Old Town Mall in East Baltimore was once a major commercial hub. It’s taken a decade to turn the disinvested area around. On Tuesday, state and city officials broke ground on a new park in the surrounding neighborhood.
Developer Dana Henson said the new park will feature an amphitheatre, a jazz theme honoring Baltimore’s jazz legends, along with walkways and a pavilion. Formerly known as North Central Park, it will now be named after former Democratic State Senator and educator Nathaniel McFadden.
“Most of the time when someone gets something named after them, they're gone,” said Mayor Brandon Scott. “But we have the opportunity here to make sure that the senator sees this playground, to know how much we appreciate him.”
McFadden, 78, who taught at nearby Dunbar High School, received the honor with humor. Speaking at the podium, he told the crowd — which included family members and lifelong friends — that he is looking forward to the ribbon cutting in eight months.
”We're gonna have the Dunbar band march all through here. Then the Dunbar jazz ensemble is gonna play. And we're gonna have a real good time,” he said.
He also shared his thoughts on protecting the $7 million investment, a mix of state, city and American Rescue Plan Act funds.
“This community deserves it,” said Henson, the developer. “There was no way we could have the park named after such a great person in such a great neighborhood, in such a great area, and have it not be anything less than great.”
The park, located at 500 North Central Avenue, is part of the Perkins Somerset Old Town (PSO) transformation plan. Since 2018, city officials along with developers have torn down distressed public housing and replaced it with mixed-use units. Last fall, the city celebrated the completion of the second phase of 156 “affordable “luxury” apartment units.
Newly elected Councilman Jermaine Jones said the next challenge will be maintaining the progress made.
“Projects like this take a lot of work to happen,” said Jones. “Building it is one thing, but making sure that we take care of it, making sure that we have the funds to maintain it is another thing I want to keep in mind.”
