Pen Lucy is a small community in the North District of Baltimore

Baltimore

Baltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore...

 and part of the development of York Road, a historic Baltimore route to Pennsylvania. The Pen Lucy neighborhood is predominately African American

African American

African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...

 and features many different housing types. The neighborhood is bounded by Argonne Drive (south), East 43rd Street (north), Greenmount Avenue

Maryland Route 45

Maryland Route 45 is a state highway in the U.S. state of Maryland. Known for most of its length as York Road, the state highway runs from U.S. Route 1 in Baltimore north to the Pennsylvania state line in Maryland Line, where the highway continues as SR 3001...

 (west) and The Alameda (east). The Pen Lucy Neighborhood Association, Inc. (PLNA, Inc.) is the organization that serves the residents of Pen Lucy.

Demographics

According to the 2000 US Census, 3,260 people live in Pen Lucy with 90.3% African-American and 5.8% White. The median household income is $22,356. 87.9% of the houses are occupied and 37.8% of those are occupied by the home's owner. Fifty-five percent of Pen Lucy’s 1,500 households are headed by single females. Seventy-five percent
of these households include children under the age of 18. More than 27 percent of the entire population is age 18 or younger, with approximately 900 children living in the neighborhood. The residents of Pen Lucy are usually blamed for the high incidence of crime in the surrounding communities, especially on the Greenmount Avenue Corridor.

Schools

Pen Lucy has two public elementary schools: Walter P. Carter and Guilford Elementary Middle School [G.E.M.S.]. High school students generally attend the high schools Mervo

Mergenthaler Vocational Technical Senior High School

Mergenthaler Vocational–Technical High School, commonly referred to as Mervo, is a public high school and trade school in Baltimore, Maryland. Mervo opened in 1953 as a vocational-technical school, and is named after Ottmar Mergenthaler...

, DuBois, Lewis

Reginald F. Lewis High School

Reginald F. Lewis High School is a public high school located in the northeastern section of Baltimore, Maryland. The school is situated in the former Northern High School and shares the structure with the W. E. B. Du Bois High School.-History:...

, or Baltimore City College

Baltimore City College

The Baltimore City College , also referred to as The Castle on the Hill, historically as The College, and most commonly City, is a public high school in Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.A. The City College curriculum includes the International Baccalaureate Programme and emphasizes study in the classics...

.