After three years of fundraising and one year of construction, Banner Neighborhood’s new building, the Banner Neighborhoods Community Center, will open at the end of March.
Its new headquarters will offer larger work spaces and be more suitable for community meetings, said Banner’s executive director Jolyn Rademacher Tracy. It is also fully ADA compliant, with a wheelchair ramp at its entrance.
“We felt that was especially important for members of our senior home maintenance program. We’ve wanted to expand our offerings for seniors, and the new building makes that possible,” Tracy said.
Located at 2911 Pulaski Highway, just behind Banner’s current headquarters in the basement of the Church of the Resurrection at 2900 East Fayette, the new building is sunny and spacious.
“It used to be a church,” Tracy explained during a recent tour.
If fact, when construction workers were removing the building’s window air conditioner, they uncovered a few surprises, expansive church windows that had been bricked over by formstone. One is a six-foot-square window that will provide abundant natural light to Banner’s first floor.
While Banner’s new building will be ready for move-in in March, some of its most striking features – a front yard memorial garden and mosaic mural entrance – won’t be complete until summer.
The Ginny Dobry Memorial Garden, which honors Patterson Park area resident, activist, and longtime Banner board member Virginia Dobry, will feature an artistic entryway, raised stone planting beds, bushes and pavers.
A mosaic mural will grace Banner’s new entrance. “It’s an intergenerational art project that Banner and neighborhood residents will complete together,” Tracy said, noting that the building’s formstone will also be painted or stained.
Tracy added that Banner’s relocation is just one of several improvements coming to McElderry Park and Library Square this year.
Another is the renovation of Gateway Park, the southernmost portion of Ellwood Park bordered by Orleans Street and Pulaski Highway.
“We were awarded funding to install a six-foot-tall fence along the Pulaski side, so that the space will be more conducive to playing,” Tracy said of the high-traffic area.”We’re also buying park furniture and installing a dog waste station.”
Tracy said Banner will be using the park regularly for its youth programming.
The organization is also fixing Gateway’s broken garage overhang and busted asphalt – an eyesore and site of frequent dumping.
Once repaired (the garages themselves were painted by muralist Adam Stab last year) the site will be used for Banner workshops. The fence, park enhancements, and overhang repair will be completed by the fall.
“The work will be transformative for the whole area. It will be awesome,” Tracy said.
And once Banner moves out of its current space, its landlord, the Church of the Resurrection, will be getting a face lift of its own.
A grant from the Baltimore Regional Neighborhoods Initiative will fund a new paint job for the Latino mission church, whose building is owned by the Episcopal Diocese of Baltimore, explained Chris Ryer, director of the Southeast Community Development Corporation, a partner in Banner’s new building project.