Hoes Heights Action Committee Provides Greater Understanding of its Historic Black Neighborhood in Upcoming Town Hall Meeting Public Is Invited

(BALTIMORE – November 11, 2022) – The Hoes Heights Action Committee (HHAC) will host a Town Hall Meeting on Thursday, November 17, 2022, at 7 p.m. at the Roland Park Presbyterian Church at 4801 Roland Avenue, Baltimore, MD 21210. The Town Hall will be moderated by Dr. Sheri Parks, VP of Strategic Initiatives at the Maryland Institute College of Art, and include remarks by Dr. Lawrence T. Brown, author of “The Black Butterfly: The Harmful Politics of Race and Space in America.”

The Town Hall’s purpose is to create a greater understanding of the historical context of the Roland Water Tower road and its importance to the historic Black community of Hoes Heights. Through this historical framing, HHAC hopes to bring together the nearby neighborhoods of Roland Park, Rolden, and Heathbrook to reimagine the proposed park design around the Roland Water Tower to include the road. 

Without conducting genuine community engagement of residents in Hoes Heights–those most impacted by the road closure–in the redesign of the Tower greenspace, representatives of the Roland Park Community Foundation (RPCF) came to a decision in June 2022 to close the road in order to build a “pocket park.” HHAC seeks to resolve the current tension amongst neighbors by reaching a new consensus that will support creating both a green space and keeping the Tower road open. 

Hoes Heights is named after Grandison Hoe, a formerly enslaved man who purchased the land in 1840 to farm, later dividing it among his children and nephew, Albert Peters.  Descendants of Grandison Hoe still reside in this historic Black neighborhood.