Smart Growth
Raveena John • September 30, 2025
Historic East Towson, one of the oldest Black communities in Baltimore County, celebrates its heritage through festivals, walking tours, and the Truth and Community Remembrance Park. Despite challenges from infrastructure like a power substation and highway bypass, the community plans a demonstration project to strengthen ties.
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New Trail Aims to Preserve Local History
Towson University News • June 17, 2024
Towson University faculty and students are helping to create a three-mile pedestrian and cycling greenway called the Road to Freedom Trail, which will connect Historic East Towson and 12 landmark sites to the Hampton Plantation where its ancestors were enslaved. The initiative involves research, grantwriting, and community preservation efforts aimed at raising awareness of the neighborhood’s legacy.
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Rails to Trails
Rails-to-Trails Conservancy • Fall 2023
Historic East Towson’s Road to Freedom Trail was featured in Rails-to-Trails Conservancy’s Fall 2023 issue, highlighting the community-led effort to create a 5-mile paved trail connecting Historic East Towson to the Hampton National Historic Site. The project preserves Black history, protects green space, and uses interpretive markers, art, and storytelling to honor the legacy of formerly enslaved people and their descendants.
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Plans to Build ‘Freedom Trail’ Seek to Honor Towson’s Black History
WBAL • Feb. 18, 2023
WBAL-TV highlights ongoing efforts to develop a Freedom Trail that shares the history of Historic East Towson’s Black community. The East Towson Community Association is working to connect important heritage locations — from Hampton National Historic Site to the Carver Community Center — through a pedestrian and bike route that brings visibility to generations of descendants and historic landmarks.
Watch Full Coverage on YouTubeBaltimore Business Journal
Amanda Yeager • June 17, 2022
East Towson’s proposed Freedom Trail is an initiative led by community leaders to preserve and share the neighborhood’s Black history while encouraging cultural tourism. Tracing sites connected to formerly enslaved people and historic institutions, the trail aims to educate visitors, honor community legacy, and support preservation amid ongoing development pressures.
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Founded by Former Slaves, East Towson Residents Confront Modern Threats
The Washington Informer • Dec. 22, 2021
This article explores the origins of East Towson as a community built by formerly enslaved residents in the mid-1800s, along with the current threats facing the neighborhood. With historic Black landownership dating back to 1853, descendants continue to live in East Towson today, but development pressures — including the proposed Red Maple Place housing project — raise concerns about displacement, environmental racism, and preservation of the community’s cultural identity.
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