ABSTRACT
Title of Thesis:
HOLDING ON TO HERITAGE: PRESERVING BALTIMORE
COUNTY’S AFRICAN-AMERICAN CULTURAL HERITAGE
Degree Candidate:
Carolyn Greenfield Adams
Degree and Year:
Master of Arts in Historic Preservation, 2007
Thesis directed by:
T. Stephen Whitman, PhD
Welch Center for Graduate and Professional Studies
Goucher College
Baltimore County’s forty historic African American communities came into
existence based on Maryland’s history of coexisting slave and free black populations and
the resulting legal and social segregation. In this environment, African Americans
established communities. The existence of these communities and their structures
preserves the heritage of the struggles and achievements of their residents. Development
and societal changes are altering these historic settings. Many have already disappeared,
leaving few traces of their existence. Those that remain are important for what they can
teach us about this largely undocumented part of Maryland’s history. This thesis
researched answers to how this cultural and physical heritage can be preserved.
This thesis discovered that preservation efforts are most successful when a
historic community structure is the focal point and that the segregation era schools have
often fulfilled this function. It also showed that successful and adaptive use of these
preserved structures involving the entire multicultural community is critical to continued
viability.
The thesis found there is a significant level of interest within the existing African
American communities as well as governmental resources, historic designations, and tax
incentives available to help preserve this cultural heritage. However, residents of the
historically African American areas remain underserved and ineligible for many of the
protections and benefits because of a lack of knowledge and leadership. Leadership and
community involvement are needed to overcome this deficit.
This research found that a network of residents and descendants of prior residents
can be a particular strength from which to draw leadership; and that there are many
methods to involve community including partnerships with local universities and
museums, grant funded publications of oral histories, reunions, real estate networking,
cultural tourism and festivals. Finally, developing methods and funding to assist African
American community residents to implement these strategies is an important part of
assuring the continuing preservation of Baltimore County’s African American cultural
heritage.