Shirley Reynolds is a Wyman Park institution. Many parents who have lived on Beech Ave. have made the weekly, in my case daily, pilgrimage to Mrs. Shirley’s house for a gumdrop and a visit. The trip down the block is part of my two-year old daughter’s daily routine. I can barely get her out of the car seat after we arrive home from daycare, before she is scrambling to Shirley’s porch.

A visit to Shirley’s house is a glimpse into Baltimore’s rich history.

Shirley has spent nearly her whole life in Baltimore, most of it in Wyman Park. Wyman Park is a narrow swath of the city that spans east to west from Tudor Arms Ave. and Beech Ave. to Keswick Rd., and bordered by 33^rd St. on the south and West 40^th St. to the north.

After time spent in Pasadena and Hamilton, Shirley and her family settled into a house on Chestnut Ave. in Hampden. Ask her about her childhood and she will tell you about winters spent skating on a frozen tadpole pond in what is now the neighborhood dog park for Wyman Park residents and taking the #25 streetcar to the pool at Druid Hill Park, Roosevelt Park, and Meadowbrook on hot summer days.

Shirley also owned the original Frazier’s on the Avenue. Only back then, Frazier’s wasn’t on the 36^th Ave. The original Frazier’s was a row house on 33^rd and Elm. She owned it for eight years. Shirley’s good friends are the owner’s of Frazier’s current incarnation. When Shirley owned Frazier’s it wasn’t a hangout for Hampden hipsters. Frazier’s was the place where, during Mardi Gras, its patron’s attire would put the campiest Hon girls to shame. Shirley would put together country and western themed parties complete with cowboy hats, chaps, and a real horse! Men would don tuxedos and women corsages for Frazier’s prom night parties.

Shirley settled into her current home on the corner of Craycombe and Beech in 1965. Shirley’s basement with its ping-pong tables and parties was the prime destination for neighborhood friends of her three children Brian, Bobby and Carol. After the older residents of Wyman Park moved away because their children had grown and moved out themselves, there was a period about ten years where there were no children. However, as Baltimore’s cheap housing prices lured younger families to Wyman Park in the late 1990s and early years of this decade, children came back and the tradition started anew. We call it the Beech Ave. Baby Boom. In fact, Shirley became the unofficial grandmother to two girls who moved into the row house adjacent to her. She does the same for my daughter (pictured with Shirley above). The ping-pong table is gone, but the tradition lives on today, as the toddlers and preschooler’s flock to Shirley’s house. I asked her if the neighborhood changed much over the years, she said, “It was the same as it is now,” a “friendly neighborhood.”

Last spring, Shirley turned 80 last year and to celebrate her three children threw a surprise birthday party for her. After a nice Sunday brunch, Shirley returned to a house filled with family friends, plenty of children, and a Charm City Cakes’ replica of her sitting in the rocking chair on the porch of her row house. Ace of Cakes featured the party in the episode, Tattoos and Traditions.

Topics: local history , Wyman Park , Hampden

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