Orchard Street

The splendid $3.7 million restoration of Baltimore's Orchard Street Church -- which was celebrated over the weekend -- is a miracle, which makes one appreciate a remark once made by Israel's Golda Meir: "The impossible only takes longer."Until the Baltimore Urban League decided to restore the landmark church, it was a badly vandalized shell for a decade and a half. Others had endlessly talked about restoration and raised untold thousands of dollars without any results. The Urban League finally got the wheels moving and now occupies part of the complex as its headquarters.

They were angry over the dim lighting and they were angry over the crowded corners and they were angry over the heroin vials. Then a Baltimore police detective was shot trying to make an undercover drug deal - one bullet grazed his chin, a second bullet shattered his jaw. It was January 2009, and the spike in violence led to a showdown between the people of historic Seton Hill, living in some of the city's oldest rowhouses, and the people...

For a decade and a half, efforts to rescue the old Orchard Street Methodist Church were a seemingly never-ending saga of false starts and frustrations. But when the Baltimore Urban League decided to acquire the badly vandalized landmark for its new headquarters, it injected enough credibility and clout to get things moving.Now that the $3.7 million restoration has been completed, it is heartening to report that the result is nothing short of spectacular.''I think we are going to be an anchor for the whole Druid Hill Avenue corridor,'' says Urban League president Roger I. Lyons.

Orchard Street is the dividing line. On one side is Orchard Mews, a subsidized townhouse development built in the late 1970s. On the other side is Seton Hill, home to some of Baltimore's oldest rowhouses, built in the early 1800s and tucked away in a maze of narrow alleyways. They share a proud history that dates back to the days of the Underground Railroad and the Orchard Street Church, built by a former slave, and a compact area bounded by Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, Pennsylvania and Druid Hill avenues.

The Baltimore Urban League earlier this month announced its choice of an architect for the restoration of the Orchard Street Church at 521 Orchard St., near Martin Luther King Boulevard and Druid Hill Avenue, thus taking another step in its plan to move from Mondawmin Mall into new offices in the church next year.When the move to the new quarters eventually takes place, one of the city's oldest service and advocacy organizations for black people will be housed in a stop on the famous underground railroad of Civil War days, and the oldest black church in Maryland.

The newly restored Orchard Street Church, already headquarters for the Baltimore Urban League, will be the home of a new museum devoted to the city's early African-American churches and their congregations.Members of the social services organization, which moved last fall to the restored church property at 512 Orchard St., recently approved a mission statement for the museum, planned as a second phase of construction.It will tell "the story of black churches in Baltimore, with a special emphasis on Orchard Street Church," said Nancy Brennan, executive director of the Baltimore City Life Museums, a consultant to the league.

In the field of preservation, as in politics, the watchwords for the '90s are multiculturalism and diversity.Across the nation, more and more "minority" groups are taking the lead in preserving the historic structures that have served them socially and spiritually while making America a rich tapestry of ethnic enclaves.No project in the country epitomizes this movement toward pluralism better than one just completed in Maryland: the $3.7 million transformation of the Orchard Street Church to a new headquarters for the Baltimore Urban League.

On June 16, 2003, NATHANIEL N. PERKINS of Darden Road. On Friday friends may call at Canaan Baptist Church, 713 Tessier Street (at Orchard Street) from 5 to 7 P.M. On Saturday, Mr. Perkins will lie in above church, family hour 10:30 A.M., celebration 11 A.M. Services entrusted to HARI P. CLOSE FUNERAL SERVICE, P.A., 410-327-3100.

Orchard Street is the dividing line. On one side is Orchard Mews, a subsidized townhouse development built in the late 1970s. On the other side is Seton Hill, home to some of Baltimore's oldest rowhouses, built in the early 1800s and tucked away in a maze of narrow alleyways. They share a proud history that dates back to the days of the Underground Railroad and the Orchard Street Church, built by a former slave, and a compact area bounded by Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, Pennsylvania and Druid Hill avenues.

Treasure Island'Watch as the Children's Theater Association brings the classic tale "Treasure Island" to life on the stage this weekend at the Baltimore Museum of Art. The Robert Louis Stevenson story involves a boy who sails the high seas and is abducted by pirates bound for an exotic island where long-lost treasure awaits them, or so they think. Audience members may get invited to join the crew, hoist mainsails, sing ancient sea chants and even join the mutiny along with Long John Silver.

A plainclothes Baltimore City police officer was shot twice in the face last night while attempting to make an undercover drug purchase in the Seton Hill neighborhood, officials said. The officer, a seven-year veteran of the force, was rushed to Maryland Shock Trauma Center, where he was in critical but stable condition last night. His injuries were not considered life-threatening. The 33-year-old officer and his partner, also in plain clothes, were at the intersection of Pennsylvania Avenue and Orchard Street shortly after 8 p.m. when they saw a group of people who appeared to be involved in drug transactions, said Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III. The officer was shot in the jaw and cheek when he tried to make an undercover purchase, Bealefeld said.

If the battle between city residents and city drug dealers is a battle of wills, it appears the drug dealers are winning, or at least have city agencies so confused that they can't keep a single street illuminated in a neighborhood that abuts downtown and Mount Vernon. The people who live in Seton Hill got a portable floodlight near Orchard Street and Pennsylvania Avenue to counter a drug market. The dealers who prefer to ply their trade in the dark broke the light by cutting the wires and bending the frame.

"She was one of those old-time people who raised a family, took care of her husband, was a regular churchgoer and sang in the choir," the Rev. Irvin C. Lochman said yesterday of his church's longest-attending and oldest member. He was remembering Irene Gladys Taylor, who died a week ago as she neared her 108th birthday. She was the matriarch of a Baltimore family that includes 87 living descendants across four generations. One of Maryland's oldest residents, Mrs. Taylor had a simple but rich life, raising her eight children while never smoking, touching alcohol or driving a car, with a marriage that lasted nearly 60 years until her husband's death in 1978.

Although urban legends abound in cities throughout the South, perhaps none have been more enduring than the tales of the existence of a slave escape tunnel beneath the Orchard Street Church in Baltimore's Seton Hill neighborhood. Despite the lack of authentic historical documentation to substantiate the claims, the location continues to be regarded by many as a 19th-century stop on the Underground Railroad. Much of the surviving oral history is filled with the buzz words that historians dread, such as "it is alleged," "oral tradition contends" and "what is believed to be."

At this weekend's Underground Railroad Tour, travel through time to the 19th century and discover what it was like to be a slave in search of freedom. The tour leads participants to a variety of sites that are crucial to black history. Many of these locations were stops on the historic Underground Railroad. One stop is at Orchard Street Church, founded by Truman Pratt in 1825. The church has a secret tunnel and hiding area that indicates that it was a stop on the Underground Railroad. "Orchard Street Church is the highlight of the tour because the legendary escape tunnel is there," says Tom Saunders, one of the Underground Railroad tour guides.

On June 16, 2003, NATHANIEL N. PERKINS of Darden Road. On Friday friends may call at Canaan Baptist Church, 713 Tessier Street (at Orchard Street) from 5 to 7 P.M. On Saturday, Mr. Perkins will lie in above church, family hour 10:30 A.M., celebration 11 A.M. Services entrusted to HARI P. CLOSE FUNERAL SERVICE, P.A., 410-327-3100.

With a month to go before moving its headquarters to th historic Orchard Street Church, the Baltimore Urban League yesterday came much closer to raising the $3.7 million needed to pay for the restoration.Alex. Brown & Sons Inc. presented a $600,000 check, representing an agreement to invest in the project. In return, the Baltimore investment banking firm hopes to benefit by syndicating federal tax credits available for restoration of historic buildings.The investment brings to $3.1 million the amount raised from public and private sources.

Blanche D. Hughes, a teacher of French and Spanish who helped save Baltimore's historic Orchard Street Church, died of Alzheimer's disease Monday at the home of her daughter in Columbia. The former Baltimore resident was 96. In the 1960s, as the congregation was moving to a new home, Mrs. Hughes alerted the community to the significance of the old Orchard Street Methodist Church in Seton Hill. Because of her passion for local and Methodist history, she was elected chairwoman of the Committee for the Preservation of the Orchard Street Church.

Baltimore Urban League Inc., one of the city's venerable social organizations, is struggling financially and trying to raise money to balance the books and meet its payroll. "I think there's no secret in town that we've been struggling to generate as much financial support as we can," said Lenneal J. Henderson Jr., chairman of the league's board of directors. "We're trying to raise at least $600,000 or $700,000 in the next several months." All this comes as Roger I. Lyons, the league's long-serving president, sits at home, recovering from a mild heart attack and related medical problems.

Blanche D. Hughes, a teacher of French and Spanish who helped save Baltimore's historic Orchard Street Church, died of Alzheimer's disease Monday at the home of her daughter in Columbia. The former Baltimore resident was 96. In the 1960s, as the congregation was moving to a new home, Mrs. Hughes alerted the community to the significance of the old Orchard Street Methodist Church in Seton Hill. Because of her passion for local and Methodist history, she was elected chairwoman of the Committee for the Preservation of the Orchard Street Church.