Keychains crafted from donated toys and figurines hang inside a soft pink wooden box, hovering over shelves of zines, art and pins. Take one and leave “many more,” reads a message painted atop the Baltimore Trinket Library. It’s an invitation for neighbors to connect and linger.

Rachel Warren, who created the trinket library on Elm Avenue in Hampden, didn’t know how people would respond to the installation. She ruminated over starting the exchange for a year after seeing a similar keychain exchange in Portland.

Warren went for it this summer, originally displaying just keychains before deciding to add a variety of trinkets. Every connection since then, no matter how small, has been deeply meaningful, she said.

The city that reads is well-acquainted with the Little Free Libraries, with dozens of small, painted sheds across neighborhoods where people can take and share books. Inspired by these community libraries, other installations started to pop up in the Baltimore region recently, including exchanges for comic books, mugs and even sticks for dogs. Many who set up these exchanges say it has one simple goal: to spread joy among the community.

Rachael Harms Mahlandtl launched a website in 2023 that maps these exchanges and sidewalk installations across the U.S., eventually expanding it to include international locations. To be included, an exchange must be free and accessible, which generally means outside, and open most of the year.

Harms Mahlandtl, who lived in Frederick before moving to Portland, said people often talk about the loss of third places, social spots outside of one’s home and work where people gather. It’s a little unfortunate, she said, that people have moved away from sitting on porches and getting to know their neighbors.

These installations, which she calls “sidewalk joy,” break down that barrier. Here’s a bit of joy to your walk and whimsy to your world, she said.

In addition to the trinket exchange in Hampden, there are a handful of other sidewalk installations around Maryland, including a comic book box in Highlandtown, a mug exchange in Severna Park, a tiny treasure trading post in Cheverly and a science and nature toy exchange on the Eastern Shore.

Andrea Ferraro, a creative writing teacher, started her installation — the comic book exchange in Highlandtown — over the summer. She and her husband moved from rural Tennessee to near Patterson Park in May, and she had extra time while briefly unemployed.

She had done Little Free Libraries for her students in Tennessee, but none of those were as successful as the comic book exchange.

As a teacher, literacy is close to her heart, Ferraro said. She worries that young people, especially kids, aren’t reading as much in the age of social media. Comic books, with their stories of good and evil and strong women, sparked her own interest in reading as a young girl. None of it felt like a chore or homework, she said.

Ferraro bought a box for the exchange online and put it in a planter by North Linwood and Fairmont avenues. She painted it with bright colors and comic-like graphics that reminded her of Marvel and Stan Lee.

Then she went to Dreamers and Make-Believers, a Highlandtown bookstore, and bought comics she remembered liking when she first started reading. She bought $50 worth of comics. They were all gone by the end of the day.

Ferraro realized she couldn’t keep the exchange going by herself and enlisted the help of friends and educators across the country to keep it stocked. She gets dozens of comics in the mail to add to the box. Someone walking by the exchange told her they hadn’t read in years, but they picked up a comic on their way home.

Back across the city in Hampden, Warren revamped her library in December, adding shelves and a plexiglas door to protect the trinkets from the rain. It’s emblazoned with a roach keychain design as a nod to the king of trash and kitsch, John Waters.

She’s met neighbors who live a couple of blocks from her, people who were running an errand in Hampden and noticed the box and one person who drove from Virginia.

Her kids now run to the box every day to see what’s new — what was taken and what people left. She runs, too, she said.