Hampden Village in Baltimore

I have been visiting Hampden somewhat regularly since 2005. Every time it's a better experience than the time previous--with fewer vacant retail spaces, and more and better places to go to and shop at, including the aforementioned Dogwood restaurant, which has been open about a year. Cafe Hon has great breakfast (and meals at other times of the day). Atomic Books is a cool indie bookstore, there are some antique places that have great stuff, etc. Yes, like most traditional commercial districts, there isn't a lot of competitive "convenience" retail, other than a Royal Farms and 7-11 convenience stores and a bank branch on the main drag. But at one end is a drug store, and around the corner on another street is a decent hardware store...

When I worked in the Main Street program in Brookland, I wanted to organize a field trip to Baltimore, athough I never managed to get around to it. Definitely in the DC-Baltimore region, Hampden Village is one of the best traditional commercial districts that isn't a regional destination in the same way that Georgetown or Adams-Morgan is. It was to be the prime destination.

Other places on the planned itinerary included Charles Village, O'Donnell Square in Canton, Lexington Market, the Waverly Farmers Market (in Waverly, Pete's Diner rules!!!!!!!) and Waverly, and the North Avenue light rail station (to demonstrate how transit stations separate from where we live or work don't work very well).

This is a Pete's Diner photo from a few years ago.