Franklin Square is located in West Baltimore; just north of Union Square. It is bounded by Penrose on the west, Poppleton on the east, and Harlem Park to the north.

As a largely African-American neighborhood (east of Fulton after 1910, west after 1950), the area housed institutions with citywide patronage. The Douglas Theatre, forerunner to the Royal, was located on Gilmor near Saratoga Street. In 1918, it was well established as the only Motion Picture Parlor owned and managed by colored people. St. Martins Church is the neighborhood’s oldest continuous church congregation. The 65-unit apartment house at Saratoga and Mount Street, built as a school in 1888, was one as the West Baltimore homes of Coppin Normal School, today known as Coppin State College. Coppin was one of the first public schools with an African-American staff. Franklin Square Park is the oldest of six 19th century hilltop squares in the city. Carved from a three-acre plot sold to the city in 1845 .

In 1994, another Sandtown is emerging. Residents, working in concert with initial partners Mayor Schmoke, the City of Baltimore, The Enterprise Foundation and BUILD, have been working for the last four years on planning and beginning to implement the nation's first "neighborhood transformation process." Neighborhood transformation differs from past attempts at community revitalization because it (1) addresses all community problems at once, (2) emphasizes redirection and more effective use of existing funds, and (3) involves neigborhood residents as full partners in the design and operation of programs and services.

In a very brief time, the transformation process, which is coordinated by a new non-profit group, Community Building in Partnership, Inc. (CBP) has achieved many successes including: reducing crime by 15.6%, constructing or renovating nearly 300 units for home ownership, modernizing 700 units of public housing, developing a school readiness pathway to ensure that children are prepared to enter school, employing over 160 adults and 500 teenagers in transformation projects, establishing the Sandtown-Winchester Community Center, creating a family advocacy program, organizing over 100 block clubs to fight crime, implementing annual community events, and publishing a monthly community newspaper.

Penn-North is located on census tract 1303, in ward 15, 4th District, West Baltimore in Baltimore, MD. English immigrants first settled the area in 1870s. By the 1890s census European merchants began to establish their business in the area. In the 1900s, the city's black elite began to settle along Druid Hill Avenue, McCulloh Street and Madison Avenue. By the 1920s, they expanded to North Avenue. The Penn-North community dates back over 100 years