The Pigtown Historic District is significant under Criterion A for its association with the industrial development of Baltimore in the 19th ane early 20th centuries. Patrick's of Pratt Street, which has operated at 934 West Pratt Street for more than 160 years, claims to be "America's Oldest Irish Pub".The blue collar culture of Pigtown began with the individuals who worked on the B&O Railroad and Pigtown celebrates its culture yearly during the Pigtown Festival, which features local food, entertainment and "Squeakness", a race featuring pigs.
The few surviving blocks east of Scott Street have been included within the boundaries of the Historic District. The Pigtown Historic District is significant under Criterion A for its association with the industrial development of Baltimore in the 19th ane early 20th centuries. The majority (59.9 percent) of the area's population was reported in the age range of 25 to 64. By 2012, neighborhood housing was estimated to have increased to 2,760 homes. B eing in Pigtown (also known as Washington Village) feels like stepping into vintage, blue-collar Baltimore in the best way. Location of the B&O Railroad on West Pratt Street in 1830 and the rapid growth of related industries around it, like locomotive works and car-building shops, directly resulted in the growth of a nearby working-class community. PIGTOWN HISTORY. Pigtown was officially called Washington Village beginning in the 1970s, but community efforts to embrace the swine have returned Pigtown to its original moniker. Slaughter houses located near the railroad yards earned the area its name as Pigtown as workers herded pigs for slaughter and processing to shops and packing plants across the streets from the rail cars.Although official records have identified the neighborhood as Washington Village at various points since the 1970s, it has been consistently labeled as Pigtown since 2006 at the insistence of community groups such as Southwest Community Council, Inc.Pigtown has several historic landmarks, including some national landmarks. A community of railroad workers grew along Columbia Avenue (now Washington Boulevard) in the 1840s, followed by industrial development in the 1850s and 1860s. Dr. Carroll was a cousin of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, who signed the Declaration of Independence.
With the continued industrial growth of the area, the land lying south of Cross Street to Mount Clare was developed in the 1880s, 1890s, and early 1900s as a community for workingmen.
In the same decades builders put up rows of small houses east of Scott Street, both north and south of Cross, but only a few blocks of this housing survived twentieth century industrial expansion and the building of the Ravens football stadium and Martin Luther King Boulevard. Pigtown is one of the many stops on the Gwynn Falls trail connecting more than thirty Baltimore neighborhoods. For the olde neighborhood in Brooklyn, see Pigtown Historic District (aka "Washington Village") Its population mix in 2010 was estimated as 49 percent African American, 39 percent white, 5.3 percent Hispanic and 6.7 percent other, giving the area a 61.2 diversity index, well above the 54.5 citywide index. The district is also significant under Criterion C as an example of a type of working-class neighborhood characteristic of the period 1830-1915 in Baltimore. The development of the district is intimately linked with hallmark events of the Industrial Revolution in Baltimore, particularly the growth and development of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, the nation's first railroad. The area where Pigtown is now located was originally part of the Mount Clare plantation, a 2,368-acre estate owned by Dr. Charles Carroll in the 18th century. These homes consisted of newly built town homes, older row houses, condominiums and apartments, with an average of 2.4 residents per household. There are two middle schools in Pigtown: Mount Clare Christian School and Franklin Middle.
Its poverty rate was significantly greater than the citywide rate of 17.7 percent.The 50-acre community statistical area measured by the Baltimore Neighborhood Indicator's Alliance is somewhat larger than Pigtown, including the neighborhoods of Carroll Park and Barre Circle.During 2012, the Pigtown community statistical area experienced an unemployment rate of 12.7 percent, somewhat better than the citywide rate of 13.9 percent for the year.Eastern portions of Pigtown are within walking distance of Three elementary schools are located in Pigtown: George Washington Elementary, Charles Carroll Barrister Elementary, and Southwest Baltimore Charter School. Established 1820.