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.