Park Heights is an area of Baltimore City, Maryland, that lies approximately 10 miles northwest of downtown Baltimore and within two miles of the Baltimore County line. A 1,500-acre community, Park Heights comprises 12 smaller neighborhoods that together contain approximately 30,000 residents. It is bounded on the south by Druid Park Drive, on the west by Wabash Avenue, on the east by Greenspring Avenue, and on the north by Northern Parkway. Interstate-83 is less than a half mile to the east. Two major roadways—Park Heights Avenue and Reisterstown Road—run north-south through Park Heights, serving as the neighborhood's "Main Streets" as well as commuter corridors. Limited commercial uses—primarily retail—are scattered along these roads; there is also some industrial activity on the neighborhood's western edge. Otherwise, Park Heights is characterized by residential uses, which run the spectrum from stable, well-tended streets to entire blocks of abandoned houses and lots. Major health care, educational, and social service institutions are located throughout the community, as well as one of Baltimore and the State of Maryland's most well-known landmarks, Pimlico Race Track. The boundaries of Park Heights, as defined by the Baltimore City Planning Department, are bounded north and south by Park Circle and Northern Parkway and east and west by Greenspring and Wabash Avenues, respectively; and includes the neighborhoods of Arlington, Central Park Heights, Cylburn, Greenspring, Langston Hughes, Levindale, Lucille Park, the historic Park Circle, Park Lane, Pimlico Good Neighbor, Towanda/Grantley, Woodmere. Park Heights boasts one of the largest foreign born Black populations in Baltimore City, specifically in the areas surrounding Belvedere Avenue, with immigrants from Jamaica, Trinidad, Haiti, and other Caribbean countries. History Park Heights follows a classic pattern of many older American urban neighborhoods. Initially it was central to Baltimore's growing economy. Early in the 19th century, for example, Reisterstown Road served as a major route for transporting wheat and corn from farms northwest of the city to the port, where it was shipped down the Chesapeake Bay to the West Indies and Europe. The city began the formal annexation of Park Heights in 1888, but it was not until 1911 that the Reisterstown tollgates— one of which was located at what is now Park Circle—were dismantled. Starting in the early 19th century, Baltimore became a major port of entry for European immigrants. Many settled in the northern and western reaches of the city, with Park Heights serving as a kind of