My walk in Ashburton (Baltimore: attorney, houses, neighborhoods)

[barante]

I belong to a three-person walking group. We try to take a four-five-mile destination walk every week and then immediately cancel its benefits by having a good lunch. With one member out of town last week, I hosted a walk that featured Ashburton and a corner of Forest Park that is called Hanlon Park.
When Ashburton was developed in the 1920s, it was one of Baltimore's premium neighborhoods. Housing types vary from colonials and Georgians to ranchers and Tudor-influeced single-family and rowhouses. Asburton initially barred Jews and blacks. After the former prohibition was lifted in the early 1930s, it became largely Jewish. The first blacks moved in in the mid-1950s. Within a decade most whites had fled.
The overall impression of Ashburton was a neighborhood that is well-kept. Houses seemed to be in good shape, grass cut, flowerbeds cared for. And why not? In the last few years the neighborhood has finally started to rejuvenate itself.
When desegregation started, first black homeowners referred to it as the Gold Coast. Buppies still prefer Howard County, but some younger blacks are moving in. Among resident heavy hitters, in no particular order, are attorney Dwight Pettit, former mayor Kurt Schmoke, state Sen. Lisa Gladden, Del. Shawn Tarrant and the corner compound belonging to Court Clerk Frank Conaway, his city councilman-daughter and state delegate son.
We then crossed Liberty Heights Avenue, looked at the once-magnificent elevated mansions overlooking Lake Asburton on Hilton Street, then looked at the modest, nondescript home of Little Willie Adams, reputably the wealthiest black man in Baltimore (who still owns it but lives nowadays in a nursing home). Since he loved walking around the reservoir, we did a round in his honor.
Until a few years ago, Ashburton was woefully underpriced, probably because it's not on white homehunters' list. The Hanlon Park area probably still is undervalued.
With Mondawmin Mall in the midst of a major expansion that will bring a Target store there as well as a good supermarket, this area should be of interest to those who can see past race. Asburton has an active neighborhood association with a web site.