Hidden gem: Lake Walker
Neighborhood: Lake Walker
Location: northern Baltimore
Average sales price: $235,000 (January through June)
Notable features: This neighborhood hard against the city-county line is, architecturally speaking, the opposite of the suburban cul-de-sac where every house looks exactly the same. Here you'll find nineteenth-century farmhouses, modest Depression-era homes, bungalows, brick townhouses, stylish Tudor townhouses (pictured above) and even some homes that could participate in a suburban cul-de-sac exchange program without anyone being the wiser.
There's no lake -- the neighborhood is named after two streets. But the tree-lined Lake Avenue looks awfully nice even without water as a draw.
Lake Walker, bounded on the west by York Road, is within walking distance of a Giant grocery store. Because it's just south of Towson, it's not far from malls, colleges and Interstate 695. But never mind that for a moment. See what I mean about the homes:
Brick townhouses in a sea of greenery:
Bungalows:
White house, black shutters, lots of windows:
A bit of the suburbs inside city lines (there's even traffic-calming speed humps on the street in front of these homes):
And the tree-lined Lake Avenue:
Janet Abramovitz, president of the Lake Walker Community Association, said the variety of styles among the 770 homes allows for upsizing or downsizing without moving out.
"In fact, we're now on our second house in the neighborhood," said Abramovitz, who moved to Lake Walker in 1996 when she married her husband. Their first place was a small house with a small yard, circa 1930. Now they live in a Gothic-style farmhouse built around 1860 with a "very large yard" that appeals to the gardening couple.
It's not just the property that Abramovitz likes. "It's a kid-friendly, dog-friendly, people-friendly neighborhood," she said. "We have an annual block party, which is just for the neighborhood, which is tons of fun and several hundred people come to that."
She added: "It's such a nice neighborhood in every sense of the word 'neighborhood.'"
Have personal experience with Lake Walker? Do share.
Want to see all the photos I took? Check out the hidden-gem gallery.
Tomorrow: Lauraville.
(All photographs by Jamie Smith Hopkins / Baltimore Sun)
Categories: Hidden-gem neighborhoods
