Famous people who grew up or lived in and around Baltimore

Babe Ruth1895–1902

📍 Babe Ruth Birthplace, 216 Emory Street, Baltimore, Maryland, USA

I was born on the 6th of February 1895 at 216 Emory Street in Baltimore, in a two-storey rowhouse in the Pigtown neighbourhood — a working-class area near the B&O Railroad yards where my…

Billie Holiday1915–1928

📍 Pennsylvania Avenue, Baltimore, MD 21217, USA

I was born in Baltimore in 1915, on Pennsylvania Avenue in the heart of the Black community of a deeply segregated city. My childhood there was not happy — my mother was a teenager who…

Cab Calloway1918–1927

📍 Druid Hill Avenue, Baltimore, MD 21217, USA

I was born Cabell Calloway III in Rochester, New York, in December 1907, and when I was small my family moved to Baltimore, where my parents had roots. My father was a lawyer, and my…

Michael Phelps1985–2004

📍 Rodgers Forge, Towson, Maryland, USA

Michael Phelps was born in Baltimore in June 1985 and grew up in Rodgers Forge, a neighbourhood of brick row houses and tree-lined streets in Towson, just north of the city. His father…

Thurgood Marshall1908–1925

📍 1632 Division Street, Baltimore, MD 21217, USA

I was born at 1632 Division Street in West Baltimore in 1908, in a thriving Black neighbourhood of churches, shops and rowhouses. My mother, Norma, was a kindergarten teacher who believed…

Tupac Shakur1984–1988

📍 Baltimore, MD, USA

In 1984, when I was about thirteen, my mother, Afeni, brought me and my little sister, Sekyiwa, from New York to Baltimore, looking for a fresh start. We lived on the first floor of a…