The Katie R. Williams Cultural Center will document, preserve, and celebrate the rich Black History of West Baltimore while offering the community a cultural space to gather, grow, and welcome new residents. These three surviving rowhouses built in 1869 are emblematic of rowhouse development after the Civil War in the Poppleton neighborhood of West Baltimore. The history of this place shows how one small neighborhood can tell a huge story of a city and a nation.
Katie (Ringgold) Williams (1866-1963), a Baltimore native and lifelong westside resident, was the first Black woman to independently receive her mortician’s license in Baltimore city. She operated a funeral home at 319-323 N. Schroeder Street from 1929 until her death in 1963. Williams was an important figure in Baltimore’s history, and her funeral home is remembered by generations of residents. She buried over 10,000 people and was a well-respected entrepreneur who owned a great deal of property and gave back to her community. Her 1963 funeral at St. John’s AME Church on Lafayette Square attracted a crowd of 3,000 people—filling the church and spilling over into the square. Through conversations and oral history interviews with long-time residents, we know that local residents remember Williams for the role she played for their families and the larger community of West Baltimore.
Southwest Baltimore is home to historical spaces dedicated to Edgar Allan Poe, H.L. Mencken, the B&O Railroad, the Irish American Railroad Workers, and the Charles Carroll Barrister Family Plantation. The Katie R. Williams Cultural Center will ensure that the area’s Black history is told alongside these other monuments. The Poppleton Now Community Association and the Southwest Partnership Historic Preservation Committee support historic landmark designation for these buildings to prevent further deterioration and to preserve and develop a space where the history of Black West Baltimore is honestly told–including the damage caused by urban renewal and other failed policies–but also the joy and deep cultural traditions of historic Black neighborhoods as told through oral histories and exhibitions. The Cultural Center builds upon the successful renovation of the neighboring Poppleton Recreation Center (1976) and public pool and the Sarah Ann Street alley houses (1870), redeveloped by Black Women Build for affordable homeownership. It will provide a space for the community to tell their own story and pursue a model of shared stewardship for their historical narrative and archival collections.
Image Amory Jones “Memories in the Margins” for the Master of Architecture and Community Planning, UMD, December 2025
This community-led project holds extra importance as a way to preserve history and culture with ongoing changes in the neighborhood such as the redevelopment of Poe Homes, the ‘Highway to Nowhere” Reconnecting Communities planning grant, and the MTA’s Red Line project. Baltimore’s Department of Housing and Community Development has agreed not to demolish the properties and allow the community to build partnerships to redevelop the buildings as a cultural heritage site that serves all residents.
The Katie R. Williams Cultural Center planning committee co-chairs Yvonne Gunn (Poppleton) and Nicole King (Hollins Market) are seeking capable and community-minded partners to develop a sustainable vision and plan for the project—one that will honor West Baltimore’s past in the process of building a better future.
For more information contact co-chairs Yvonne Gunn gogunn80@aol.com and Nicole King nking@umbc.edu
We are looking for contributions to the A Place Called Poppleton community archive. Please contact Dr. Nicole King nking@umbc.edu
Thanks to Dean Krimmel for research into Katie R. Williams and the Schroeder Street properties.