| Sandtown-Winchester | |
| Settlement Type: | Neighborhood statistical area |
| Image Alt: | Rowhouses on the 1100 block of N. Fulton Avenue in Sandtown-Winchester, Baltimore |
| Pushpin Map: | United States Baltimore |
| Subdivision Type: | Country |
| Subdivision Name: | United States |
| Subdivision Type1: | State |
| Subdivision Name1: | Maryland |
| Subdivision Type2: | City |
| Subdivision Name2: | Baltimore |
| Unit Pref: | Imperial |
| Area Footnotes: | [1] |
| Area Total Sq Mi: | .522 |
| Area Land Sq Mi: | .522 |
| Elevation Ft: | 190 |
| Population Total: | 9174 |
| Population As Of: | 2009 |
| Population Density Sq Mi: | auto |
| Timezone1: | Eastern |
| Utc Offset1: | -5 |
| Timezone1 Dst: | EDT |
| Utc Offset1 Dst: | -4 |
| Postal Code Type: | ZIP code |
| Postal Code: | 21217 |
| Area Code Type: | Area code |
| Area Code: | 410, 443, and 667 |
Sandtown-Winchester is a neighborhood in West Baltimore, Maryland. Known locally as Sandtown, the community's name was derived from the trails of sand that dropped from wagons leaving town after filling up at the local sand and gravel quarry back in the days of horse-drawn wagons. It is located north of Lafayette Street, west of Fremont Avenue, south of North Avenue, and east of Monroe Street, covering an area of 72 square blocks, patrolled by the Baltimore Police Department's Western District.[2] The community is 98.5% black.[3]
Sandtown is located in a historically black area of West Baltimore neighboring the once affluent Upton. In the second half of the 20th century, Sandtown experienced economic depression, housing abandonment, crime, and the effects of the Baltimore riot of 1968.[4] [5] Whereas in the 1950s and 1960s famous African American performers such as Billie Holiday and Diana Ross performed there and it was sometimes referred to as Baltimore's Harlem, by the time of the 2015 protests and rioting over the death of Freddie Gray, 3% of its population was incarcerated, a third of its housing abandoned, 20% of working age people were unemployed, and a third of residents were living in poverty.[6]
In 2015 Wall Street Journal op-ed columnist William Galston drew lessons from the history of Port Clinton, Ohio, to Baltimore and reported 52% unemployment among 16 to 64 year-olds in the Sandtown-Winchester neighborhood, twice the unemployment rate of Baltimore as a whole.[7] [8]