North Brentwood Entrepreneur Tour

Please explore this important history as you take a walk through town and learn about the small businesses and entrepreneurs that have powered North Brentwood and its forebears for over 130 years. 

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North Brentwood Entrepreneur Tour

North Brentwood, Maryland 20722, United States

Created By: Quint Gregory

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Entrepreneurship has been key to the success of North Brentwood and its community since its first residents built their homes in the late 1800s after the conclusion of the Civil War; the town was later incorporated in 1924.

For much of the town’s history, entrepreneurship was the economic engine that drove North Brentwood’s people through systemic and natural hurdles connected to housing, property ownership, and environmental devastation. A series of factors connected to desegregation, growth of large-scale business competitors, and changes in transportation networks brought a series of challenges that resulted in the closure of many North Brentwood businesses in the last half of the twentieth century.

Today, we are seeing the beginnings of a resurgence in entrepreneurship and small businesses just off the tracks of the historic streetcar line. Please explore this important history as you take a walk through town and learn about the small businesses and entrepreneurs that have powered North Brentwood and its forebears for over 130 years.

Sources

Kahn, Alison (editor). 2004. Minding Our Own Business: An Oral History of North Brentwood's Entrepreneurs. North Brentwood Historical Society.


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What You'll See on the Tour

Much of the safekeeping of North Brentwood’s entrepreneurial history is thanks to the hard work of the people behind the Prince George’s African American Museum & Cultural Center. The PGAAMCC was born out of the North Brentwood Hist... Read more
The first residents of this house, Henry Randall and his family, were the first to settle on the land that would come to be known as Randalltown. The Henry Randall House is the first and oldest site of entrepreneurship in North Brentwood. B... Read more
The Peter Randall House was the second house built in North Brentwood by Peter Randall, the eldest son of Henry Randall, in 1896. Located next to the Henry Randall house on Holladay (now Rhode Island) Avenue, the property stayed in the Rand... Read more
Just across Rhode Island Avenue from the Henry Randall house is a tight strip of land bounded by the railroad to the east. A place at present-day filled with businesses of all sizes and descriptions (including, until quite recently, Pan Mas... Read more
The development and entrepreneurial history of North Brentwood–a “streetcar suburb”–owes much to the establishment of the trolley line which preceded the town’s incorporation. Completed in 1898, the tracks were laid just east of t... Read more
At the corner of Webster Street and Rhode Island Avenue, this unassuming small commercial building will almost certainly play a key role in North Brentwood’s rebirth as a center of entrepreneurship. Positioned at the southernmost edge of ... Read more
There were plenty of places where people could go to get the latest hairstyles. A few of those salons were located in the homes of Margaret Neville and Martha Holmes, along with other businesses located on 41st Avenue. In her white house at... Read more
Marie Alice Walls, also known as Sis, was one of the leading entrepreneurs in North Brentwood. Ms. Sis was at one time a band manager, a real estate mogul, and the owner of the local business Sis’s Tavern–the most famous of the town’s... Read more
The earliest known barbershop, located on Holland Avenue, was owned by Jimmy Thomas. At his side was a Mr. Golden, who would always be entertaining clients with a comical lie. Young men could always visit for a good laugh while building res... Read more
North Brentwood’s schools, like the town itself, originated in its earliest history as Randalltown. Students were taught in the private homes of residents who recognized the value of education, literacy, and knowledge––emphasized, as ... Read more
While it was still standing, Brentwood Tavern (formerly located behind these homes, along Rhode Island Avenue) was regarded as one of the classier bars in North Brentwood. Ida Stewart owned and operated the tavern. She was said to be very s... Read more
After Ms. Sis’s initial purchase of Sis’s Tavern, she started to purchase other lots in North Brentwood and developed her real estate empire. She purchased eleven individual lots in Block B of North Brentwood in the 1960s and 1970s. Wit... Read more
It might be difficult to imagine today, but in its early days, North Brentwood was a place filled with entrepreneurial farmers. On two separate instances, one in 1917 and one in 1918, Burnetta Ingram placed advertisements in the Evening Sta... Read more
Holmes Beer Garden Tavern, infamously known as the Bucket of Blood, was located on Allison and 40th Streets and was owned and operated by Frank Holmes. The tavern got its nickname and reputation “due to the numerous fights that took place... Read more
*We will be approximating the location of Dock’s at this site for now until we are able to confirm its original location.*  Docks’s, another of the four main beer gardens which opened post-prohibition, was owned by Rosie Dock. Ms. Dock... Read more
At the corner of Wallace Road and 40th Street stood a general store that remained a prime location for entrepreneurship in the community of North Brentwood for nearly eighty years. The store was originally built in 1910 by Mahalath F. Wiggi... Read more
Sarah Marion Queen and her husband, Stanley L. Queen, purchased their home at 4505 Church Street in 1939. According to the 1940 census, they had three children at the time–Annie Mae, 14; Bernice, 11; and Sterling, 9. They went on to have ... Read more
Wallace A. Bartlett’s original plans for the town from 1891 identified the location for a school building on a large lot at the corners of School Street (Wallace Road) and Banner Street. These plans came to fruition in 1902 when a one-roo... Read more
Hungry? Having walked around North Brentwood and learning about some of the great eateries of the past, it’s understandable. Happily you have a wonderful option right here at the corner of Wallace and Rhode Island. Or is it South Dakota A... Read more
Just as the demographics of North Brentwood’s residential population have changed in recent decades, so has the town’s commercial landscape. Black-owned businesses have been joined by White- and Latino-owned enterprises along Route 1. I... Read more

 

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