely Hispanic oriented.
Highlandtown is yet another solid Baltimore rowhouse neighborhood with good walkability, high density, and quality public transit access. For sale housing options are relatively affordable compared to neighboring areas like Canton and hosts solid retail and cultural amenities. For Highlandtown to become a great urban district it needs more retail and cultural amenities, much better tree canopy, infill in the abandonded industrial areas along its eastern edge, and more affordable rental options.
Click here to view my Highlandtown Album on Flickr
URBAN STRENGTHS:
* Solid urban density.
* Great access to Dwtn and highly connected streets.
* Highly racially diverse neighborhood with large white, Hispanic and Black populations.
* Solid economic diversity as well.
* For sale host more moderate options than rentals. A few 1-beds in the community selling in the low-mid 200Ks, 2-beds sell btwn 150K-400K, 3 & 4 beds sell btwn 175K-550K.
* Good park access with the expansive Highland Park on the Western border. Really no other parks here.
* Good cultural amenities including a decent # of restaurants, bars, & cafes, a couple night clubs, several art galleries, and a local arts center.
* Good retail amenities with a supermarket, several Hispanic grocerias, a couple drug stores, a couple banks, plenty of local boutiques, consignment, and gift stores, several jewelry stores, a book store, several dessert joints, a couple gyms, lots of salons and barber shops, several furniture stores, a local post office & public library, lots of churches, and a couple medical offices.
* Highlandtown overall is a pretty safe community. Some grittiness and vacancy remain but strong community.
* Good architecture. Rowhouses are more working hsg style but still nice. Better historic commercial along Eastern. Not much in-fill but what does exist is generally good except for a couple strip malls.
URBAN WEAKNESSES:
* Consistent sidewalks but modern ADA curb are generally only present on the Commercial districts.
* Ok bike infrastructure with a couple dedicated bike lanes and some dockless scooters. I don’t see many dockless bikes however.
* Several elementary schools but mixed ratings.
* Good # of rentals but most are on the expansive side and newer. 1-beds lease in the mid 1Ks, 2-beds has some moderately priced units starting in the mid 1Ks going to 3Ks, 3-beds lease btwn 2K-4K.
* Dedicated affordable hsg appears limited.
* Some dead industrial space along the eastern edge of Highlandtown.
Evaluating our Urban Communities [with a focus on America] 