Regarding the products and services offered at The Kellogg Collection, custom designer Ashley Dickinson said, “We are a home furnishing retailer that also offers design services for clients who want something more customized. Customers come in asking for help with projects they might have, and we are constantly bringing out accessories and filling in wherever little holes come up and working together with our other stores to keep them fresh.” 

The Kellogg Collection, which has a Baltimore location on Falls Road near Lake Roland park, offers high-quality and antique furniture, lighting, upholstery, home accessories and more. In addition, The Kellogg Collection’s custom design services offer an individualized approach to creating your dream interior. The Kellogg style is warm, fresh and uplifting, with roots in the traditional English Country home. When you enlist the help of the Baltimore designers at The Kellogg Collection, Diane Litz and Ashley Dickinson, you are guaranteed to receive personalized expertise that reflects the Kellogg philosophy. The dedicated designers at The Kellogg Collection make it a mission to serve their community with integrity, passion and friendliness when helping their customers choose the home pieces that are perfect for them.

The quaint charm of the Lake Roland and Falls Road community was a perfect fit for The Kellogg Collection’s Baltimore location. Ashley Dickinson said, “Lake Roland is a fantastic little area because everyone knows each other, it is very close-knit, and everyone is very friendly. Our customers are great to work with.”

The development team at Bluestem is honored to be a part of the Lake Roland community, which is home to devoted businesses like The Kellogg Collection and many more. To learn more about the services and amenities offered at The Kellogg Collection, visit their website today. We are proud of the many unique businesses that help Lake Roland continue to be one of the best communities to live, work and play.

The “Scott Settlement” was Established Around 1830

Aquila Scott, the ancestor of a freed slave from St. Mary’s County, was a blacksmith and Methodist preacher who arrived in the Bare Hills area around 1830. In 1833, he and several others were named trustees of the congregation of Bethel Episcopal Methodist Religious Society in a deed from Mary and Elijah Fishpaw. The land given to them in the deed was used to build St. John’s Church, a church that served as the religious and social hub for the area’s primarily black congregation.

Aquila Scott also purchased a parcel of land abutting the Falls Turnpike, where he settled with his family and constructed a blacksmithery. As his family grew, his children settled with their own families on the property, which came to be known as the “Scott Settlement.” Aquila Scott died in 1858 and is buried on his Bare Hills property. 

The Remains of the Scott Settlement are Still Visible Today

While the original log cabin church where Aquila Scott preached burned down in 1876, the St. John’s Church still stands today, and is a beautiful example of African-American church construction in the late 19th century. The remains of several 19th-century frame houses that Scott and his descendants built still stand on the former Scott Settlement property. The descendants of Aquila Scott continue to live in the Bare Hills community, and four of Scott’s ancestors continue to live in original homes on the settlement property. The remains can be seen on the west side of Falls Road, south of Clarkview Road.

There are Other Historically Freed African-American Communities in Baltimore County

While one of the oldest, the Scott Settlement is not the only freed African-American community in Baltimore County. East Towson was settled in the mid-1800s by freed slaves a plantation known as the Hampton Mansion, which is now a historical site and originally owned by Captain Charles Ridgely. After his death, his slaves were freed, as per his wishes in his will, and created their own community in East Towson. Of note is the Jacob House, where some of the founding freed families lived. While the home burned in 1999, the original log cabin built on the property survived, and it was saved from demolition and reconstructed on a new property in 2010. The Jacob House now serves as a museum that provides a glimpse into the life of freed slaves in East Towson.

Respecting the Past While Looking Towards the Future

While the Bare Hills community has undergone many changes since the days of Aquila Scott, the entrepreneurial and community-oriented mindset of the people living in Bare Hills remains the same. It is the goal of the team at Bluestem to honor this mindset by developing a mixed-use space that is thoughtfully planned and populated with locally-owned boutiques and restaurants. It is our hope to develop a diverse space that integrates with the surrounding community, instead of pushing against its original fabric and character. To learn more about Bluestem and the steps our development team has taken to successfully integrate within the Bare Hills community, click here.  

What is Paw Point at Lake Roland Park?

Paw Point is an enclosed dog park within Lake Roland park that allows dog owners to let their dogs romp and play unleashed. The park, which is a short walk from Lake Roland park’s main entrance, is a fully enclosed, 1 ¼ acre space that includes lake accessibility. It is open from sunrise to sunset every day of the year, which makes it perfect for year-round fun for even the busiest of dog parents. Membership is available to both Maryland and non-Maryland residents for up to two dogs per membership.   

What Amenities Does Paw Point Offer?

Paw Point at Lake Roland offers a variety of surfaces for dogs to run and play on, including grass, dirt, mulch and rock. Access to Lake Roland, which is cordoned off with buoys, is available through the dog park, where dogs can cool off on hot summer days and take a paddle. A coded gate ensures that only members have access to the enclosure, which means your dog will be able to have fun and stay safe. If too much fun leaves your dog thirsty, fear not—a water pump and dog bowls are available. Time for your dog to do their business? Complimentary doggie waste bags and trash bins are also available.

For the truly devoted dog parents, Paw Point members also have access to fun annual events, such as the Paw Point Halloween Costume Party and Dogs & Donuts. Check out the links to get your cute dog fix.  

How Does Paw Point Ensure the Safety of Our Canine Companions?

The goal of the Paw Point dog park is to provide dog owners with a safe and secure area where their canine companions can run free. As such, Paw Point has a variety of rules and policies in place to ensure Paw Point is a safe and healthy environment for dogs. These rules include that:

• dogs must be fully immunized and licensed with corresponding tags on their collars,
• puppies under 4 months can not enter Paw Point,
• dogs in heat are not permitted,
• dogs showing signs of aggression or who bark excessively must be removed from Paw Point, and
• choke, pronged or spiked collars must be removed before entering Paw Point.

You can find a full list of Paw Point rules and regulations here. You can also find important information about Paw Point in their FAQ section.     

Where Do I Sign Up to Be a Member of Paw Point Dog Park?

Ready to show your dog the good life at Lake Roland park? The membership application for Paw Point dog park can be found here. Membership is annual, beginning on January 1st and ending on December 31st. Membership allows for up to 2 dogs to enter Paw Point. Upon approval of the application, members are provided a unique access code to get into Paw Point at Lake Roland.  

Bluestem is Excited to Provide Even More Amenities to the Lake Roland Community

The Lake Roland community is full of amazing businesses and amenities for its residents to enjoy, including Paw Point dog park. By creating a boutique, mixed-use community within the Bare Hills area, Bluestem seeks to expand upon the already existing Bare Hills infrastructure in a way that harmonizes with the current environment while providing much-needed resources. To learn more about the plans for Bluestem and the amenities it will offer, click here. 

Friday Strolls

Friday Strolls, which occur from 9:00 AM to 10:00 AM every Friday morning, is the perfect way to start your weekend surrounded by friends while being physically active. Enjoy the scenery and sounds of Lake Roland’s beautiful nature path, free of cost. Hiking boots are recommended, but the paths are flat and easily traversable. The walking group meets every Friday morning at the Ranger Station—do not forget your water bottle!

Yoga in the Park

Yoga in the Park is held on the first and third Saturday of every month from 9:00 AM to 10:00 AM. Participants of any age can enjoy an hour-long gentle yoga session in beautiful Lake Roland Park. Admission is only $2 and yoga mats are available on a first-come-first-served basis. Yoga in the Park is a wonderful way to ease into your Saturday, especially as the mornings continue to grow warmer.

Canoe Lake Roland

Canoe Lake Roland is a fantastic summer event that occurs once a month on June 1st, July 6th and August 3rd, from 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM. Participants can experience a guided canoe tour down Lake Roland, where serene nature views and wild animals like turtles, eagles and beavers can be spotted from the boat. Basic paddling instructions will be offered and registration is limited. Costs are $15 per person or $10 for members.

Weed Warriors

Weed Warriors is held on the second Saturday of each month, from 9:00 AM to 10:00 AM, for participants ages 13 and up who are passionate about protecting and preserving Lake Roland. Those who join have the opportunity to work with the Habitat and Trails team, “Weed Warriors,” by cleaning up and maintaining the park’s natural beauty. Participants are asked to bring gloves, boots and water.

Lake Roland Ranger Talk

On the last Saturday of each month, Lake Roland Park hosts the Lake Roland Ranger Talk from 10:30 AM to 11:00 AM. People of all ages are welcome to join a park ranger for a brief informational discussion about Lake Roland, held in front of the Nature Center. Topics change monthly, and admission is free!

The Bluestem Developers are Passionate About The Local Community

Here at Bluestem, we believe in community-focused and environmentally conscious development that adds value and amenities to the community. Lake Roland Park is a fixture in the Lake Roland and Bare Hills communities that offers a wealth of weekly, bi-weekly and monthly activities that are perfect for summer. For more information on the many events and programs hosted at Lake Roland Park, visit the Lake Roland Events Calendar. For more information on how the Bluestem developers strive to connect rich history with innovative development in the Lake Roland Community, contact us today.

SGS Law’s role in the Bluestem project will be to assist in the management of legal questions and issues that may arise as a result of the development. SGS Law is committed to a strong partnership with, and vigorous defense of, the Bluestem development, which they believe will have a great and positive impact on the Bare Hills community, particularly in helping improve the quality and safety of Lake Roland and the surrounding watershed.

SGS Law is honored to be involved in the Bluestem project and looks forward to assisting the development team in a legal capacity to ensure that the development is able to serve as a retail and residential hub for the Bare Hills community that also improves accessibility and sustainability for Lake Roland Park. To learn more about Bluestem’s commitment to maintaining the local community and environment, click here. To learn more about Bluestem’s focus on local development, click here.

Bozzuto’s role in the Bluestem project will involve owning and managing the apartment property on the development. In managing the Bluestem apartment property, Bozzuto seeks to foster and grow the Bare Hills community and help bring increased vibrancy and opportunity to the area.  

Bozzuto is honored to be involved in the Bluestem project and looks forward to creating an extraordinary neighborhood with the help of the community and partners. To learn more about Bluestem’s commitment to keeping the area community focused, click here. To learn more about Bluestem’s focus on local development, click here.

MFI Realty’s role in the Bluestem project will be to attract and form relationships with potential tenants so as to populate the development with locally-minded, boutique-style retail and eatery offerings. The firm believes that the Bluestem development has great opportunity to become a hotspot within the Baltimore County area which will provide community members with an upscale destination for shopping, living, playing and working.

MFI Realty is honored to be involved in the Bluestem project and looks forward to supporting the growth of the project by assisting tenants through the leasing process. To learn more about Bluestem’s commitment to considering community concerns, click here. To learn more about Bluestem’s focus on local development, click here.

Alexander Design Studio’s role in the Bluestem project is to design the site plan as well as the residential building. The firm plans to create an interconnected and mixed-use community that provides all the best of a “surban” living environment while respecting the integrity of the natural landscapes surrounding the property.

Construction will be progressive and designed with efficient energy consumption in mind. All of the apartment units will have an outdoor experience so that residents can have a physical and emotional connection to the surrounding environment.

Alexander Design Studio is honored to be involved in the Bluestem project and looks forward to developing a community that functions in tandem with the local environment. To learn more about Bluestem’s commitment to innovative design, click here. To learn more about Bluestem’s focus on local development, click here.

To be a good steward is to be a careful and responsible manager of something within your care. When land is purchased for the purpose of development, the purchaser becomes the steward of the land, and becomes legally obligated to develop the land in a way that meets regulatory standards. But, more importantly, any good steward will feel duty-bound to go beyond their mere legal obligations and create a development that will provide great opportunities and benefits for the community at large. While the reality is that development projects are not always designed and created with these goals in mind, the Bluestem team has sought to make a commitment to good stewardship in the development of their mixed-use project.

How Has the Bluestem Team Committed to Being Good Stewards?

The Bluestem team has committed to good stewardship in several ways: through environmental friendliness, a community focus, local development and an innovative design. An explanation of how they have achieved these goals can be found below.  

Environmentally Friendly

The foremost consideration of the Bluestem development was its proximity to Lake Roland park. Lake Roland park offers unique landscapes, including the rare serpentine barren, and also provides an abundance of recreational opportunities. As such, one of the major goals for the Bluestem team was to create a development that would exist in harmony with the park and increase accessibility to the resources and amenities found within the park.

This was completed in a variety of ways. Landscape architects who have worked on Lake Roland park projects previously, such as Human & Rohde, were employed to make thoughtful choices regarding placement of plantings and structures in order to preserve the environmental integrity of the park and the development land itself. Additionally, the Bluestem team collaborated with the Lake Roland Nature Council to better understand the difficulties the park was facing and how Bluestem could help to rectify some of these issues. By creating Bluestem’s vision of a multi-use village, a hazardous mulch tumbler and several outdated structures will be demolished, thereby increasing the water purity and clarity of Lake Roland. The Bluestem development team has worked in tandem with Baltimore County officials to determine a plan of action that will ensure local sewer lines will not be overtaxed by the new development. They will also create stormwater management and waste management systems that meet the rigorous standards of commercial construction. To learn more about Bluestem’s commitment to environmentally friendly design, click here.  

Community Focused

The Bluestem development team understood that there would naturally be concerns from the community about any new development that was created within Bare Hills, and as such the team sought to forge positive connections with the community to understand their concerns and provide viable solutions. The Bluestem design plans ultimately underwent four phases, each adding new improvements and adjustments to better meet the community’s needs. These included changes to maintain the natural topography of the land, incorporate native plantings in the landscape architecture, reduce the height of the residential building, adjust the density of the building layout, create an access point to the “Orange” trail within Lake Roland Park and more. The Bluestem team also responded to a need within the community for more pedestrian access to amenities, a variety of boutique-style shopping, new restaurants and additional housing options to accommodate Millennials and Baby Boomers as their living needs change. To learn more about how Bluestem has made the community a priority in their development, click here.   

Locally Developed

The Bluestem development team consists of a variety of specialists, firms and individuals who have not only lived and worked in the communities surrounding Bare Hills, but whose specialty is in developing projects for the unique needs of community members in these areas. The team includes professionals from Bozzuto, Vanguard Retail Property Development, Keystone Realty Company, Alexander Design Studio, Human & Rohde, Plusen Landscape Architects, SGS Law, The Traffic Group, MFI Realty, Morris & Ritchie Associates and more. Bluestem also boasts innumerable local supporters and stakeholders who see the development as an opportunity to enhance the functionality and usability of existing Bare Hills infrastructure. To learn more about how Bluestem has committed to a locally developed project, click here.

Innovatively Designed

The Bluestem development team is keenly aware that the nature of how we live, work and play is changing. Our housing, retail and transportation needs are evolving, as Baby Boomers find themselves with empty nests and a desire to age in place, and Millennials find themselves drawn to areas with lower crime rates and greater educational opportunities for the families they are beginning to raise. As such, the way we create developments must change, and the Bluestem team has committed to a mixed-use space, in the vein of places such as Remington Row and The Rotunda, but that push the bar with a design that is environmentally sensitive and considerate of local needs and aesthetics. It is the hope that this kind of smart, thoughtful planning will not only meet the needs of the community, but also encourage other developers to make similar choices in other regions across the country. To learn more about how Bluestem is innovatively designed, click here.  

The Bluestem development team understands that good stewardship requires responsibility, transparency, commitment to the local community, the ability to find actionable solutions and a desire to serve a purpose larger than simply building a new development. Ultimately, their commitment to environmental friendliness, a community focus, local development and innovative design will help them act and serve as good stewards of the Bluestem development property, thereby inspiring other development firms to commit to similar action and continue creating developments that are based on an intelligent, sustainable and solutions-based design. To learn more about Bluestem’s commitment to environmental preservation, click here.

The term “surban,” which was coined by John Burns Real Estate Consulting, refers to a suburban community that offers the amenities and conveniences that urban areas typically offer. Surban communities are distinguished by their low crime rates, high quality of schools, access to public transportation, a variety of restaurants, boutique shopping and walkable, village-like layout. Also known as “mixed-use,” these areas combine living space, retail, restaurants and other amenities in close proximity, but at a more approachable scale than your typical major city. Examples in the Delmarva (DMV) area would include Bethesda, Columbia and Reston, VA, all of which have taken advantage of this new trend. Their town centers reflect the surban aesthetic with a mix of residential spaces, offices, restaurants, shopping, accessible public transportation, entertainment venues, parks and more that allow their residents to live, work and play all in the same space.

How Does Surban Living Appeal to a Variety of Demographics?

As Millennials begin to start families and Baby Boomers begin to enter retirement, both of these demographics—who make up more than 40% of the total U.S. population—are seeking new ways of living. Because of the need to downsize as their children “leave the nest,” but with a desire to age-in-place, and thus have access to amenity-rich neighborhoods, it is expected that more than five million Boomers will rent their next home in a surban community 2020 as opposed to buying a smaller, detached home. Additionally, Millennials have proven slow to purchase new homes, likely due to high student loan debt and a trend toward later marriage, and the majority of Millennials currently rent or seek to rent their next living space.

Enter the surban neighborhood, which has the ability to appeal to both of these major demographics. In surban living, Baby Boomers have access to amenities within walking distance, as well as easy access to public transportation, which proves beneficial for this aging population. It also aligns with this generation’s growing desire to age in place, as a surban environment helps them to avoid isolation and seek enriching experiences as they reach their golden years. Low crime rates make surban areas safe and accessible for Boomers as well.

For Millennials, the surban environment features favorable school systems, which are vital for couples who are beginning to start a family. Surban living also offers a lower cost of living combined with access to unique retail, fun restaurants, music festivals, community events and other amenities that Millennials favor when living in more urbanized areas. Millennials are also attracted to the recreational spaces that surban environments often provide, allowing for Millennials to pursue enjoyable outdoor experiences.    

How Will Bluestem Fit into the Surban Landscape?

The Bluestem development is the ultimate iteration of a surban environment, serving as a hub that will connect the Bare Hills community with Lake Roland park and that will provide urban amenities, similar to Remington Row or The Rotunda, in a space that is walkable with a village-like feel. The Bare Hills community is rich in educational opportunities and also features low crime rates, highlighting some of the key features of surban neighborhoods.

Because Bluestem will be a mixed-use space, community members will have access to a unique retail experience, local restaurants and entertainment venues, as well as a variety of housing opportunities. Office space will also feature within the Bluestem development, which will provide employment opportunities for residents of Bluestem and community members alike. The Bluestem development is also within walking distance of the MTA bus and Light Rail service, providing easy access to Baltimore City and other areas within Baltimore County.

As the needs of major demographics, such as Baby Boomers and Millennials, shift and evolve, Baltimore County must seek new ways of community planning and developing in order to accommodate and adapt. Many suburban areas across the country, including San Jose, CA; Plano, TX and Geneva, IL have responded to these changes with new, mixed-use spaces that create a surban environment. While Baltimore County has identified the need for and benefits of such spaces, implementation has not yet reached its full potential. Creating spaces that combine the best of suburban and urban environments is an effective way of meeting the needs of Millennials and Baby Boomers alike and creating the communities of the future. To learn more about how Bluestem seeks to create community-focused mixed-use space, click here.