Herring Run: An Alternate Route to the Bay

When it comes to routes Baltimore City waterways take to reach the Chesapeake Bay and the ocean beyond, the 11-mile-long Herring Run stream takes the road (or river) less traveled. While the Inner Harbor, Gwynns Falls and Jones Falls are all connected to the Bay through the Patapsco River, Herring Run goes its own way: into Back River.

Far from the point where Back River meets the Chesapeake, it starts as two thin branches, one that snakes into Essex in the east and the other into the city near Pulaski Highway on the west. This western branch is where Herring Run stream empties into it. These two branches of Back River meet and merge before flowing southward and emptying into the Bay near Hart-Miller Island.

Baltimore City is situated within the Patapsco and Back River Basin, which has four subwatersheds within it—Baltimore Harbor to the south, in the heart of downtown; Gwynns Falls to the northwest; Jones Falls in the central north; and Herring Run to the northeast.

The most compact of Baltimore's four subwatersheds, Herring Run skims the Baltimore County communities of Towson, Parkville, Overlea and Rosedale, and encompasses several neighborhoods in the northeast corner of Baltimore City, including Hamilton, Cedonia, Belair-Edison and Armistead Gardens.

The headwaters of Herring Run stream are tucked within the cloverleaf interchange where Perring Parkway meets the Baltimore Beltway in Parkville. From there, the stream winds south and west, widening as it moves from higher elevation to lower. Near the campus of Morgan State University, it starts curving back to the east, toward Back River.

Just as Herring Run stream feeds into Back River, smaller waterways flow into Herring Run. These tributaries including Armistead Run, Chinquapin Run, Moores Run and Redhouse Creek.

It's not clear where the name Herring Run originated, but two species of the small, silvery herring fish are found in the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries. Both alewife and blueback herrings are anadromous, meaning they can live in fresh and saltwater. They migrate from the saltier Bay to freshwater rivers and streams in late winter or early spring to spawn.

Rich History

The Herring Run stream, like all of Baltimore's waterways, provided food and resources that drew and supported Indigenous peoples and European settlers alike.

We know that Piscataway, Nanticoke, Susquehannock and other Indigenous tribes inhabited the areas in and around what's now Baltimore for centuries, harvesting the plentiful fish and shellfish from local waters, growing crops in the fertile soil, and hunting game in the surrounding forests and fields.

Archaeological projects taking place in the subwatershed seek to find, identify and date artifacts from both Native Americans and European immigrants in the area. The Herring Run Archaeology Project is a free, community-based, public archaeology program. The Baltimore Community Archaeology Lab at Towson University recently began a survey of Herring Run Park.

These projects have so far unearthed ancient stone tools and uncovered artifacts dating from 9500 B.C. The search continues for even older finds.

According to the Herring Run Archaeology Project, the earliest documentation of European settlers near Herring Run dates to 1695, when a land patent for 85 acres on the southwest side of the stream (between Harford and Belair Roads today) was issued to an immigrant from England named John Broad, who was likely an indentured servant.

The land surrounding Herring Run was ideal for farming, and the stream provided waterpower for mills. At one point, an article in the Baltimore Sun documented seven mills along the length of the Herring Run, all but one of which produced flour. The other manufactured cotton. But unlike Dickeyville on the Gwynns Falls, Mt. Washington on the Jones Falls, and other early Baltimore communities that were economically centered around mills, Northeast Baltimore's economy was primarily driven by agriculture. Lauraville and Gardenville are two examples of neighborhoods near Herring Run that were born as farming communities.

Green Spaces

Herring Run Park was established in the early 1900s and stretches over 375 acres from the campus of Morgan State University on its northern end, down to the Armistead Gardens community on its southern side. The elongated, 4-mile-long park is home to diverse wildlife thanks to the stream itself and the surrounding forests, meadows and wetlands. It also features an extensive network of walking trails and other recreational amenities like playgrounds and sports fields.

The Herring Run subwatershed is home, too, to a large portion of Clifton Park, which also sits partly within the Baltimore Harbor subwatershed. Clifton Park is Baltimore's fourth oldest park; only Druid Hill, Patterson and Carroll Parks pre-date it. The park still features the 200-year-old mansion where Johns Hopkins once spent his summers, along with the remains of a historic valve house, clay tennis courts, an 18-hole public golf course (Baltimore's first), and the City-owned Clifton Farm, where neighbors can rent garden beds to grow vegetables, herbs and flowers.

In addition to large, public green spaces, the Herring Run subwatershed features a network of disconnected forest patches, pocket parks and community gardens. Like public parks, these provide important green space for people and wildlife but are located on land that can be bought and sold, which means they are at risk of development. Fairwood Forest in Hamilton was the first preserved forest patch in Baltimore. Nearby are Springfield Woods, the Govans Urban Forest, HEPP Park, Wilson Woods and more, all served and supported by neighborhood volunteers and Baltimore Green Space, Baltimore's environmental land trust.

Neighborhoods

One of these Herring Run subwatershed forest patches, Wilson Woods, is located within the historically significant Wilson Park neighborhood.

African American bank owner and real estate developer Henry O. Wilson was one of the wealthiest and most influential Baltimoreans of the early 1900s. In 1917, he set out to establish a community specifically for middle-class Black Baltimoreans. To do so, he purchased land bordered by Cold Spring Lane, 43rd Street, The Alameda and York Road that was owned by German Americans. There, he developed more than 100 homes in a variety of styles—detached, semi-detached and rowhomes—and created a suburban neighborhood for Black families that contrasted sharply with the inner-city neighborhoods available to African Americans in segregated Baltimore at the time.

According to the historical plaque affixed to Wilson's former residence at 4423 Craddock Avenue, which was designated as a historic landmark in 2017, he "created a suburban Black community that achieved many of the ideals that were largely inaccessible to African Americans: prime location and topography, amenities, and proximity to exclusive, expensive and racially restrictive neighborhoods. The creation of Wilson Park was achieved despite the multiple layers of legal, economic and social limitations that were intentionally stacked against African Americans in Baltimore and the United States at large."

Connection Point

Just as each distinct Baltimore neighborhood is part of the larger city, and the city joins with the 23 counties to make up the state of Maryland, and on from there, so it goes with waterways and watersheds, too. Every individual piece is part of something bigger. Care (or disregard) for a tiny creek in one neighborhood impacts other bodies of water. People throughout the Herring Run subwatershed—and throughout Baltimore City, Baltimore County and the state—are providing care that benefits Herring Run, Back River and the Bay.

Friends of Herring Run Park's mission is to restore, protect and promote the Herring Run stream valley as a place where nature and neighbors thrive. Blue Water Baltimore regularly monitors water quality, plants trees and implements green infrastructure along Herring Run and other Baltimore waterways. They also operate Herring Run Nursery on Hillen Road, which specializes in species native to the Chesapeake Bay watershed, selling trees, shrubs, vines and wildflowers that contribute to clean water and healthy soil. In addition, the Back River Restoration Committee restores the health of the tidal portion of the Back River watershed. Since 2011, volunteers have removed over 7 million pounds of trash and debris from Back River, and they collaborated with Baltimore County to install a trash boom at the Herring Run confluence to collect litter and debris before it enters the river. This, of course, also helps protect the Chesapeake Bay and our one big, beautiful global ocean.

Thank you for joining us on this long and winding journey through Baltimore City's four subwatersheds!