A beloved African-American neighborhood navigates its economic and environmental future

Once a thriving steel town, Turner Station now faces the same uncertain future as many other post-industrial towns across the United States. Turner Station is unique, though. It is a historically Black community in Baltimore County—one of the few remaining of the forty or so Black communities founded in the county after the end of the Civil War and during segregation. As manufacturing declined, and desegregation allowed young people to seek life outside of the town, Turner Station began to shrink. When the steel mill finally shut down, it left behind a huge industrial brownfield site and a nearby creek that was so badly polluted the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) may declare it a federal Superfund site. Now, lifelong residents as well as transplants who fell in love with the town’s familial community are working to help the town navigate the future while preserving the things which make Turner Station unique.

Community

Founded sometime in the late 19th century, Turner Station grew out of a need for Black mill workers to have a place to live while the country remained segregated.

“[During the Great Migration] people came this way to get jobs at Bethlehem Steel … It kind of started it all here,” said Mary Coleman, a town historian.

Coleman describes how the first Black people to live in what is now Turner Station lived in “lean-tos,” but it quickly developed into a town.

“The people were very forward looking,” Coleman said. “They weren’t just about staying in their lane.”

The community that grew up in Turner Station was a strong one, and largely insular because of segregation, according to Coleman.

Courtney Speed, a local advocate for the town, moved to Turner Station in the 1960s.

“When I came here [with my husband] everybody was mom, pop, aunt, uncle or cousin, not biologically, but spiritually,” Speed said.

That feeling of togetherness carries over to today. Community events, like this year's first ever Juneteenth Party, are well attended and well loved by residents. And former residents return to Turner Station all the time—for church, for celebrations or to help out former neighbors and friends.

“If you put out the call, people that used to live here will show up,” Coleman said. “That heart and soul is still here.”

Bethlehem Steel

For years the Bethlehem Steel mill at Sparrows Point provided livelihoods for many in Turner Station. The steel mill was located just across Bear Creek from Turner Station on Sparrows Point, and at one point was the largest iron, steel and tin producer in the world.

“We could hear the making of steel,” Larry Bannerman, a life-long Turner Station resident, said. “Whistles going off … it was all day, everyday noise.”

While the mill provided work for town residents, it also caused problems. Bannerman remembers people having to rewash clothes because soot from the mill would dirty them when hung out to dry. Worse, he remembers the way it affected the health of his father who worked there.

“He would have to take a break halfway up [the stairs] to catch his breath,” Bannerman said.

Bannerman said that seeing his father’s declining health is one of the reasons he didn’t go to work for Bethlehem Steel when he got old enough.

TPA, EPA and Bear Creek

The issues didn’t stop with the air. The water of Bear Creek became contaminated as well. There was a public beach near what is now the Fleming Senior Center at the south end of Turner Station. Bannerman said the beach had to be shut down just a year after opening because kids were getting sick from swimming in the polluted water.

The EPA and the state of Maryland found toxic metals such as arsenic and chromium in samples from the creek as well as chemicals used in the production of the iron and steel at the mill.

While not many are likely to take a dip in Bear Creek these days, the toxicity is still cause for concern. Turner Station Park has a popular boat ramp that fishers and crabbers use to launch into the water daily, despite fish consumption warnings for Bear Creek and the Patapsco River.

Luckily, Bear Creek is on the verge of getting the clean-up it desperately needs. In June, the EPA announced it wants to use the federal Superfund program to fund a clean-up of 60 acres of the contaminated river bed near where Bear Creek flows into the Patapsco River.

Sparrows Point needs cleaning too. The Steel Mill shut down in 2012 leaving behind a legacy of environmental contamination. The land was bought by Redwood Capital Investments in 2014 and Tradepoint Atlantic began redeveloping the old site to be used as a shipping and logistics hub. Environmental agreements signed in 2014 between Tradepoint Atlantic, Maryland Department of the Environment and EPA established a private source of funding and process for cleaning up the onsite contamination. According to Aaron Tomarchio, the executive vice president for Trade Point Atlantic, an environmental assessment and a remedial action plan needs to be developed for each new parcel that is being re-developed.

"We can’t just develop out the good parcels,'' Tomarchio said. “We also have to work to remediate all of Sparrows Point”.

Earlier this year, the company finished up remediation work on Tin Mill Canal, which was a conveyance for industrial waste from the steel production process. The canal, which also carried stormwater had direct discharge into Bear Creek.

Into the Future

Tradepoint Atlantic is also interested in investing in Turner Station.

“We are linked from our past [at Sparrows Point] and there is a link to be made into the future,” Tomarchio said.

Tradepoint Atlantic is working with the community to bring business to Sparrows Point and, in turn, jobs to Turner Station. The company has been trying to find a way to benefit from Turner Station’s status as an opportunity zone: a special status that rewards investors with tax breaks for investing in a low-income area. Efforts have been underway to combine the Turner Station Census tract with the Sparrows Point Census Tract to extend the opportunity zone designation to the former steel mill. If successful in obtaining the designation, Trade Point Atlantic has pledged $3 million dollars for direct investment into Turner Station.

Others inside the community are looking for ways to revitalize Turner Station as well.

Courtney Speed hopes to draw people back to the community through its more famous residents such as Henrietta Lacks, Kevin Clash — long-time Elmo puppeteer — and astronaut Robert Curbeam. Speed wants to create tourist sites and community oriented businesses such as boat tours and a restaurant/event center.

Turner Station’s conservation teams are working to encourage the community's youth and newer residents to take an interest in Turner Station’s unique history. They are also working with places like Tradepoint Atlantic to encourage growth in the community.

It’s not clear what will and what won’t work. What is clear is that the people of Turner Station are determined to move into the future together while preserving the sense of community and home which so many people hold dear.