Fieldwork Begins

     This week we begin our fieldwork for the 'I am your neighbor' project. My first assignment is to conduct historical house research on 1134 W Saratoga St. In preparation for our interview with Damon Barnes later this week. Who grew up there, when Poppleton was very different. Damon's father Thurston O. Butler owned that house until 2019. Resisting pressure from the city to sell his home, for roughly 14 years. Mr. Thurston watched as his neighborhood was slowly abandoned by its inhabitants, but held out hope. This process began in 2005 when the La Cite redevelopment project started to reshape Poppleton. 

    As far a I can tell at this stage of my research I believe the home was built at some point between 1880 and 1896. I have yet to find a record of its construction but I hope to continue my search over the course of the semester. I have come to the realization that this type of research is very time consuming, somewhat tedious, and almost feels like putting a jigsaw puzzle together. Each small piece of information alone will rarely reveal the entire picture, but together these pieces can tell a story. Luckily Dean prepared me for this and I am still enjoying the process.    

    Through my research I learned that Mr. Thurston and Sandra P. Butler purchased 1134 W Saratoga St from the city in 1982. The city acquired the property in 1972 which means that it was likely meant to be resold as part of Baltimore's Homesteading Program. This 'revitalization' program was introduced by mayor William Donald Schaefer to draw people back into the city. They hoped to achieve this by selling the vacant houses for $1 if the buyers agreed to invest in rehabbing the homes over a specified period of time. Based on the records available it would seem that no buyer acquired 1134 W Saratoga St during this program. Mr. Thurston instead purchased the home for the sum of $25,500 with a 30 year mortgage at 13.5% interest. 

    Before the city acquired the property it appears that it was rented out to a number of black families and a variety of boarders. I noticed this trend by looking through the census records for 1134 W Saratoga St. I suppose that I am not surprised to find this since many homes were subdivided during this period. Of note I believe that one family, the Norman's, remained in 1134 for over 10 years. Based on the census records John and Anna Norman lived there from at least 1920 to 1930. Which I believe is somewhat rare for working class families during this time period. I thought it was interesting to see that Mr. Norman reported to the census taker that he worked as a marble cutter. Which means that he could have worked on some of Baltimore's iconic rowhouse marble steps. 

    Over the past couple of days I have begun looking through the Block Books for 1134 which will show the transactions that have occurred over the years. From these records I'm hoping to find out who owned the home and rented it out to the families listed in the census records. I plan to do this by looking through the city directories and newspapers available through the UMBC library. I'm not sure what I will find but I am eager to continue my research. 

Fieldwork Planning

     I think last week's community meeting went very well. It was great to meet some of the community members like Sonia and Curtis that we have been hearing so much about over the past few weeks. I was also glad to hear from some of the younger community members at the meeting, It was clear that while some of them were somewhat uncomfortable with all of the unfamiliar people around, they were still interested in working with us on this project. Just showing up to the meeting took some guts and I respect all of them for that. Personally I could have never done something like this when I was their age. I did some community projects while I was in the scouts, but that was just a small role in a much larger group.

    We got some great feedback from the community and I think we should try to include as much of it into the project as possible. One thing that stuck out to me was the fact that they hope these projects will serve to make residents of Poppleton proud of their neighborhood. I think it was Sonia who talked about how there is a disconnect between neighbors in modern society. She fondly remembered how things used to be in Poppleton, everyone knew everyone and they all looked out for each other. While we certainly cannot directly combat this sociological issue. I think that this kind of project can certainly contribute toward renewing that pride in a community and love for your neighborhood. 

    Their was also quite a bit of discussion about reinvestment in the rec center and its role in the community. Many of the community members stressed how places like the rec center and churches serve as hubs in the city where communities can come together. I think that's a powerful concept in modern society, providing a place for people to meet their neighbors face to face would ideally strengthen a community. I think that we should definitely try to include questions about the rec center in our interviews. Ideally we would document the older community members memories about it before it was closed. (Past) What they thought about it? Did they go there often? What types of things did they do there? What did it mean to them? We could also try to ask both the older and younger narrators about the closing of the center (Present) and what they hope it will become. (Future) How did you feel when it closed? What do you think was lost when it closed? What do you think it can bring to the community? How do you feel about the reinvestment project? Do you think that money should have been spent elsewhere? 

    Another takeaway from the meeting was the question, "what is Poppleton?" Several people spoke about the artificial boundaries created by the city that determine who gets what and how much they get. As we have seen these boundaries are constantly changing and evolving over time. I hope that our idea to create a map documenting this change is possible. One thing I think that we should take a serious look at this week is the logistics behind this idea and determine if this is possible. 

    I met with Dean earlier this week and began to discuss the historic home research portion of the project. He had some great insight into how to begin this process and the types of things to keep in mind while conducting research. Much like the profiles we both agreed that any kind of narrative or historical context would reveal itself through the research. So at the moment I am unsure where the project will lead and how it will fit into the themes we plan to address in our publication. This week I hope to get some feedback from the class and see what they hope we can get out of this portion of the project. Also I wonder if any of them are interested in participating in this research, I haven't had the chance to discuss it with them and certainly wouldn't want to exclude them.

    When it comes to selecting roles on the project, I am naturally drawn to the research positions. Though I am still open to assisting with the interviews whether that be on the recording side of things or supporting the interviewers with whatever they might need. With production I think my history background would be best used in the editing process. However I would love to learn some of the skills required for the Tech/Designers position. I'm always interested in developing digital skills that I can use on future projects. 

Community Meeting

     This week we will be presenting our project ideas to member's of the community for feedback. Even though it seems like this meeting will be fairly informal. I'm feeling a little nervous about the presentation, but I think that has more to do with my own social anxiety rather than the ideas we will be presenting. I feel some relief knowing that Dr. King has already established trust between the community and UMBC. I would feel much more stressed if we were coming into this project with the added layer of building that relationship. In that scenario I can imagine we would have to work much harder at this stage to ensure that they sign off on the project. 

    So far I'm happy with the way that the project is shaping up and think that we will be able to meet our goals. I think that the interviews will give us some great stories about Poppleton for the written portion of our project. I am curious to hear the different answers we get to the the questions "what is a neighbor?" and "what is a neighborhood?" I'm sure that everyone will have a unique opinion on this since they are both very loosely defined terms. If we can pull it off, I think that the digital map idea could be a really interesting feature of our project. Being able to visualize how the neighborhood has grown and shrunk over the years will make it easier for people to understand how a neighborhood is constantly changing. I'm a little concerned about the logistical and technical requirements, but I'm confident that our class can handle the challenge. 

    I'm thrilled that I will be able to assist with the historical research for the 1100 block Saratoga St houses. It really adds another meaningful layer to the project for me. It feels like I have been given the opportunity to not only gain some practical experience, but to also contribute to the preservation of Baltimore's history. I was surprised to learn that I already have some of the skills that Dean Krimmell will be showing us later this month. Before I enrolled in graduate school I worked for a law firm that handled personal injury cases. Most of the information I learned there has not been useful to my studies, like if a driver is at fault for an accident with a bus. But, I did learn how to locate deeds and examine property records for some of the cases I worked on. I'm excited to see where the project will lead me and how I feel about this kind of work when it is done. 

    I really enjoyed the 'Watch Me Work' video about barbershops and salons on West Baltimore Street. I had never thought about the connection between hairstyling and mental health. I think its great that people like Donna understand the importance of the connections they can form with their clients. In addition to the fact that a good haircut can really boost their confidence. I also thought it was interesting to hear Troy talk about barbers being able to travel across the city into areas others cannot. These artificial barriers that separate the city add a unique layer to our questions about neighbors and and neighborhoods.