Wow! I had no Idea...

Pennsylvania Avenue wasn’t only a home for African Americans. During the 1700’s and 1800’s Europeans would travel from Southern Pennsylvania to trade and conduct other business. Before “The Avenue” had the name we know it as today, it went through three changes; The Wagon Road, Hooks town Road, Pennsylvania Road and finally Pennsylvania Avenue. Between 1688 and 1865 many Black slaves and freemen worked in what was known as Druid Hill Park. Druid Hill Park is only a couple of blocks away from Pennsylvania Avenue; Druid Hill Park had most of Baltimore’s Black population.
In 1799 the first group of slaves settled from Hattie’s. However, Pennsylvania Avenue didn’t become a predominately Black community until the 1920s. With the increase in Black churches, schools, night clubs, restaurants, hotels, barbers shops, beauty salons, insurance companies, banks, newspapers and medical facility named Provident Hospital. Pennsylvania Avenue became a successful community. Baltimore at that time was a segregated city, many African American inhabitants considered Pennsylvania Avenue “a City within a City.”