A Quick Q&A with the Residents of Better Waverly

Better Waverly is a wedge-shaped neighborhood in North Baltimore known for its walkability and historic charm. Our team met with Elliott Wesselborg, a recipient of Live Baltimore’s Buy Back the Block homebuying grant program and one of the neighborhood’s newest residents, and two Better Waverly Community Organization members, co-chairperson Chris Voeglein and board member Rebecca Vo, to learn more about and tour the wonderful community they call home. Read along to see some highlights of our neighborhood tour.

Why did you move to this neighborhood?

Neighbors in Better Waverly enjoy taking advantage of the walkability, community amenities, and accessibility to other metro regions.

“Living in the suburbs of New York, I really wanted to be in a more walkable area…I don’t have a car, so it’s super walkable. I can walk to work. I really like that. I think it’s very accessible to everything going on in Mount Vernon and Downtown, but a little bit quieter, which I enjoy.”

-Elliott

 

“I was living and working in DC for 20 years… but DC is DC, and I kind of wanted to step back from how intense that scene is. I love being in close proximity, but just starting a different mode of my life. So, I came to Better Waverly.”

-Rebecca

What are some of Better Waverly’s best community assets?

Residents are a quick walk from Giant Food, the 32nd Street Farmer’s Market, the Weinberg Y, Ace Hardware, an Enoch Prat Free Library branch, multiple independent bookstores, and The Book Thing of Baltimore, a local nonprofit that hosts monthly book giveaways. The neighborhood is also home to the Homestead Harvest Community Garden, 901 Arts, a community-based youth arts center that has painted various murals in Better Waverly, and the Johns Hopkins University at Eastern campus.

“We found a great place here in Better Waverly. A walk to the grocery store? You can’t beat that.”

-Chris

What types of homes will you see in Better Waverly?

One thing our team noticed on our tour was the variety of housing styles in the neighborhood. From rowhomes to duplexes and large detached single-family homes that even included farmhouse styles, there is something for everyone in Better Waverly!

“So, one thing that I learned from our co-chair of the board, he’s an architect, and he said that evidently, Better Waverly has the most diverse housing typology in the city… There’s the big farmhouse. We’ve got the traditional rowhouses… my little part [of the neighborhood] has the daylight rowhouses with the sunporches.”

-Chris

If you could describe the Better Waverly neighborhood in one word, what would you choose?

“Welcoming… I feel like Better Waverly really represents a neighborly part of the city… I think that’s one of the things I really love about Better Waverly. They’re ready to welcome in new members of the city, and it is a huge, allied area for those who are representing the LGBTQ community.”

-Rebecca

We hope you learned something new about the artsy and walkable Better Waverly neighborhood. View more photos from our tour on our Facebook page in the Love Where We Live Neighborhood Feature: Better Waverly album. Want us to give us a tour of your neighborhood? Email us at hello@livebaltimore.com to set up a Live Baltimore staff visit. We can’t wait to meet you!

(Chris Voeglein shows us the daylight rowhomes with sun porches in Better Waverly.)