On June 10, 2022, Boys & Girls Clubs of Metropolitan Baltimore joined elected officials and community leaders to break ground on the new Mace’s Lane Community Center. The state-of-art Center, which will include a 16,000 sq. ft. Boys & Girls Club, will be home to a one-of-a-kind, generational project that is designed to honor the history of the African American educational experience in Cambridge, while inspiring the next generation.
The groundbreaking ceremony included guest speakers Larry Hogan, Governor of Maryland, Lajan Cephas, Acting Mayor and Cambridge Commissioner, Pastor Keith Cornish, President, Mace’s Lane Community Center, Inc., Jeff Breslin, President and CEO of Boys & Girls Club of Metropolitan Baltimore, and Nik Tatum, Chair, Boys & Girls Clubs of Metropolitan Baltimore Board of Directors.
"This new community center is just one of the many important redevelopment projects happening in Cambridge, and another way that we are honoring the commitment we made eight years ago when I was first running for governor," said Governor Hogan. "I said then that if I was elected, the war on rural Maryland would be over, and that communities that had been ignored and neglected would no longer be forgotten. I meant what I said, our administration has consistently proven that over and over again, and we are doing that once again here in Cambridge."
The new Center is designed to foster inclusive community participation and provide an environmentally safe and friendly facility for the arts, education, recreation, celebration, and locally based human services in order to increase opportunity for personal and collective growth of the Dorchester County community.
The former Mace’s Lane High School building will be repurposed and redeveloped to serve as a 16,000 square foot community center. The facility will include:
Multiple meeting rooms to facilitate training as well as organizational meetings;
A full-size gymnasium which can also be used as an auditorium for larger events such as concerts and banquets;
Incubator space for local community-based programs;
A museum depicting the history of Maces Lane High School and the education of the African American community during segregation and after integration.
“Boys & Girls Clubs of Metropolitan Baltimore is proud to partner with the Cambridge community, the Mace’s Lane Community Center, Inc. and the many alumni that are helping to bring the vision for this state-of-the-art facility to life. We stand ready to continue our support of the Cambridge community and look forward to expanding Boys & Girls Club programs in the renovated Mace’s Lance Community Center and Boys & Girls Club.”
said Jeff Breslin, President & CEO, Boys & Girls Clubs of Metropolitan Baltimore. Guests received a commemorative hat, provided by LIDS. The LIDS Foundation is a supporter of the Mace’s Lane project.
Once known as Mace’s Lane High School during times of segregation, the facility was an all African-American high school that opened in 1952, and continued to be a segregated high school until 1969. During that time, all African-American students that lived in Dorchester County, Md were required to attend this school, until the County was forced to integrate in 1969, this would later become a junior high school until 2004. Eventually, a new middle school was built from the ground up and since then, the original Mace’s Lane High School has been abandoned and empty.
“We are preserving our rich history, inspiring our community, and empowering our youth for success,” said Tyrus Farrow, Sr. Project Manager for Mace’s Lane.