The $8 million conversion of a historic elementary school in West Baltimore into a community hub is finally moving forward.
The conversion is expected to launch in the coming year and has ignited optimism in the community as it moves toward a post-pandemic recovery through new development, said Rev. Alvin Hathaway Sr., pastor at Union Baptist Church, who is spearheading the effort for the project.
Plans to turn the former P.S. 103 at 1315 Division St. into the Justice Thurgood Marshall Center have been in the works for years as developers have dealt with funding issues and designs. The red brick building today sits vacant and was partially damaged in a fire five years ago.
But reclaiming and restoring it is a labor of love for several community leaders — and it recently captured the attention of the U.S. Park Service that launched a study over including the school in the national park system because of the legacy of its most famous student, Justice Thurgood Marshall.
The redevelopment of P.S. 103 means a lot to members of the Druid Heights and Upton communities because of its heritage as one of the city's segregated African-American schools. Its new life will pay homage to Marshall, the first Black jurist on the U.S. Supreme Court. Marshall lived in West Baltimore and was a student there from first through eighth grade beginning in 1914.
The redo of P.S. 103 will kick off in tandem with other renewal projects in the area. A $40 million redo of historic Lexington Market is going on nearby, as well as other west side redevelopments that will add new housing and retail.
"It's going to be amazing," Hathaway said of the school's conversion plans. "This project is one of the most difficult puzzles, but an exciting puzzle to put together nonetheless."
Preliminary designs by architecture firm Sulton Campbell Britt & Associates show the three-story building will be converted to hold office, classroom and meeting spaces.
The Beloved Community Services Corp., run in part by Hathaway, will set up its offices there alongside the anchor, the University of Maryland Judge Alexander Williams Jr. Center for Education, Law and Ethics. There will also be meeting rooms and new commemorative space to highlight the life and career of Marshall and another city hero, the late Congressman Elijah Cummings.
"We were given all of Rep. Cummings' campaign literature and we will recreate a campaign office for him there," Hathaway said. He noted the center "will also pay tribute to one of the persons who played a major role in the Civil Rights struggle from Baltimore" by honoring Walter Sondheim, who served as head of the city school board in 1954 and moved to desegregate Baltimore City Public Schools.
Beloved Community Services bid on the project earlier this year and won a request for proposals from the city's housing department.
Hathaway then formed a team to help with the P.S. 103 redevelopment that includes Vonnette Harris, president of Kairos Development, University of Maryland law professor Larry Gibson and Jon M. Laria, a private attorney who has worked on several high-profile developments in the area.
Together they have worked to attract public and private funding sources that include New Markets Tax Credits and state and local historic tax credits, and planned the interior spaces of the old school. A federal grant of $3.5 million is making its way through the budgeting process this year in Congress.
In addition, Hathaway and his group plan to address the Greater Baltimore Committee's board next week about the project for further support.
"If all goes well, we will settle in the first quarter of 2021 and break ground then, too," Hathaway said. He estimates construction will take about 10 months and that the building will open "in early 2022."
Source: Baltimore Business Journal
