The Early Days
Brief History of Mayfield – from Eric L. Holcomb’s The City As Suburb: A History of Northeast Baltimore Since 1660.
“At the turn of the twentieth century several wealthy families owned most of the land couched between Herring Run, Clifton Park and Lake Montebello.The land was dotted with truck gardens and hot houses. Nonetheless, with the electrifilcation of the streetcar, and the establishment of Herring Run and Clifton Park, Mayfield became ripe for suburban development. Today, the area is a mixture of six periods of residential architecture, three residential building types, and two periods of landscape architecture. As a whole, Mayfield is one of Baltimore’s most diverse and cohesive neighborhoods…
Barn originally used for mules to dredge Lake Montebello
“In 1908 Judge John Dobler bought a tract of land from Mary Garrett, laid out Mayfield Avenue, and built a house. Here, Erdman and Mayfield Ave were showcases of large upper-class suburban mansions…
“From 1906 to about early 1930’s, developers for dominated Mayfield’s growth. By 1930 Mayfield was very much as we see it today.”
Modern Developments
2501 Chesterfield Ave was the most recent house built in Mayfield. Building ended with this house in 1952. A large addition to St Francis in 1957 ushered in St. Francis School which now has classes PreK to 8th grade.
St. Francis pres school thru 8th grade
St. Mathews United Church of Christ doubled it’s size in 1952 with the addition of school rooms and a gymnasium. In 2003 the Maryland State Boy Choir purchased the building. A Million Dollar plus capital campaign is currently funding the redesign of the buildings interior space to provide the new home for The Boy Choir Center for the Performing Arts. Private practice, rehearsal rooms are being added as well as a much needed upgrade to the building mechanical systems. The Original congregation continues its Sunday services. There is an agreement between the Boy Choir and Mayfield Improvement Association that Mayfield residents can rent the facility for weddings and parties.
Celebration for the opening day of Lake Montebello's road redesign
In 2004 Mayfield Improvement Association with considerable technical assistance from Mayfield resident Paul Norwood came up a plan to redesign the road around Lake Montebello that included the addition of a planted median in the Curran Drive section to protect cyclist, walkers and in line skaters from two way automobile traffic. Through considerable work and persistance of Mayfield board members and Mary Pat Clark, a working group was established that included Department of Transportation, Water and Wastewater, and the neighborhoods of Mayfield, Chum, and Montebello. The group worked through issues of proper lighting so as not to confuse migratory birds, ground cover for red wing black bird, how to give cycling teams enough space and still have safe room for the ambulatory, the appropriate style of the new fence and the lighting standards. As luck did have it, City Council President, soon to be Mayor Sheila Dixon got behind the project and fast tracked it to complete just before her election in the Fall of 2007 as Mayor of Baltimore City.
The end result compromised issues of ground cover for the birds and the recreation path was not as wide as we would have liked, the medians did not have break out access for cyclist to merge into the automobile lane, but it seems to working just fine. There is no question the project has made Lake Montebello a major asset to North East Baltimore residents and improved the value of houses on Mayfield’s lake side of Harford Rd.
