"We always told 'Miss.' You didn't address an older person by their first name. That's the way we were raised. That was giving respect. You always used your manners." Phyllis King, community advocate and educator.
"I was taught to always say 'Good morning,' even when people didn't speak to you. You spoke to everyone that came down the street. Sometimes I would be sitting on my front porch and get so tired of speaking to people. People didn't just walk by and not say anything, you talked to them every time they passed by."
Winters Lane
Winters Lane is home to the largest, most well-preserved African American community in Baltimore County. Entered into the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in 2007, it has been home to multiple generations in Catonsville, some dating to the early 1800s. Among those who arrived after the Civil War was the Harris family, former enslaved people at Catonsville's Crosby estate, who settled north of what is now Route 40. The area soon became known as Harristown. Further south, at the intersection of Edmondson Avenue, a small wood-frame schoolhouse was built in 1868 so that African American children could have a school they were allowed to attend.
Churches were some of the earliest spaces for spiritual and practical support for the neighborhood. Grace AME is the oldest remaining African American congregation in Catonsville, established in 1868. In 1921, Grace AME's newsletter begun by Samuel Torsell became The Weekly Clarion, a newspaper that grew to having a full staff and running advertisements for both Black and white businesses. Congregants, including the prolific local historian Louis S. Diggs, worked together to open the Samuel and Ida Torsell Mini-Museum at 79 Winters Lane, once the residence of the Torsell family, in 2011.
Winters Lane fostered a flourishing, self-sufficient Black community. Residents had their own churches, businesses, social organizations, doctors, schools, newspaper, hairdressers, barbers, grocery stores, restaurants, taxi services, casino, candy store, and even a dance hall, Greenwood Electric Park. Though many of these enterprises are gone, their legacy continues, despite integration and gentrification, in the lives and spirits of those who push for the preservation of their community's history.
Catonsville "Colored School," circa 1880. Courtesy of Baltimore County Public Library.
Signs of People
Winters Lane