Copyright Baltimore Sun
Downtown Baltimore’s Howard Street suffered a hit when a batch of historic shops caught fire a few weeks ago. There’s now a vacant lot the size of a football field where people once had lunch, saw a movie and had their shoes repaired. But not all the news is grim. Extensive building renovation work is soon to start at a spot less than a block away from that fire. Soon, 42 affordable apartments will emerge from the triangular grouping of buildings at the intersection of Park Avenue, Fayette Street and Liberty Street. This rescue comes not a moment too soon. The development, which involves a conjoining of these structures, takes the name Sojourner Place at Park. It’s the work of two Baltimore nonprofits, the Episcopal Housing Corp. and Health Care for the Homeless, operating in a joint ownership venture. Nearly two-thirds of the apartments will be reserved for people exiting homelessness, with rents capped at 30% of a renter’s income. Sojourner Place at Park will be a 48,000-square-foot multifamily building in the historic Five and Dime preservation district. It’s the first Sojourner Place downtown; the original opened in East Baltimore’s Oliver neighborhood, and a third is planned for Oldtown near the Shot Tower. The project incorporates 111 Park Ave. and five adjacent properties into a single residential community. The plan calls for interior walls to be removed, with new elevators, amenity rooms and a ground-floor retail space. “We think this is all part of [the] transition of downtown Baltimore’s West Side,” said Dan McCarthy, executive director of Episcopal Housing Corp. “We are helping more the energy here and create a critical mass as you head up the hill toward Eutaw and Paca streets.” McCarthy said his group is building on the success of its first Sojourner Place project in East Baltimore. There’s always a story behind a building downtown. What appears to be a branch of the old Equitable Trust Co. was originally a railroad station — the first downtown terminal of the Washington, Baltimore and Annapolis (WB&A) electric line, which opened in 1908 and declared bankruptcy in 1935. Some of the old WB&A right of way is now a Prince George’s County hiking trail, while Baltimore’s light rail operates on part of the former line. The heavy WB&A electric cars once looped through what will become Sojourner Place’s interior. The line became so popular it outgrew Liberty Street and moved to West Lombard Street. That terminal, with its popular lunchroom, was later demolished to make way for the downtown Holiday Inn and its revolving rooftop restaurant. Sojourner Place at Park had its own restaurant too. It was a takeout, but what a takeout, the downtown component of the Harley Restaurants chain. It was a spot beloved by Baltimoreans who grew dependent on the Harley Original and its secret sauce. Harley’s gets little respect these days. The chain disappeared more than 40 years ago, but the Park and Fayette version became a spinoff named Shane’s and even retained some of the Harley signage. The person behind Harley’s was a character, the Dorchester County-born Harley Brinsfield, who, according to tradition, began at Lexington Market and opened a home base at Linden and McMechen in the 1940s. There’s a story about how he got the idea for a “submarine” sandwich while in the Merchant Marine. He smoked Tiparillo cigars and kept his money in cash in his pockets. Harley’s shops were pure blue-collar Baltimore, favored by shift workers, night owls, cops and those who closed bars at 2 a.m. His submarine sandwiches were all custom-made — and if you craved lunch meats, cheeses, H&S Bakery rolls and tangy sauce, this was your go-to destination. People loved Harley’s (there was a Harley burger too, with a pungent red sauce), and they were once all over Baltimore. I was always fascinated by the Edmondson Avenue Harley’s, which occupied a Pennsylvania Railroad commuter train station. Passengers could pick up dinner on their way home from Washington, D.C. Harley had another Baltimore presence. He bought the night slot on WBAL radio and broadcast his own nightly jazz program. Harley had a deep, husky voice that he used to improve the recorded jazz classics of the 1930s and 1940s. Some of his favorites were Sidney Bichet, Billie Holiday and Louis Armstrong. His theme song was a jaunty version of “Sailing Down the Chesapeake Bay.” Harley’s or Shane’s, at Fayette and Park, was a natural fit. A block from the old Trailways bus terminal and a block from the business district, it bridged a niche between two worlds, the gritty West Side and the “respectable” Charles Center. Watch for the scaffolds to go up around Fayette and Park in the next few weeks. A groundbreaking ceremony is planned for December.
