Waverly, Baltimore

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Row houses in Waverly
Row houses in Waverly

Waverly is an historic village in the heart of Baltimore; it is a culturally diverse neighborhood with an active community life, innovative schools and affordable housing. Located near I-83, York Road and major bus connections, Waverly provides easy access to downtown Baltimore, Towson, and the beltway. Waverly is middle class neighborhood, with a high percentage of home ownership and a very active community association (Waverly Improvement Association}.

Contents

[edit] Subdivisions

Single family houses in Waverly
Single family houses in Waverly

Waverly has two sub-divisions.

The area known as Waverly (-north) has Greenmount avenue as its western border, 39th Street as its northern border, Ellerslie as its eastern border, and 33rd Street as its southern border. The community association for this area is called the WIA, or "Waverly Improvement Association".

The area known as "Better Waverly" (from the olde English term, like "greater" meaning larger) occupies the area east of Greenmount avenue, south of 33rd St., from 29th street, and around the corner to Loch Raven Blvd.

[edit] History

Ancient Waverly, when it came into being, was called "Huntingdon," from St. John's Episcopal Church, Huntingdon the community's oldest church, dating from the 1840s. In 1840 the town of Waverly included six buildings all clustered near the 3100 block of York Road: a shoemaker's shop, a corn husk depot, a blacksmith, and three small stone houses. The shoemaker, Jacob Aull, was an immigrant from Bavaria whose sons built the houses in Waverly's first housing boom and whose daughter Louisa became a neighborhood historian. Surrounding this little village, away from York Road, there were still the estates, summer houses, arboretums and horse farms of the affluent.

In 1866, a large parcel of land, much of it previously used for pasture and farming, was bought and divided into lots. New avenues were laid out. More houses were built, as were the first firehouse, the town hall, and finally the Post Office. Obtaining the Post Office led to the change of name to Waverly, after Sir Walter Scott's first novel, Waverley, to avoid confusion with the myriad Huntingdons.

With rural origins and a history as a suburban village, by 1974 Waverly was considered representative of an urban community, and was used as such by the Gallop Poll. Residents of the 900 block of Homestead Street were asked whether Nixon should resign. According to the story, the first residents alerted all the others to be home and answer the door, and soon the President was gone.[1]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Waverly. Live Baltimore Home Center, Inc.. Retrieved on 2008-05-04.

[edit] External links