Lenny’s House of Naturals Sign in Poppleton 

As far as we have been able to find, this was the only ghost sign in Baltimore that depicted an African-American owned business. Lenny’s House of Naturals was a hair salon in West Baltimore, and Lenny Clay, the owner of the barber shop, opened his establishment in 1961. At the time, Poppleton was a thriving African American community in Baltimore.

Mr. Clay serviced many local and national politicians, including  the basketball star Earl “the Pearl” Monroe and Oprah Winfrey, who would come back to visit Mr. Clay to get haircuts and advice even after her rise to fame. 

In the wake of the 1968 Baltimore riots, however, the city built Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, separating Mr. Clay’s neighborhood from downtown and reducing the flow of customers to the neighborhood’s businesses, effectively destroying the neighborhood’s economic base. The original shop was unfortunately torn down in 2019 to make way for a new development, and the ghost sign can no longer be seen.