Cross Street Partners

Cross Street Partners and Beloved Community Services Corp redeveloped the Henry Garnet School (PS103) into the Justice Thurgood Marshall Amenty Center at PS 103 which, with University of Maryland as a partner, honoring the legacy of Justice Thurgood Marshall and other civil rights leaders who called Upton home while also providing needed community services, resources, and education in the historically underserved community.

The Amenity Center is a major step forward in establishing Upton as a cultural tourism destination to celebrate and honor the community’s significance in the nation’s Civil Rights Movement. The new Justice Thurgood Marshall Center helps the Upton community actualize its community vision, which commits to “reclaim the vestiges of its distinct African American heritage and be the hub of a cultural revitalization where the memory of the great entertainers, artists and civic leaders who proudly proclaimed Upton as their neighborhood will serve as a beacon by drawing investments back into the community.”

Located in the center of Baltimore’s Upton community, PS 103 was built in 1877 and was a segregated elementary school for African American children. One of its most recognizable students was Justice Thurgood Marshall, the first African American appointed to the US Supreme Court, who attended the school from 1914 – 1921. PS 103 was a prominent elementary school until it closed in the early 1970s, and then the building was converted to a recreational center that provided nonprofit office space for community organizations until it was permanently closed in the early 1990s. After sitting vacant for over 20 years, a fire nearly destroyed PS 103 in 2016; luckily, after replacing the roof and making other structural repairs, the bones of the building remained in good shape.

PS 103 Groundbreaking video

PS 103 Flyer

Beloved Community Services Corp website