From left, Ernest Davis and daughter Mya at Preston Place, Amy Reed and Frances O’Neal in the Darley Park garden, and youth leaders walking in Oliver - Photos by Chris Hartlove
Coming Home to Preston Place
When BUILD members talked about rebuilding Oliver in a community meeting a few years ago, Thelma Turner had a point to make. “I moved to Oliver because it was a city on the hill,” she said. “I want to make Oliver that city on the hill again.”
Turner, a grandparent of a Dr. Bernard Harris Sr. student, distilled the sentiment of many that night. The belief that Oliver could be made whole again was particularly strong among the six BUILD churches in the neighborhood: Ark Church, Eastern United Methodist, Knox Presbyterian, Memorial Baptist, St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church and Zion Baptist.
In 2001, working together and with leaders from the Child First program at Dr. Bernard Harris, the churches organized to rebuild Oliver by investing $1.2 million to purchase properties.
The 2002 firebombing of the Dawson family galvanized the congregations and school and they called on the Baltimore Police Department to make the neighborhood safer.
From 2003 to 2006, BUILD partnered with The Reinvestment Fund to develop a comprehensive plan. In 2007, TRF Development Partners and BUILD worked with Tony Deering, Chairman of the Rouse Company Foundation, to raise $10 million in private funding.
Today, the result is Preston Place, a planned $25 million development of 122 affordable homes. Of the homes, 25 have been built and TRF Development Partners will build or rehab the rest during the next three to five years. Within sight of the new biotech park near Johns Hopkins Medical Institution, Preston Place is a visible sign of rebirth in the Oliver community.
I moved to Oliver because it was a city on the hill. I want to make Oliver that city on the hill again.
— Thelma Turner
