The Greater Remington Improvement Association is throwing a festival this spring to celebrate the North Baltimore neighborhood’s 100-year history and recent resurgence.
RemFest, set for May 12, will “celebrate the centennial anniversary of the construction and sale of the row homes on 27th Street in Remington,” according to a release.
Local vendors will be pitching in, with Ottobar organizing live music, B. Willow setting up a “local maker’s market,” a number of eateries (Sweet 27, Charmington’s, The Dizz, R. House, Ekiben, The Local Oyster, Neopol) providing food, and Baltimore Whiskey Company, R. Bar and Woodberry’s Union Craft Brewing serving drinks.
The event will run from noon to 9 p.m. at the intersection of 28th Street and Remington Avenue, just south of the neighborhood’s semi-high-end international food market, R. House.
In a release, GRIA board member at-large Peter Morrill noted that “Remington has a proud and industrious 100-year history. Despite difficult times over the past century, generations of its residents stayed put and built the tightknit community that remains today.”
Annexed to the city from Baltimore County in 1888, Remington was named for landowner William Remington, and developed as a suburb for workers from nearby quarries, factories and rail lines. Many of the neighborhood’s historic rowhouses were constructed during the early 1900s.
The neighborhood suffered with the rest of the city as industry and residents left during the 20th century. But in the 21st century, and particularly the last few years, the neighborhood has built up rapidly, spurred in large part by bullish building by Seawall Development, which owns and operates R. House and Remington Row across the street. (Some of this rapid building—and the accompanying bump in property values and taxes as more residents move in—has made longtime residents uneasy, the News-Letter reported last year.)
“The neighborhood has experienced a exciting renaissance over the past five years,” Morrill said in his statement, “and we hope by hosting RemFest, people will come from far and wide to see all of the amazing things Remington has to offer.”
RemFest is taking vendor applications online through April 1. “Vendors, particularly those with local or neighborhood made goods, are encouraged to apply,” the form says. Applications cost $15, and booths will require a $75 fee. Vendors will need to bring their own tent, table and chairs.
More information about music and vendors will be made available in the weeks ahead at remfest.org.
