The Avenue

The Legacy of Historic Pennsylvania Avenue 

By Alvin K. Brunson     

In the Beginning 

Pennsylvania Avenue was first the home to many of Baltimore’s Germans, Italians, Jewish residents, and business owners.  During the early 1700s and 1800s, Europeans traveled from Southern Pennsylvania to Baltimore to buy, sell, and trade their commodities. Because Pennsylvania Avenue was connected to; and goes directly (via Reisterstown Road) into Hanover, Pennsylvania, the street was named accordingly. 

The street as we know it today has had four name changes, e.g., the Wagon Road, Hookstown Road, Pennsylvania Road and finally Pennsylvania Avenue.  Between 1688 and 1865, many Black slaves and freeman lived, worked, and died at what is now known as Druid Hill Park, which is located a couple blocks away from Pennsylvania Avenue.  The Etting (Family) Cemetery (1799-1881) located near the corner of Pennsylvania Avenue and North Avenue is the oldest existing Jewish cemetery in Baltimore.  

In 1799, the first group of Black slaves from Haiti settled near the unit block of Pennsylvania Avenue at Franklin Street to help build the St. Mary’s Seminary.  The Seminary was located at 600 N. Paca Street, one block from Pennsylvania Avenue.  Soon after the Civil War, (1861-1865) many Negroes, e.g., ex-slaves, soldiers, and Blacks who gained their freedom before the Civil War moved into the Pennsylvania Avenue area.

However, Pennsylvania Avenue did not become a predominately Black community until the 1920s.  With the rise in Black churches, schools, night clubs, restaurants, hotels, barbers shops, beauty salons, insurance companies, banks, newspapers and a thriving medical facility named Provident Hospital, located at 1514 Division Street, Pennsylvania Avenue became a thriving community. Because Baltimore at that time was a segregated city, many Black residents considered Pennsylvania Avenue “a City within a City.”

In 1920, the census showed that 90 percent of Baltimore’s Black population lived along Pennsylvania Avenue.  “The Avenue,” as it is affectionately known, was in the heart of the Black community.  It played the most important role in the development of Black culture in Baltimore.  Day and night, this street was always crowded.  It was where Blacks attended school, worked, and shopped.  At night, this street became a place where people hung out, listened to live music, ate, danced and spent their money fulfilling their wants and desires. 

The Royal Theater (1921-1971)

From 1921 – 1971, “The Avenue” came alive as crowds waited anxiously for the latest performance at the Royal Theater, which was once located at 1329 Pennsylvania Ave.  At any given time one was likely to see celebrities such as Louis Armstrong, Cab Calloway, Billie Holliday, Duke Ellington, Ethel Ennis, Andy Ennis, Count Basie, Charlie Parker, Ray Charles, Pearl Bailey, Moms Mabley, Sam Cooke, Sammy Davis Jr., Sarah Vaughn, Mahalia Jackson, Nat King Cole and Red Foxx, strolling along the “Avenue.” These “Stars” often walked “The Avenue” at night visiting other clubs and signing autographs for devoted fans.

For thirty years, the Royal Theater was a source of pride in the African American community.  In its heyday, the joint was always jumping.  The “entertainers” often stayed in black-owned and operated hotels like the Smith’s Hotel (once located at 435 N. Paca Street) owned by Thomas R. Smith, considered the wealthiest Black man in Baltimore at that time.  Celebrities also stayed at the Penn Hotel, once located at 1639 Pennsylvania Avenue and the York Hotel, which was once located at the corner of Dolphin Street and Madison Avenue. After a show, many of the “Stars” ate at local restaurants on or around Pennsylvania Avenue. Sess Restaurant was once located at 1639 Division Street, one block from Pennsylvania Avenue was a favorite.

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The above article is one of an ongoing series of articles, courtesy Alvin K. Brunson, director of the Center for Cultural Education Inc.,  that will highlight the “history and happenings” along Pennsylvania Avenue.  The Center for Cultural Education Inc. (541 Wilson Street / Baltimore, Maryland 21217 / 410-669-2975) operates an African American traveling museum, that highlights Baltimore’s Black History and Culture.   The Center provides bus tours of Black Baltimore and offers the Thurgood Marshall-Billie Holiday walking heritage tour.

Alvin K. Brunson (Nov. 14, 1958-March 30, 2008)—Brunson died in a building collapse on March 30. . . . he founded his Center for Cultural Education, a nonprofit organization formed to educate people about Baltimore's African-American history and culture, Brunson was a ray of hope for people living in the Pennsylvania Avenue community. Brunson took hundreds of people on his Thurgood Marshall/Billie Holiday Walking Heritage Tours of Pennsylvania Avenue, during which he would stop at famous attractions, like 1632 Division St., where Thurgood Marshall grew up, or the former site of the Royal Theatre at 1329 Pennsylvania Ave., one of the only places where performers of color, like Holiday and Cab Calloway, could perform in Baltimore during the Jim Crow era. Brunson also took African-American history to local schools, libraries, churches, civic organizations--anywhere he could find an audience with which to share the message that this history should be preserved and that Pennsylvania Avenue should be revitalized.

Sadly, his message was cut short when Brunson was working to revitalize a building across the street from his Center for Cultural Education at 541 Wilson St. His plan for the building was to use it to expand his center into a cultural museum. . . .

At community events, sometimes Brunson would exhibit his traveling museum aside a display of Pryor-Trusty's book African American Entertainment in Baltimore. He wanted to remind people in a neighborhood long challenged by urban blight, lack of resources, and poverty that the Avenue's historic legacy is that it was once the center of black life and entertainment in Baltimore. In a City Paper story about Pennsylvania Avenue ("Street of Dreams," Feb. 2, 2005), Brunson provided historical context for Pennsylvania Avenue, which was first called Wagon Road back in 1818, and then Hookstown Road, and then Pennsylvania Road because it took travelers all the way to the state with the same name.

 He asserted that the first black slaves from Haiti settled near the first block of the Avenue at Pennsylvania Street to help build St. Mary's Seminary. "Theater owners saw the influx of blacks into this area as a means by which to make money," Brunson said in "Street of Dreams."

Over the years Brunson served as an expert on Pennsylvania Avenue for several newspapers and he provided a wealth of history on the area in self-published books. He also wrote editorial content about the subject for online media like Doni Glover's "The Glover Report" column at BmoreNews.com and Chicken Bones: A Journal. His hope was that one day someone—elected officials, development corporations, anyone with the power to do so—would finally revitalize Pennsylvania Avenue. In the years since the decline of the Avenue in the 1970s there have been partial revitalization efforts, but the Avenue is far from what it could be.

Brunson's older sister Aletha "Brenda" Brunson, who lives in Richmond, Va., says her family is still mourning the loss of her brother. She says there were six siblings in the family that grew up on Dukeland Street in Baltimore. She says Alvin was very studious, and that his interest in the Pennsylvania Avenue may have been ignited by his love of jazz. When he was a student at Coppin State University earlier this decade, she says, he did a project on the Avenue. "He had a great interest in the contributions of blacks in Baltimore, especially those who had a significant influence and impact on Pennsylvania Avenue and Baltimore in general," she says. "He had me and everyone else in my family on the lookout for books, albums, magazines—anything anybody could find of historical significance." City Paper

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