LIVE
Dating back to the late 1700s, this West Baltimore mill town community, nestled into the northwest corner of Gwynns Falls/Leakin Park, stands alone among city neighborhoods for its distinctive geography and architecture. Dickeyville’s rows of stone and Victorian homes, 150-year-old churches, and leafy, winding roads reflect the character of an English village, though there are also newer, 20th-century dwellings up the hill. Residents here prize architectural character, a shared embrace of diversity, and a naturalistic appreciation for their own backyard.

SHOP
ShopRite of Howard Park and various stores in Catonsville and Woodlawn (Safeway, Weis, Lidl, Giant, H Mart) offer a full roster of nearby, drivable grocery options. The planned $30-million transformation of Security Square Mall (three miles west) will be a major draw.

DINE
Although there are no restaurants in Dickeyville, eateries abound nearby on Johnnycake Road and Route 40 in Catonsville—everything from breakfast (Double T Diner), Mexican (El Agave), Chinese (Chung Wah), and Vietnamese (Pho #1) to Korean barbecue (Iron Age, Bebop, Honey Pig). And there are the main-street staples of Catonsville’s Frederick Road (Atwater’s, State Fare, Catonsville Gourmet, The Beaumont).

PLAY
The 1,000-acre Gwynns Falls/Leakin Park is one big playground of off-street biking and walking trails, a nature center, and more. In this neighborhood, the eponymous Dickeyville Trail leads from the main drag of Wetheredsville Road down along the stream and into the city’s largest park. Forest Park Golf Course is also just a quarter mile up the road.

ARTS/CULTURE
Holidays are a big deal here. The annual Fourth of July celebration includes a dinner, dance, parade, golf tournament, live music, and more. For Halloween, residents deck out their homes for flocking trick-or-treaters. Wintertime brings neighbors together for caroling and their very own house-to-house progressive dinner on New Year’s Eve.

Neighbor Spotlight 
Mel Currie, 75, is a mathematician who has lived in Dickeyville with his wife, Shirley, for 32 years.

“We moved to Dickeyville in September of 1992. Our daughter was only five months old, and we had been married for just about a year and a half. It’s a beautiful place—artistic, very homey, and beautiful at the same time. Sometimes you don’t appreciate it, but then someone walks [through the neighborhood] and you talk to them and you’re appreciating it through their eyes.

“It’s a close-knit community. As you walk, you think you’re going deeper into the wilderness, but you’re actually going into the city and into the park. We’re basically living in a heavily wooded park.

“If you come into Dickeyville, it’s because you want to come here, and you have to go out the way you came in. If this neighborhood were out in Howard County, I don’t think I could afford to walk down the street, let alone to buy a house. A lot of people hear, ‘Oh, it’s in Baltimore City, I don’t want to go there,’ and many people don’t even come and look. But it’s a gem and worth taking a look at.”

Neighborhood Stats

Population: 729 Occupancy Rate: 85 percent Owner/Renter Split: 96 percent/4 percent Median Home Purchase Price: $379,000 Estimated Monthly Mortgage: $3,284 Estimated Rent: $1,670 Walk Score: 24 Transit Score: 42

—Sources: Baltimore City Department of Planning, Live Baltimore 

A Star Is Born: The plaque outside says this house was an officer’s infirmary during the War of 1812 and then completed in 1836 in Dickeyville. But we don’t know for sure. When my husband, Eric, and I widened the staircase, we found these square iron nails, which date to well before the Civil War. It was really fun that our contractor found them and that sort of authenticates the fact that it’s really old. We just don’t know how old.

Herstory: The painting is of my great-grandmother Nelle Tayloe. Her husband is my great-grandfather George Green Tayloe. His sister was Nellie Tayloe Ross. She was elected governor of Wyoming a month after her governor husband died in 1924. George owned a paper company in Memphis, Tennessee, and it was the fashion to do portraits. The artist was a prolific portrait painter named Charles Frederick Naegele, whose work is displayed at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

The Final Curtain: I told M.L. Glover Interiors that I wanted to find a way to bring hot pink in without it looking super girly. She found the Greek key ribbon on eBay and made the curtains.

Off With Their Legs: Our beloved hickory Chippendale-style sofa that M.L. upholstered in blue velvet would not fit through the door. We had to cut the legs off to get it in the house and then put it back together.

Lucky Seven: There are seven blue Bromo Seltzer Bottles for the seventh anniversary of our July 7, 2007 wedding.

A Life Well-Lived: The two wool blankets are Avoca, and I got those when I lived in Ireland, but now they’re moth-eaten. Nothing is too precious in here. People come over and they think, “Look but don’t touch,” and I’m like, “No, sit.”

By the Book: These are all of my art and design books, like my mad obsession with Martha Stewart, Celtic spirituality, Bunny Mellon’s gardens, and Kehinde Wiley, the artist who did President Obama’s portrait.

Ohh Nuts: The squirrel nutcracker on the coffee table is from this antique store called Heritage Culinary Artifacts in Napa Valley. She only sells antiques that are culinary-related. I love him so much.