History
This was estate countryside in the 19th century, characterized by large homes built by prominent city residents on the hilly countryside several hundred feet above the Inner Harbor area. Mondawmin takes its name from the estate owned by Dr. Patrick Macaulay (1795-1849), physician, city councilman, B&O Railroad director and patron of the arts. Tradition relates that Henry Wadsworth Longfellow visited Dr. Macaulay, who asked him what to name his home, then surrounded by corn fields. The poet allegedly looked around and replied, "Why not Mondamin, after the Indian corn god?" (Mapmakers later added a "w" to the name, and it stuck.)
The area known as Greater Mondawmin prides itself on a long history of stable homeownership. Many residents moved into the community in the late forties and early fifties as the area developed as the cultural and education center for African Americans. Robert W. Coleman, one of the community's renowned residents, established the first school of the blind for African Americans. Because of those early pioneers and the stability of the community, Greater Mondawmin was never designated as an urban renewal area. While the community has changed over the past 15 years, residents, churches, businesses, and community associations are diligently working to return the area to its early luster. Recently, Greater Mondawmin was chosen as one of fifteen Healthy Neighborhoods. Not only is Greater Mondawmin home to a newly renovated Mondamwin Mall, a brand new Shoppers grocery store, a new Target store, a successful transportation hub, two colleges, Druid Hill Park, and the Baltimore Zoo, but it can also claim rights to being home to the recently recognized and grant-winning Gwynns Falls Elementary School. Awarded grant money based on scholastic achievement, Gwynns Falls Elementary School is just another reason new families are choosing to live in Greater Mondawmin.
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