Yale Heights is a neighborhood in the Southwest District of

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

, located between Beechfield (west) and Irvington (east). Most of its homes were built in 1955 as a development of two-bedroom, brick townhouses.Yale Heights
''Live Baltimore''. Retrieved 2010-05-25 Its population in 2008 was estimated at 2,916.
City-Data.com. Retrieved 2010-05-25 The community's boundary with the Beechfield neighborhood runs along South Beechfield Avenue from South College Road (south) to Frederick Avenue (north). Its boundary with Irvington follows Maiden Choice Run from Frederick Avenue (north) to

Loudon Park Cemetery Loudon Park Cemetery is a historic cemetery in Baltimore, Maryland. It was incorporated on January 27, 1853, on of the site of the "Loudon" estate, previously owned by James Carey, a local merchant and politician. The entrance to the cemetery i ...

(south).

Maiden Choice Run

Maiden Choice Run, a small

tributary A tributary, or affluent, is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or main stem (or parent) river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries and the main stem river drain the surrounding drainage ...

Gwynns Falls Gwynns Falls is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed April 1, 2011. stream located in Baltimore County, Maryland, Baltimore County and Baltimore, Baltimore City, Maryland. It ...

, flows along the boundary between Yale Heights and Loudon Park as well as the Irvington boundary. In 2008, the

stream A stream is a continuous body of water, body of surface water Current (stream), flowing within the stream bed, bed and bank (geography), banks of a channel (geography), channel. Depending on its location or certain characteristics, a stream ...

was selected for a $1.4 million urban

stream restoration Stream restoration or river restoration, also sometimes referred to as river reclamation, is work conducted to improve the environmental health of a river or stream, in support of biodiversity, recreation, flood management and/or landscape developm ...

project as part of efforts to improve the

water quality Water quality refers to the chemical, physical, and biological characteristics of water based on the standards of its usage. It is most frequently used by reference to a set of standards against which compliance, generally achieved through tr ...

Chesapeake Bay The Chesapeake Bay ( ) is the largest estuary in the United States. The Bay is located in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region and is primarily separated from the Atlantic Ocean by the Delmarva Peninsula (including the parts: the ...

tributaries. Continuing efforts to improve water quality of the Gwynns Falls watershed resulted in a $1.6 million restoration project for Maiden Choice Run in December 2009. The project involved planting 140 trees and thousands of native plants along 2,700 feet of the stream near Beechfield Elementary School. A storm drain in this section of the stream was removed to stabilize the natural flow of water.

Catonsville Short Line Railroad

Although the train made no stops in Yale Heights, the Catonsville Short Line Railroad passed through the southern end of the neighborhood before crossing Beechfield Avenue. The 3.5 mile, single-track line of the Catonsville Short Line Rail Road Company began operating on November 10, 1884. It provided passenger and freight service from Baltimore & Potomac Railroad at St. Agnes station (near St. Agnes Hospital to Mellor Avenue in

Catonsville Catonsville is a census-designated place (CDP) in Baltimore County, Maryland, United States. The population was 41,567 at the 2010 census. The community lies to the west of Baltimore along the city's border. Catonsville contains the majority of th ...

. Passenger service on the Catonsville Short Line became unprofitable when the electric trolley began service along Frederick Road in 1897 and was discontinued by the railroad in 1898. Hudson Realty Company purchased the rail line in 1945, changing the name to Caton & Loudon Railway. From this point, the rail line's freight business steadily declined as the highway system was developed throughout the area. The last carload traveled along the line in April 1972. It was officially abandoned by Penn Central on July 28, 1973. A plan in the 1970s to develop the former Catonsville Short Line into a hiking trail never got past the concept stage; the route's right-of-way was forgotten and allowed to grow wild. The portion of the rail line passing through Yale Heights, between the point where it exits Loudon Park to the Beechfield Avenue crossing, became overgrown with a thicket of trees. The crossing was paved over, but portions of the rails remain visible on each side, protruding slightly through the soil and grass. A portion of the proposed hiking trail, running between the Charlestown community in Catonsville and Spring Grove State Hospital, was eventually implemented as the

Short Line Railroad Trail The Short Line Railroad Trail is a trail in Western Baltimore County, Maryland. The trail segment begins approximately at the Charlestown Retirement Community off Maiden Choice Lane, south of the Baltimore National Cemetery, and ends at Frederic ...

, but this did not include any of the railroad right-of-way in Yale Heights. The wooded area between Loudon Park Cemetery and the houses along Yale Avenue is known unofficially as the "Catonsville Short Line park". The southern portion of the "park" is part of the former railroad right-of-way; the northern portion of the wooded area grows along the banks of the Maiden Choice Run.

Public transportation

The MTA Citylink Purple passes through Yale Heights as it travels between

Johns Hopkins Hospital The Johns Hopkins Hospital (JHH) is the teaching hospital and biomedical research facility of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, located in Baltimore, Maryland, U.S. It was founded in 1889 using money from a bequest of over $7 million (1873 mo ...

and

. The bus serves stops along Yale Avenue from Frederick Avenue in Irvington to Cedar Garden Road in Yale Heights. From Cedar Garden Road, the bus turns North onto Beechfield Avenue, as it returns to Frederick Avenue from its loop through Yale Heights. The

UMBC The University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) is a public research university in Baltimore County, Maryland. It has a fall 2022 enrollment of 13,991 students, 61 undergraduate majors, over 92 graduate programs (38 master, 25 doctoral, ...

shuttle bus makes three stops in Yale Heights.Arbutus/Irvington Line.
UMBC Transit (a department of the UMBC Division of Student Affairs). Retrieved 2010-06-01

References

External links

Southwest District maps

Gwynns Falls watershed history and map.
Includes Maiden Choice Run. {{DEFAULTSORT:Yale Heights, Baltimore Neighborhoods in Baltimore Southwest Baltimore