McKim Center (1821–present) 1120 East Baltimore Street

The McKim Center was first established as the McKim Free School by sons of Quaker merchant, John McKim. [1] Construction of the iconic Greek-revival style building at 1120 E. Baltimore Street was completed in the 1830s.[2]

In the mid-1950s, the McKim Center held social dances for neighborhood youth. Jeanette W. Jones (Lumbee) recalls on Saturday nights, the McKim Center was “the place to be!”[3]
In 1957, a photographer for Ebony magazine attended a dance and so did Jeanette Jones.[4] Much to her surprise, she and other Lumbee youth later appeared in the September 1957 issue of Ebony, in an article entitled “Mystery People of Baltimore: Neither red nor white nor black strange ‘Indian’ tribe lives in world of its own.”[5]

1. See “An Eduring Legacy,” The McKim Center, Accessed August 9, 2019.
https://www.mckimcenter.org/about/history/

2. See “McKim’s School,” Maryland’s National Register Properties, Maryland Historical Trust, Accessed August 9, 2019. https://mht.maryland.gov/nr/NRDetail.aspx?NRID=139 which cites 1833 as the date of construction, although the McKim Center website cites 1835 as the year of completion.

3. Jeanette W. Jones, interview with Ashley Minner, August 8, 2019, Baltimore, Maryland, transcript.

4. Lumbee youth are referred to as Croatan Indians in the article. See “Mystery People of Baltimore: Neither Red nor White nor Black, Strange “Indian” Tribe Lives in a World of its Own,” Ebony 12, no. 11 (September 1957): 70-73.

5. “Mystery People of Baltimore: Neither Red nor White nor Black, Strange “Indian” Tribe Lives in a World of its Own,” Ebony 12, no. 11 (September 1957): 70-73.