Hamilton Hills, Baltimore
Hamilton Hills is a mixed-use suburban neighborhood located in the northeastern corner of Baltimore, Maryland. Hamilton Hills represents a section of Hamilton, a larger historic area that includes other neighborhoods in Northeast Baltimore. The neighborhood's borders are Old Harford Road and Harford Road to the east, Echodale Avenue to the south, Perring Parkway to the west and the Baltimore County line to the north. The main thoroughfare in Hamilton Hills is Harford Road, which has been an integral part of the area's history.
The larger Hamilton area was sparsely populated until the late 18th century, the period when Harford Road was built. Hamilton began as a small, rural village surrounded by farmland during the 19th century. The land that became Hamilton Hills was a part of Baltimore County until 1918, when Baltimore City annexed it. Real estate developers arrived in the 20th century to build houses, and entrepreneurs formed a main street corridor on Harford Road. The Hamilton area was described throughout the 20th century as a desirable, family-oriented suburb in Baltimore City. The community has experienced White flight and been challenged by urban decay since the end of World War II. Residents in the 21st century have attempted to revive and protect Harford Road's main street economy as well as the reputation of the Hamilton area. Hamilton Hills was formalized in 2003 when the neighborhood association renamed the neighborhood.
Hamilton Hills' population in the 21st century has remained relatively stable compared to Baltimore's overall population decline. As of 2020, Hamilton Hills was the 5th largest neighborhood in the city by total population. Compared to Baltimore as a whole, median household incomes among Hamilton Hills residents in the 2010s were higher, life expectancy was longer, crime was lower, and voter participation was higher. Hamilton Hills residents have been more likely to graduate high school than all Baltimoreans but less likely to complete college.
Hamilton Hills is represented within the Baltimore City Council's 3rd District. Elementary and middle school students are zoned into three public schools, and the neighborhood is served by three post offices and a public library branch. It has two urban green spaces, one park, and a variety of cultural amenities.
History
Native American presence and European settlement
The Susquehannock people controlled the area that became Baltimore City and Baltimore County as late as the 1640s. They used the hilly, rugged terrain as hunting and trapping grounds, living instead to the north in the lower valley of the Susquehanna River. Beginning in 1634, the Maryland Colony's first English settlers spread north into the Baltimore area from St. Clement's Island in the Potomac River. These settlers gradually drove the Susquehannocks from the land, and they prevented other peoples such as the Iroquois and the Algonquians from claiming it.The area that became Northeast Baltimore was sparsely populated in the 18th century. In 1734, the Principio Iron Company of England began acquiring land in the area for pig iron production, much of which they exported to England. At the peak of their operations, the company owned 4,900 acres of land in Northeast Baltimore. They used Herring Run to transport some of their goods on barges, and they likely stripped natural resources from the area that became Hamilton.
In 1780, during the American Revolutionary War, the Maryland General Assembly passed an act to confiscate all British property in the state. This included Principio's land in Northeast Baltimore. Over time, wealthy merchants from Baltimore Town built large estates on some of it, and truck farmers arrived to supply food for the region on other lots. Harford Road was built as early as 1791 in part to provide these merchants and farmers with a trade route into Baltimore Town. After the City of Baltimore was incorporated in 1797, most of the Harford Road area remained in Baltimore County until the 20th century.
19th century
Travelers complained in the early 19th century that potholes made Harford Road almost impassable with a horse and carriage. In 1819, the road was privatized as a toll road in exchange for its maintenance. A few connecting streets were built over the next few decades, and villages flourished around some popular crossroads. One such village became Hamilton's sister neighborhood of Lauraville.During the mid and late 19th century, another village emerged on Harford Road between the intersections of Old Harford Road and Tames Lane. This is the village that later became Hamilton, though it was called North Lauraville in its earliest years. By the late 19th century, travelers in the region recognized North Lauraville as a rest stop and a center for horse and carriage supplies. Tames Lane ran from Harford Road to Belair Road where Hamilton Avenue is today. It was named for the Tames brothers, who opened the village's first general store at the intersection with Harford Road. Other businesses supporting the horse and carriage market as well as local farmers were opened along Harford Road and Tames Lane.
In the late 19th century, a retired sea captain named Hamilton Caughey donated land for Baltimore County to extend Tames Lane west of Harford Road. In exchange, Tames Lane was renamed Hamilton Lane and later Hamilton Avenue in his honor. When the United States Postal Service established a new post office at the intersection of Harford Road and Hamilton Lane, Baltimore Postmaster S. Davies Warfield renamed North Lauraville "Hamilton" to distinguish the village as a separate community.
In 1898, electric rail service for passengers was extended north on Harford Road from downtown Baltimore and into Hamilton. The streetcar system allowed Hamilton residents to travel farther from home and to work in the city. As a result, suburban development in the area would explode over the next few decades.
20th century
From village to neighborhood
After 1900, real estate developers bought many of Hamilton's old estates and farms to subdivide for new housing. In 1905, Evergreen Lawn became Hamilton's first subdivision on Evergreen Avenue. Between 1900 and 1919, a total of ten subdivisions were built in Hamilton and marketed toward middle-class families. Many of the area's present-day streets were named for its earliest residents or for historic properties.As more residents moved to Hamilton during the early 20th century, they expanded the area's economic and communal activities. Retailers in various trades, from drug stores to dressmaking, opened along Harford Road and Hamilton Avenue. The two-story Hamilton Hall building was constructed at the southeast corner of Harford Road and Hamilton Avenue to serve as a prominent gathering place. Between 1900 and 1930, a dozen Christian churches were founded on or near Harford Road, and six held their first meetings in Hamilton Hall. Two neighborhood associations, the Hamilton Improvement Association and the Hamilton Women's Club, were formed to advocate for social and structural improvements in the area.
In 1918, Baltimore City annexed land including Hamilton and what is today Northeast Baltimore from Baltimore County. The city granted substantial property tax breaks for residents and developers in its newly annexed communities. The city also extended its water, sewer, and other infrastructure systems to Hamilton in the years following annexation.
After annexation, Baltimore City began connecting its eastern and western halves with several lateral roads. Northern Parkway was the first; it was begun in 1926 and completed in the 1970s. Echodale Avenue was built in 1935. By the mid-1920s, Harford Road had also evolved from a dusty toll road to a public arterial road. These roads allowed Hamilton's residents to access the rest of the city more easily and vice versa.
Mid to late 20th century
Hamilton was described throughout the 20th century as a desirable, family-oriented suburb and was known for its main street corridor on Harford Road. After another housing boom following World War II, most of the space available for residential stock had been developed. The last major housing push in Hamilton was the construction of apartment complexes near Northern Parkway and Perring Parkway, which occurred during the late 1960s and 1970s.From the 1940s to the 1950s, Baltimore's city planners discontinued the electric streetcar system in favor of gasoline-powered automobiles. General Motors, Standard Oil, and Firestone Tire influenced the conversion of the city's streetcars to buses, and Hamilton's rail service on Harford Road was discontinued on June 19, 1956. The conversion of Harford Road exclusively to automobiles impacted Hamilton's main street economy. Over time, retailers relocated elsewhere to accommodate shoppers at strip malls and later at shopping malls.
Hamilton's characteristics changed during the latter half of the 20th century. The area became more of a pass-through community than a destination as its main street economy declined. White residents began migrating away from Baltimore and from Hamilton as suburban communities emerged in surrounding counties. Following the racial desegregation of Baltimore's public schools in the 1950s and 1960s, the majority of public school students in the city and in the Hamilton area shifted from White to Black. Generally speaking, Hamilton evolved into a more mixed-race area after Baltimore's population peaked in the 1950s.
21st century
To combat urban decay in the Hamilton-Lauraville area, local advocates targeted the Harford Road corridor for revitalization during the 1990s and 2000s. Hamilton-Lauraville Main Street, a 501 nonprofit organization, was founded with the support of the Baltimore Main Streets program. The organization's mission is to provide "quality of life experiences that retain residents and attract new neighbors, and to create opportunities for local businesses". Hamilton Lauraville Main Street has since hosted cultural events in the neighborhood and provided grants to businesses for improvements.In 2000, the neighborhood association representing what became Hamilton Hills named the neighborhood Harford Echodale Perring Parkway. In 2003, the association renamed the neighborhood Hamilton Hills, the name by which it is known today.
Hamilton, and Hamilton Hills by association, has been awarded in recent years for its desirability. In 2014, The Baltimore Sun ranked Hamilton 3rd in its top ten up-and-coming places to live in the Baltimore region. In 2019, the real estate website Redfin ranked Hamilton 4th in its top ten hottest affordable neighborhoods in the United States.