About Sandtown

Sandtown Winchester is a 72 square block community in West Baltimore. Known locally as "Sandtown" it is home to over 10,300 residents. The name Sandtown is derived from the trails of sand that dropped from wagons leaving town after filling up at the local sand and gravel quarry back in the day.

A rich history...

It is the 1950s and early 60s and Sandtown is a flourishing community. Though still segregated by the law of the land, an indomitable spirit defines the place. Churches and families, stores and schools provide the fabric of neighborhood life. Jobs are not making men rich, but they are available.

And there is music. Such music. The Royal Theater on Pennsylvania Avenue is one of the major East Coast stops for artists on their way to the Uptown in Philadelphia, and the Apollo in Harlem. Billie Holliday was born here. Cab Calloway goes to school here. Stevie Wonder, Dionne Warwick, Diana Ross, Louis Armstrong, Nat King Cole, Count Basie, and James Brown all come to play here…in Sandtown.

Years of urban blight...

As the 1960s march forward Baltimore's shipping and steel industries are in decline and jobs are disappearing. An important battle for desegregation and equal opportunity is being won, but Sandtown pays a heavy price. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is assassinated April 4, 1968 and in the riots that follow, many corner stores and businesses close, never to re-open. As equal opportunity housing legislation is passed, thousands of black families move to better neighborhoods, exercising new options that racism never extended. What is left in the wake is a community completely isolated both racially and economically. It is part of Baltimore's "Outer Harbor". What experts refer to as an area of "concentrated poverty".

The year is 1986. Sandtown—thirty years earlier teaming with over 40,000 residents—now languishes near 10,000. One in every four houses stands vacant. Unemployment exceeds fifty percent. Decades of neglect have taken their toll. But the spirit of the community remains, albeit under siege.

The rebuilding...

One highly publicized effort to revitalize Sandtown barely makes a dent in the ills that plague the community despite tens of millions of dollars being invested in well meaning, if misguided, brick and mortar projects (See Left Behind in Sandtown). As one Sandtown resident observed, "these new houses are nice, but I need a job". The groups and individuals involved in these efforts, for the most part and to their credit, didn't bail on the community as some might have. Instead they learned from the mistakes that were made, refocused their efforts, in some cases re-invented themselves and remain in active partnership with the community to this day.

In an attempt to take a more wholistic approach to turning Sandtown around, through an effort that actually predates the aforementioned project, a group of neighbors started New Song Urban Ministries and began to rebuild the social fabric of the community, not just the brick and mortar infrastructure. First a Church, then a chapter of Habitat for Humanity, a health center co-op, a job development program, transitional housing for recovering women, a brand new school, and a community arts program. The model used is one developed by the Christian Community Development Association (CCDA). Under this model the work of rebuilding the community falls to the existing residents of the community, relocaters to the community and is Church based. In addition there's an ever growing list partners from outside of Sandtown helping the neighborhood connect to resources that have historically been denied to communities like Sandtown. It is important to recognize and thank those organizations, groups and individuals who so lovingly give of their time and resources in partnership with local residents. This model for rebuilding, what decades of neglect have destroyed, is a long term process, a generational one if you will. But it is sustainable because it is born of the community itself.

So, to those who would say there are no signs of life in this "outer harbor" neighborhood...the members of the Sandtown Habitat Homeowners Association respectfully submit our existence in dissent of your observation. For we are indeed alive, and have every intention of claiming our rightful place at the "inner harbor" banquet, we just haven't finish cooking our portion of the meal yet.