On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
Redshift
The Ms. and I happened to be in Baltimore at the right time to visit the Miracle on 34th Street, a block of the city’s Hampden neighborhood that goes all out with fun and over-the-top holiday decorations. It did not disappoint! Hampden is a quirky neighborhood of rowhomes, known for restaurants, art galleries, and vintage shops, and its character is a mix of longtime residents and artists who began to move in during the 90s. The Christmas displays were started long before that, and have been going on for 76 years!
Most of these require no explanation, but this one is by a local sculptor who works in scrap metal!
There go two miscreants
My father grew up, and my grandparents lived when I was a child, just a few blocks North of there. We used to do the “drive around and look at the lights” routine; haven’t done that lately.
raven
nice
sab
Do not let my 9 yo grand-daughter see those porch unicorns!
mrmoshpotato
@sab: Hahaha! I’m partial to the dinos myself.
JeanneT
That’s SO fun!
Redshift
Thanks, everyone! We’ve been hearing about this for years and have friends who live about half a mile from it, but somehow this is the first time we’ve made the trek north from DC to see it.
Santa riding a unicorn is the first inflatable Ms. Redshift said she’d actually want for our yard, but I checked and unfortunately it’s one piece with the rainbow and costs $250, which is out of our price range.
Uncle Cosmo
.Well played, shifty! FTR I lived in a Hampden apartment with 3 JHU classmates for a semester at the end of the 60s, and now reside within a couple of miles.
I note you came by rather early in the season – nearer the holidays that whole block is swarming with people after dark, and there would be hot dog and hot chocolate carts doing brisk bidniz at the block’s eastern end (to the right in photo #2) where it t-junctions Keswick Rd.
“Baltimorons” will of course recognize Mr Boh (“Natty Boh”) and the Utz potato-chips girl on the right-hand house in photo #7. Aficionados of fringy cinema will note in the Flock Party photo (#4) the iconic John Waters Pink Flamingos as well as the ubiquitous Bawlmerese “hon.” Speaking of Waters (Charm City’s snarkiferous answer to Kubrick, Coppola et al.), here’s a quote:
FTR the displays run down both sides of the block (photo #2 only shows the north side) and in years past there have been some pretty spectacular ones there as well.
In years past, the west end-of-group row house (left of the “Seasons Greetings” house in photo #6) has had a picture window set facing the alley under the porch, which in years past featured a train garden with one of the densest cartoon-character displays in the multiverse. Parents would stand in line to lift their kids up to see it.
From photo #3 I hereby nominate the legend on the sign for a BJ rotating tag: Until Black & Brown Lives matter, none of us are free.
The display might still be up – I’ll check tonight or tomorrow. Have a safe and Happy New Year, peeps!
stinger
These are so great! I’m especially partial to the hubcap Christmas tree and the Flock Party, but penguins and Santa on a unicorn are right up there too.
frosty
We lived in Remington* across the creek (Stony Run) for a few years and drove by 34th Street often. My two favorites were the train that went out from the living room, around the porch, then back inside and the gondola / cable car from one side of the street to the other.
Of course, the hubcap tree too. I’m glad to see it’s still there!
* The only neighborhood Hampden could look down on. At least in the 80s. After the art crowd moved in, Hampden’s character changed completely. Remington, not so much.
frosty
@Uncle Cosmo: I like to say Baltimore’s culture is an unbroken arc from Edgar Allen Poe to John Waters. He definitely got the zeitgeist of the town in your quote.
Anyway
Wonderful set! Thanks for sharing. Sounds like a fun road trip (for next year ..)
Hoppie
@Uncle Cosmo: This brings back ancient memories for me, too. I lived on Beech Ave. between 33rd and 34th Streets in 1972 & -3 before moving to DC to continue my Masters work at SAIS. I expect we crossed paths more than once!
And thanks Redshift for the pictures. Quite the authentic place is old neighborhood Bawlmer.
Yutsano
PENGIES!!
*ahem*
I love how the national animal of Scotland is invading Christmas.
Uncle Cosmo
@Hoppie: Class of ’71 so we may have just missed one another. But you probably remember the then-recent 2×3 brick apartment building at the 3500 block of Beech. (On Googol Urf looks like there are a half-dozen of them there now.) I shared an entirely too small bedroom with an eventual JHU MD in a basement flat. Still in touch with my 3 former roomies.
way2blue
A Christmas tree of hubcaps & bicycle wheels. Wut?
SkyBluePink
So very fun! Loved the flamingos joining the celebration!
Thanks for sharing!
Have you checked the after Christmas 1/2 sales for Santa and Unicorn?
Uncle Cosmo
@frosty: It seems Remington has been gentrifying for some years. Made a pile of $$$ for another of my Hoppie classmates who molted into a slum, uh, landlord & snapped up property there early.
Once in the late 60s or early 70s I was visiting a friend and former classmate living in a commune in Windsor Hills when a guy showed up and showed us some low-budget film he’d shot. I am morally certain that guy was John Waters and the film featured the actor later known as Divine. (I’d ask my friend about that but sadly :^( he passed away in summer 2022 …)
Jerry
@There go two miscreants: My wife’s aunt lived around the corner on Keswick Rd. so I’ve had a good orientation to Hampden. 34th St at Christmas has become quite a destination trip.