Old Dundalk

Homes with Historic Charm on Tree-Lined Streets.  
Walk to Main Street Shops and Neighborhood Potlucks. 
10 Minutes to Canton, 15 to White Marsh.       Back to Neighborhood Maps

Neighbors are friendly in this National Register Historic District.  Many have strong roots in the area, with homes passing from one generation to the next.  Newcomers will feel welcome and quickly build a sense of rootedness and connection with their neighbors.

Old Dundalk is host to many community festivals and events including Dundalk’s 4th of July Parade and Heritage Fair, a Family Fall Festival, a Christmas Parade and Cookie Tour, an Art Show, and Summer Concerts in the Park.    

Housing Choices:
This area boasts homes built before WWI through the 1940s, including stucco duplexes with English village-style peaked slate roofs, detached bungalows, brick colonials.  The Dundalk Renaissance Corp. renovates homes in the historic district to promote homeownership, see them here.  Old Dundalk also offers large new construction options currently being built by Ryan Homes.

Parks and Other Attractions:
Within the neighborhood, you can walk the dog or play games at Fairway Park, Heritage Park, or Veterans Park.   You can use the tot lot and the ball fields at Dundalk Elementary school. 

You and your children can take swimming lessons at the Y Aquatic Center at 120 Trading Place.  The same building houses the Dundalk Community Center, with meeting room spaces, a gymnasium, and a computer lab all available for community use.

In the Main Street (see above right), across from the Post office in the former Dundalk Public library building, is the Dundalk-Patapsco Neck Historical Society and Museum.  You can go there to look up more information about your house, street, or community.  The historical society also host numerous events, lectures, and festivals.

Neighborhood and Civic Organizations:
Old Dundalk Neighborhood Association, P.O. Box 4063, Dundalk 21222
The Old Dundalk Neighborhood Association alternates its meeting dates and times between weeknights and weekends.  ODNA organizes a number of community-building events and activities throughout the year and participates in several community-wide festivals.

Schools:
Dundalk Elementary School  2717 Playfield St. - 410 887-7013
Dundalk Middle School  7400 Dunmanway
Dundalk High School  1901 Delvale Ave. - 410 887-7023

Faith-Based Organizations:
Dundalk Church of the Brethren, 2660 Yorkway
Church of God at Dundalk, 6 Yorkway
Patapsco Masonic Temple, 2 Trading Place - 410 284-6596

History:
Old Dundalk's neighborhood history is intertwined with the founding of the town.
Beginning in the late 19th century, Dundalk was transformed from farm fields into an innovative planned company town by the suburbanization of industry and housing, the advent of World War I, and later, the widespread adoption of the automobile.  Irish immigrant Henry McShane started an iron foundry among the fields and houses just east of Baltimore City in 1854.  A wharf along the Patapsco River and a railroad converged near the location of the foundry, and Henry’s son William named the new freight station Dundalk in honor of his father’s hometown in Ireland.

In 1917, the Bethlehem Steel Company took over the nearby Sparrows Point steel plant.  To provide needed housing for new workers in this rural area, the Steel Company created the Dundalk Company.  Appointed president of the Dundalk Company was E.H. Bouton, a local architect who was also president of the Roland Park company in Baltimore City.  The company began by purchasing around 1,000 acres of land on either side of the railroad tracks near Dundalk Avenue and the freight station. 

Before the Dundalk Company could really get started constructing houses, the country entered World War I.  Ship-building was in high demand.  Through the United States Shipping Board Emergency Fleet Corporation, the federal government took over the role of the Dundalk Company on June 12, 1918, creating the Liberty Housing Company.

Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., the son of the famous landscape architect known for designing New York’s Central Park, was placed in charge of the newly-formed Town Planning Division of the U.S. Housing Corporation in 1918.  This federal agency supervised the planning and design of several towns, including Dundalk, needed to house workers producing ships and other supplies for the World War I effort. 

Old Dundalk’s design followed then-popular Garden City planning principles, using curvilinear streets, mixed housing densities, and a planned commercial and civic center.    Between 1918-19, 815 stucco houses with slate roofs were built.  A self-contained town center followed, featuring shops, churches, a school and other amenities.  This center evolved to include a movie theater, library, post office, police station and fire station.  The government purchased street cars, later known as the “Red Rockets,” to get residents to work.  Also typical of the Garden City ideal, open space was incorporated into the plan with park areas reserved adjacent to the shopping district and school. 

The mixed-use town center exists today and has functioned for decades as it was originally designed, though recent economic and retail trends pose a significant challenge.  It is the second oldest shopping center in the State of Maryland and among the first in America.  

Old Dundalk is the only residential project following Olmsted’s wartime model in Maryland and one of only 36 in the United States.  Housing lots were moderately sized, homes were diverse in style and price range, and laid out to embrace and support the pedestrian-friendly commercial and civic center from all sides.  At its heart was Dundalk Avenue, a central transportation corridor.  Dundalk became a National Register Historic District in 1983.  It resulted from a historic town planning movement, and it embodies today’s Smart Growth principles.   

More information on the Dundalk National Register Historic District and Historic Tax Credits