Decades ago, the shouts inside the old bus station on Howard Street in Mount Vernon likely informed travelers about arrivals and departures. Now the shouts are from kids keeping score, punctuating a song of shoe squeaks and the claps of a plastic ball smacking off walls and glass.
Greyhound left the station, and squash has arrived.
SquashWise, a nonprofit dedicated to after-school tutoring, youth development and, of course, a healthy dose of competition with its ball-and-racket namesake sport, has transformed the building into its home.
The organization purchased the building for $2.1 million in 2021. After years of fundraising, planning and renovations, SquashWise hosted its first matches in the 24,000-square-foot space this month.
Once a transportation hub, Baltimore’s former Greyhound bus station is now a different kind of community asset. Abby Markoe, one of the organization’s founders, said acquiring its own building allows SquashWise to significantly expand its youth program while providing another “third space” for the wider community.
“The vision is to get people to connect from different backgrounds that might not otherwise,” Markoe said during a tour of the new space this week.
Six courts occupy what was once the waiting hall, where the original checkerboard terrazzo floor provides parents, coaches and teammates a spectating area.
The sport is kind of like tennis but not. It places two players with rackets in a box; instead of volleying across a net, the players swat a soft black ball off the wall in front of them, then alternately run — and sometimes dive — to return it before it bounces twice. After only a week, black spots already smudge the white walls from ball strikes.
Hanging above the spectators is a massive, bounding greyhound that once towered neon-lit outside the station along Howard Street. When Markoe’s team found it in the building, she said, only about half of the blue neon still lit up — so they placed LED lights on its back to illuminate the sleek dog’s translucent body.
SquashWise’s youth programs are open to middle and high school students from Baltimore City Public Schools. They learn the game and compete against other, mostly private schools in the area but also get after-school tutoring, mentorship and assistance with college and career readiness.
The postsecondary success program allows graduates to stay involved into their mid-20s, receiving support and guidance for navigating internships, student loan programs and job interviews.
The build-out of the old bus station includes three classrooms and other areas where students can do homework or hang out. On Wednesday, the middle school team warmed up to take on McDonogh School with a snack and a chat from team coaches about how to prepare to transition into high school.
The main level includes a small gym and a kitchen. The basement, still being renovated, offers room to expand.
The $14 million-plus renovation was paid for largely by individual donations as small as $3 and as large as $1.5 million, and it received some tax incentives as a historic property.
Markoe said the team is honored to be part of the Howard Street revitalization effort. She highlighted the light rail, which has a stop right outside SquashWise’s doors, as a critical asset for the many students and players who rely on public transit.
In a couple of months, SquashWise will start taking members just like a private gym or club, and it will be open on the weekends. Baltimore’s squash community has largely been without a home since the closing of Meadow Mill, a facility in Woodberry next to Interstate 83, Markoe said.
Greyhound left the bus station in the late 1980s, and the building eventually was acquired by the Maryland Center for History and Culture, headquartered next door. It housed a variety of temporary tenants over the years, including a film crew for Netflix’s “House of Cards,” but largely sat dormant.
The building holds special significance for the team, Markoe said, because the Greyhound station was a largely desegregated space in the mid-20th century, serving as a meeting point for Baltimoreans and travelers of all backgrounds. A SquashWise graduate currently pursuing a Ph.D. in history helped research and curate a wall display that will hang in the facility tracing the building’s legacy.
After just a week, SquashWise players and students feel a sense of ownership.
“This is our home. It’s like a second home to me,” said Mishael Abina, a 17-year-old senior at Bard High School.
Abina started with SquashWise in eighth grade, drawn in not by the sport but the energy and welcome from the coaches. Now he spends four or five days a week at SquashWise after school. Not only has he fallen in love with the sport, but he’s benefited from tutoring, he said, and gotten vital support on college applications.
On the court, SquashWise players aren’t anyone to shake a racket at, either. Marisa Coleman, a 17-year-old senior at Poly, joined in eighth grade and is now competing in tournaments outside the state.
“It wasn’t so much the sport, but like the community we have here and just how accepting and welcoming it is” that drew her in, Coleman said. “As I kept playing, I started feeling a very deep passion for it.”
When not competing, Coleman challenges friends to pick-up matches or records herself hitting solo on the court with her phone. She’s been accepted to one university and has been meeting with college coaches about playing at the next level.
When competing against other schools, players like Abina and Coleman were always guests. “Always very warmly welcomed but always visitors,” Markoe said.
Now they’re the home team.
Full disclosure: Banner Chief Philanthropy Officer Sarah Walton is a member of the SquashWise board of directors.
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