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 Historic 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, Historic Marble Hill is poised for social and policitcal transformation.  Historic 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.

If you are interested in more information about The Historic Marble Hill Community, please contact the President of the Marble Hill Community Association, Dr. Steva A. Komeh-Nkrumah at 410-728-0744 or by E-Mail skomeh@hotmail.com  or historicmarblehill@hotmail.com

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 organization. (Tax numbers are available on request to interested parties).

The Historic Marble Hill Community Association.Inc. and its two components, the Historic Marble Hill Development Corporation and the Historic

Marble Hill Journal, are headquartered at 1416 McCulloh Street.

Regular membership meetings are held the third Tuesday of each month from 6:30pm to 8:00pm at the Druid Hill Avenue YMCA. 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 Historic Marble Hill Community Association, Inc.:
President : Dr. Steva A. Komeh-Nrumah
Vice President: Mrs. Ethel Witherspoon
Secretary: Ms. Lainie Jackson-Dixon

Treasurer: Mrs. Joan C. Davis