It is located directly south of the Sandtown-Winchester neighborhood, and east of Edmondson Avenue Historic District.

[1] The name Harlem comes from Dutch merchant Adrian Valeck who moved to Baltimore after the end of the Revolutionary War.

In 1857, nearby property-owners donated land to the city to establish Lafayette Square, a new public park a few blocks northwest of Edmondson's home.

After major battles at Antietam and Gettysburg, Union soldiers from New York and Pennsylvania spent weeks recovering at Lafayette Barracks.

In the 1870s and 1880s, the developer Joseph Cone erected hundreds of rowhouses in the blocks around Harlem Park that included modern amenities like gas lighting, hot water, and door bells.