Neighborhood
Upton
Upton connects historic churches, the Upton Mansion and Pennsylvania Avenue’s arts activity with a continuing tradition of Black civic life and cultural preservation.
Upton’s rowhouse streets hold institutions associated with Black religious, educational and civic life. Druid Hill Avenue’s historic churches and the Pennsylvania Avenue corridor provide different ways into that story. At West Lanvale Street, a much older house adds another layer: a former private estate that repeatedly changed its public purpose.
The mansion has served many kinds of learning
Afro Charities’ history of the Upton Mansion dates the building to 1838. Later uses included radio station WCAO, the Baltimore Institute of Musical Arts and the Upton School. The music institute, established there in 1944, welcomed students across racial lines.
Afro Charities is redeveloping the mansion as a permanent home for the AFRO Archives. Its collection account explains how the newspaper’s working files became a research resource: photographs, correspondence and other records kept for journalists now support new questions about Baltimore’s history.
The operator’s current access guidance still directs researchers to remote requests while construction is completed. The restoration should therefore be understood as an active project, not an invitation to arrive for an unarranged museum visit.
Arts activity along Pennsylvania Avenue
Nearby along the shared corridor, Jubilee Arts at 1947 Pennsylvania Avenue offers visual arts, dance, ceramics and business education. Its Youth in Business program gives high-school-age participants experience operating an art-based enterprise. The program belongs to Intersection of Change, connecting arts education with the organization’s wider community work.
These activities extend the area’s cultural history into making, teaching and entrepreneurship. Pennsylvania Avenue links several neighborhoods, so a corridor institution’s reach is broader than the Upton boundary alone.
Research and everyday resources
The Pennsylvania Avenue library names Upton among its service communities. Its research tools and public computers offer another practical connection to learning, alongside the neighborhood’s historic buildings and the developing archive center.