Metro Delta Outreach Center
Throughout the Neighborhood Design Center’s history, providing architectural assistance for the adaptive reuse of buildings has been an important service in our community revitalization efforts. The former Francis Ellen Harper School building in the Sandtown Winchester neighborhood is one of our most recent examples. Built in 1889, it is one of the few surviving school buildings built in Baltimore for black children and staffed by black teachers. This historic Romanesque structure was named after Francis Ellen Harper - a Baltimore-born black poet.
The building is currently owned by the Baltimore Metropolitan Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority – an organization that provides community service programs to improve the lives of men, women, and children in the Baltimore area, including HeadStart programs, teen health fairs, scholarship workshops, and after-school classes. For 9 months, Tom Gamper and Anthony Gill of SMG Architects worked with Delta Sigma Theta to develop plans and drawings that illustrate how the Chapter could consolidate their many now-scattered outreach programs within one building.
Anthony Gill noted, “the Sorority has an inspiring vision for the center's impact on the surrounding community”. For Tom Gamper, NDC Hall of Fame Volunteer who has done previous projects in the neighborhood, remarked, “It's great to be back in Sandtown.”
The client acknowledged that showing these professional presentation products to potential investors and donors will allow them to move forward on a dream that they have had for many years – connecting to history while serving an active social mission.
Project Completion: 2006
Project Location: Sandtown 1024 North Carrollton Avenue Baltimore, MD
NDC Volunteers: Anthony Gill and Tom Gamper, SMG Architects