Pennsylvania Avenue Black Arts & Entertainment District

The Pennsylvania Avenue Black Arts & Entertainment District is a state-designated arts district along a mile-and-a-half stretch of Pennsylvania Avenue in West Baltimore, running from Upton north to Penn North. In the 1940s, '50s and '60s the avenue was the main shopping and nightlife strip of Black Baltimore, often compared to Harlem's Lenox Avenue, where performers such as Cab Calloway, Billie Holiday, Ray Charles and James Brown drew crowds and the Royal Theatre at Pennsylvania and Lafayette was a mainstay of the Chitlin' Circuit. Urban renewal later cleared much of the area and the Royal was demolished in 1971; a statue of Billie Holiday, unveiled in 1985, now stands at 1400 Pennsylvania Avenue. The Arch Social Club, founded in 1905 and housed since 1972 in the former Morgan Theatre at Pennsylvania and North avenues, is known as the district's entryway and is the last live-entertainment venue left on the historic strip. Maryland designated the district in July 2019 after a campaign led by the Upton Planning Committee and local partners, and the Pennsylvania Avenue Heritage Trail's markers and murals now trace the avenue's history.