Lafayette Square

The long abandoned Sellers Mansion at the southeast corner of Lafayette Square looks like the model for a Charles Addams cartoon or a movie set for a Hitchcock thriller. But there is hope for the old mansion, the first house to be built in Lafayette Square in 1869. Judson B. Wood, president of the St. James Development Corp., which owns the Sellers Mansion, said recently that the historic house (a designate to the National Register of Historic Places) will most likely be converted to senior citizen apartments to augment the St. James Terrace Apartments next door.

REALTORSBoard appoints Myer public relations chiefThe Greater Baltimore Board of Realtors has appointed Paula E. Myer director of public relations and marketing. She will be responsible for implementing internal and external public relations, communications and marketing programs.Before her appointment, Ms. Myer was marketing communications manager at Nurad Inc. of Baltimore, a manufacturer of microwave antenna products for the defense industry.Previously, she was associate editor of Heat Management, a publication of the Industrial Heating Equipment Association of Arlington, Va.Ms.

Scratch the surface of housing developer L. Paul Bryant and he says you'll find a social worker -- his former profession."I never really stopped being a social worker," said Bryant. " I looked at what was happening in this city and I said, 'It's up to me to help turn things around.' "To that end, Bryant announced yesterday the third and last phase of a scattered-site housing project for West Baltimore being completed by his company, Baldwin Development Corp.With several nearly renovated houses in the 800 block of Fremont Ave. as a backdrop, Bryant said that block and the 900 and 1000 blocks of nearby Arlington Ave. will have 54 new or renovated units of housing in 18 months.

While leaving a press event at the old Hebrew Orphan Asylum last week, I considered some of the other abandoned buildings I was passing in West Baltimore. Somehow the old orphanage never collapsed or caught fire. It was fortunate. It's also not alone in its abandonment. Later that dry and windy day, some big circa-1870s Baltimore houses caught fire. Houses on North Calhoun Street and others close by on North Carey Street were filled with flames that firefighters had a time controlling.

Tonight, on one of the longest evenings of the year, the people of Lafayette Square and Harlem Park will sing back at the night, strewing the streets of West Baltimore with Christmas carols that defy darkness and celebrate light.Neighborhood residents, community activists, area ministers and general well-wishers will gather at the Urban Services Center, at 600 N. Carey St. There, they will pick up their song sheets and begin the second annual caroling tour through this community of stately 19th century town homes interspersed with boarded-up rowhouses.

A contingent of community representatives complained yesterday that residents of Baltimore's federal empowerment zone are not having enough say in how $100 million in federal funds is being spent.The four representatives faulted the board overseeing the revitalization effort for not consulting the community-based Advisory Council before making recent decisions to emphasize economic development over social programs and to allocate money to six neighborhood "village centers" on the basis of population rather than in a lump sum, as originally intended.

While several homeless people gathered on benches on the plaza outside City Hall on Palm Sunday, a crowd of 60 churchgoers from congregations around Baltimore stood at the front door to pray for them - and for other needs facing the community - at the 10th annual Blessing of the City. "Thank you for letting us pray for the homeless today," said Kealiel Collins, 11, a parishioner of Metropolitan United Methodist Church in Lafayette Square, to God and the crowd. "Give the homeless their place in the world.

West Baltimore residents gathered in the 800 block of Fulton Avenue yesterday to announce that they will oppose a court ruling and begin tearing down billboards that hang throughout their neighborhoods advertising liquor, cigarettes and violent movies.Their first target: a board that this week was promoting service in the Navy, torn from the side of a corner store early yesterday."Last week that sign was a Courvoisier ad, with a bare-chested woman standing in the middle of a group of men," said Rev. Norman Handy, of the Lafayette Square Community Association.

Now that President Clinton has made the difficult decision to close Pennsylvania Avenue to traffic for security reasons, authorities should make the best of what could be a great opportunity. Washington is a city of spectacular open spaces, like the Capitol grounds, the Ellipse behind the White House and the Mall connecting the Capitol and Lincoln Memorial. A plaza in front of the White House, linking it with Lafayette Square across the street, could be one of the grandest of all.There's plenty of precedent and experience in Washington for turning eyesores into pleasing vistas.

Vernon Roy Sheffey, retired director of the Lafayette Square Multi-Service Center, died Nov. 17 of congestive heart failure at his Woodmoor home. He was 75.Born in Baltimore, he grew up on Riggs Avenue in the Sandtown-Winchester community. After graduating from Frederick Douglass High School in 1942, he en- rolled at Morgan State College (now Morgan State University) but in 1943 enlisted in the Army. After military service in Seattle, he received a bachelor's degree in sociology from Morgan in 1949.