On the busy street corner of Howard and Saratoga in the burgeoning Bromo Arts District sits the striking Dede.shop, the brick-and-mortar home furnishings and accessory arm of interior design studio Décorelle.

Owners Ellen “Elle” Odoi and Yvette Pappoe—technically cousins, though they refer to each other as sisters—moved in this past September as part of the second cohort of the Downtown Partnership of Baltimore’s Black-Owned Occupancy Storefront Tenancy (BOOST) program. Mayor Brandon Scott was there to cut the ribbon.

There are still a lot of abandoned buildings to fill on this part of Howard, but for now, the bright murals, hum of the passing light rail, and nearby businesses like Cuples Tea House and Cajou Creamery, feel promising.

The Crook Horner Building—coincidentally, once home to the Pollack-Blum furniture store—was gutted and the renovation included black and white marble checkered floors, tons of natural light pouring in from floor-to-ceiling windows, and a white painted tin ceiling. The space is chic, cheerful, and gorgeous. (Fifteen large apartment lofts fill the upstairs of the building.)

The front of the shop is filled with accessories including vases, pillows, hand-poured candles, and thick, gorgeous, scalloped trays. There are a lot of muted colors with brass, marble, and travertine accents. Plus, big-ticket items like couches, big chunky coffee tables, heavy wooden sideboards, and stylish lamps. The back of the shop is a workspace with fabric and rug samples, and a big table for meeting with clients.

Odoi and Pappoe are Ghanaian immigrants, who moved to Baltimore when they were both young girls. “We were raised together from birth so we don’t like to be called cousins,” says Odoi. Growing up, they always lived less than five minutes from each other, first in Randallstown and later off Security Boulevard.

The first time they were separated was when Odoi headed to Michigan State University. (Pappoe went to UMBC.) There she found a new passion, participating in dorm room decoration competitions and winning “every single time,” she says with a laugh.

But despite always having a love for the process of decorating, styling, and creating, she never felt like it was something she could do as a career. Still, the feeling that something was missing stuck with her while she pursued a master’s in business and contemplated medical school.

“We have that African background where you’re expected to be an engineer, a lawyer…and even with the design background, you’ve still got to have a master’s and a PhD in something,” she says.

To wit, Pappoe is a lawyer and law professor at the University of the District of Columbia’s David A. Clarke School of Law. Odoi knew she had the talent to pursue design full-time, but didn’t yet trust herself to make the leap.

“I’m risk-adverse,” she admits. So, she continued to work her job in operations.

It was Pappoe who, in 2018, gifted Odoi the official LLC registration of Décorelle, her very part-time side hustle, for Christmas.

“Do what you want with it,” Pappoe told her. “It kind of forced my hand a little bit, but I think it was a good push,” says Odoi. She remembers thinking she was spending all her time managing someone else’s business.

“What would it be like to stop what I’m doing because I’m not happy doing it and put all that effort into building my business?” She gave herself four months. “Five years later, I’m still here.”

Décorelle is run by both Odoi, as the CEO and principal designer, and Pappoe, as co-founder and operations manager (while still working her day job and balancing a brand-new baby). Décorelle is based on the idea that luxury interior design should be within reach.

“That’s our entire mission,” says Pappoe. “To make luxury interior design more accessible. Not cheap, but more accessible.”

When the opportunity came to apply for the BOOST grant, both Odoi and Pappoe thought it felt like a natural transition for the business. With interior design, there’s an intimacy.

“We’re in someone’s home for a year or years,” says Odoi. With retail, it’s more transactional but it also presents more opportunity to create relationships with different people. “We’re hopefully creating products that people love and want to keep buying.”

They hope the range of prices is a selling point, too. “Everyone who comes in here, we want you buy something.” She points to the
pottery—“handmade in Mexico, but they’re like 60 bucks.”

The candles, coasters, canisters, and trays are all curated but affordable. The shop reflects their design style—contemporary with hints of vintage, organic, and the textures, patterns, and earth tones reminiscent of West Africa.

Everything has a clean design but also a warmth. Even the shop’s bathroom, with its fluted marble wall, is paired with wood tones that makes it feel inviting. (The oversized painting that hangs on the wall—“grandmother with a cigar silently judging”—is just the unexpected surprise Odoi loves to use in her designs.)

“We realize that a lot of people just never see our work in person, because they’re all residential,” says Odoi. “It’s really nice to have people walk in and actually physically see the quality of our work and what we do.”

The next step is to finish the workstations for their junior designers and interns who will eventually be working out of the Howard Street building. There will also be the implementation of a program aimed at up-and-coming Black designers.

“A lot of them reach out to me,” says Odoi. “I’ve been very vocal about how it’s a very tough industry to be in and we didn’t get anyone to hold our hand. So, it’s kind of nice to train these young ladies and young men, and just tell them all the secrets that I know.”

Odoi is still constantly learning herself. Just last year, she graduated from the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses program, which helps small businesses grow through education, capital, and support services.

Potential for further growth is exciting, but she and Pappoe never want to abandon their Ghanaian roots. The note card that arrives when someone orders online says “thank you” in Ga, which is their language. And their logo incorporates a Kente cloth, a Ghanaian textile made of hand-woven strips of silk and cotton.

“We’re very intentional about these things,” says Odoi.

Now six months into their shop opening, their main goal is simply to be on people’s radar.  “We just want to make sure people know we’re here,” says Pappoe.

Each time Odoi walks through the door, she still gets butterflies, seeing everything they’ve created and knowing she followed her passion. She smiles, “There’s a lot of love in here.”

Shelonda Stokes, 51, grew up poor in Baltimore City. Her childhood was transient, as she was raised by her mom and attended three different elementary schools. Her dad died from drug activity. Life wasn’t easy. But when she was 14 years old, she landed her first job, as a custodian responsible for cleaning at Harborplace.

As she worked, she admired everything downtown had to offer. And she was determined to make something of herself.

“Isn’t it serendipitous?” says Stokes, today the president of Downtown Partnership of Baltimore (DPOB).

After graduating from Baltimore Polytechnic Institute, Stokes earned a degree in electrical engineering from Morgan State University and began her career at Hewlett Packard, working on a $10 million government contract. She then co-founded greiBO, a boutique advertising and communications firm, which she still co-owns today.

She was on the board of DPOB and, in 2019, she became its first minority chair. When the president announced he was leaving in January 2020, she stepped up to serve as interim president. Then COVID-19 hit. Far from wearying her on her new post, “That’s when I literally fell in love with this organization,” she says. During the pandemic, DPOB was an “essential” business.

In addition to keeping her staff safely working, Stokes initiated important programs like Curbside Baltimore in support of local restaurants and retailers. She put herself forward for the presidency and was selected by the board, beginning the job in June 2020.

As Stokes describes it, the mission of DPOB is to be the keepers of the downtown area—doing everything from keeping it safe and clean to providing marketing and economic development.

During her tenure, DPOB’s revenues have more than doubled; the State of Maryland has agreed to relocate 12 of its agencies to Baltimore’s Central Business District, which comes with a $50 million allocation; and she created the BOOST program, which stands for Black-Owned and Operated Storefront Tenancy.

BOOST helps both Black businesses as well as downtown, which has seen increased vacancy. With the program, business owners who have been in business for at least a year can apply. Those selected not only receive $50,000 that they use can toward their buildout, site improvement, operations, and lease, but are given legal advice and free training in financing, marketing, and merchandising.

The program is so successful that DPOB has been invited to speak in Vancouver at the International Downtown Association, Congressman Kweisi Mfume invited Stokes to speak about it to the National Small Business Administration, and it’s been covered by Black Enterprise as well as Ebony magazines.

“My vision for downtown Baltimore is a thriving ecosystem of people, art, and culture where creativity flourishes, and diversity is celebrated. An urban center rich with amenities, businesses, theaters, restaurants, sports, and entertainment within a walkable footprint. And where every place, from streets to alleys, is transformed into galleries and meeting spaces that ignite our growing population,” says Stokes. “That’s where I want to live and work.”

Last week, the Archdiocese of Baltimore announced that it would be opening a new school in the city for the first time in more than 50 years. With a decline in enrollment and budget concerns causing three schools to shutter their doors in 2016, and two others to merge, the prospect of a new school might come as a surprise, but it’s all part of a larger plan.

The Cardinal Keller Regional Community School (CKRCS) is set to open in time for the 2020-2021 school year at Lexington Street and Martin Luther King Boulevard in West Baltimore. The new state-of-the-art building will be more than 66,000 square feet, will have a capacity to hold 500 students, and will include new 21st century technology including a STEM lab and media center. So far, the archdiocese has raised $13 million towards the $18.5 million goal to open the co-ed school that will serve pre-k through eighth grade. 

“Catholic education is alive and well in the City of Baltimore, and we do a phenomenal job of educating children,” said Jim Sellinger, chancellor for the archdiocese. “The Cardinal Keller School will be a landmark that will serve students in Baltimore City that have not had access to a non-public school for many years.”

The erection of a new school is just one piece of the archdiocese’s “master plan,” according to Sellinger, which comes at a price tag of $120 million. The remaining funds will be invested in the 44 existing Catholic schools under the archdiocese. 

Under the leadership of Archbishop William Lori and through a partnership with University of Maryland Baltimore, BioPark, and the Southwest Partnership, CKRCS is part of a joint effort to reinvest in the West Baltimore community. 

“We looked at the west side of Baltimore because we need to be present in that area,” he said. “With all the revitalization work being done, we know that a Catholic school is a critical component to bringing stability and growth to that community.”

Sellinger believes that this couldn’t come at a more perfect time, following the unrest from 2015 and the increased poverty and homicide rates in that area. While the school will draw students from East and West Baltimore, its immediate focus area will include the Lexington Terrace, Poppleton, and Hollins Market neighborhoods, where most students live below the poverty line with families that have a low high school graduation rates.

The financial commitment that is required to send a child to Catholic school is also a common deterrent for families from low-income households, but for the past three years, the archdiocese has been able to help those families through a program created by Gov. Larry Hogan called Broadening Options and Opportunities for Students Today (BOOST). The program is designed to provide assistance for thousands of Maryland students from low-income families who receive state-funded vouchers to attend private schools.

“I look at this like the three legs of a stool,” Sellinger said. “We’ve got parishes in West Baltimore, Catholic Charities, and now we’ll have a Catholic school. So, all three legs of the stool will be there to support the west side.”