Baltimore's The Block is a stretch on the 400 block of East Baltimore Street in 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...

, Maryland

Maryland

Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...

 containing several strip club

Strip club

A strip club is an adult entertainment venue in which striptease or other erotic or exotic dance is regularly performed. Strip clubs typically adopt a nightclub or bar style, but can also adopt a theatre or cabaret-style....

s, sex shops, and other adult entertainment merchants. In the first half of the 20th century, it was famous for its burlesque

Burlesque

Burlesque is a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects...

 houses. It was a noted starting point and stop-over for many of noted burlesque dancers, including the likes of Blaze Starr

Blaze Starr

Blaze Starr is an American former stripper and American burlesque star. Her vivacious presence and inventive use of stage props earned her the nickname "The Hottest Blaze in Burlesque"...

.

By the 1950s, the clubs became seedier, as burlesque was replaced by strip clubs and sex shops. The Block of that era is featured prominently in several films, notably Barry Levinson

Barry Levinson

Barry Levinson is an American screenwriter, film director, actor, and producer of film and television. His films include Good Morning, Vietnam, Sleepers and Rain Man.-Early life:...

's Liberty Heights

Liberty Heights

Liberty Heights is a 1999 comedy-drama film by writer-director Barry Levinson. It is a semi-autobiographical account of his childhood growing up in Baltimore in the 1950s. It marked the last appearance of Ralph Tabakin, who appeared in cameo roles in every Levinson movie since his first, Diner , a...

and Diner

Diner (film)

Diner is a 1982 comedy-drama film written and directed by Barry Levinson. Levinson's screen directing debut, Diner is the first in his "Baltimore films", which also include the subsequent Tin Men, Avalon and Liberty Heights.-Plot:...

, as well as Steve Yeager

Steve Yeager (filmmaker)

Steve Yeager is an independent filmmaker from Baltimore, Maryland, U.S. He is best known for his film on the life of fellow director John Waters, Divine Trash, which won the Filmmakers Trophy for Best Documentary at the Sundance Film Festival in 1998....

's independent feature drama On The Block, with Howard Rollins

Howard Rollins

Howard Ellsworth Rollins, Jr. was an American television, film, and stage actor. He is perhaps best known for his portrayal of Coalhouse Walker, Jr...

.

The decades to follow would bring a marked increase in general crime

Crime

Crime is the breach of rules or laws for which some governing authority can ultimately prescribe a conviction...

, prostitution

Prostitution

Prostitution is the act or practice of providing sexual services to another person in return for payment. The person who receives payment for sexual services is called a prostitute and the person who receives such services is known by a multitude of terms, including a "john". Prostitution is one of...

, and drug dealing, an unusual situation considering the location of Baltimore's Police Headquarters and Central Police District House at the east end of the block. It has been suggested that the police, whose headquarters are located literally next to The Block, choose to contain the prostitution and drug dealing in that small section of Baltimore rather than combat it.

The passing decades would see a shrinking of the area. Once several blocks long, stretching almost to Charles Street in the central part of downtown Baltimore, today The Block only stretches about two blocks long from South Street to Gay Street

Gay Street (Baltimore)

Gay Street is a street in Baltimore, Maryland that gets its name from Nicholas Ruxton Gay, who surveyed the area in 1747. It begins at the intersection of East Pratt Street near the Baltimore World Trade Center and proceeds north and east through Baltimore until it crosses Orleans Street and...

.

Pollock Johnny's sausage restaurant was a local landmark on the strip into the 1980s.

In recent years, The Block has undergone a bit of a revival with the opening of Larry Flynt

Larry Flynt

Larry Claxton Flynt, Jr. is an American publisher and the president of Larry Flynt Publications . In 2003, Arena magazine listed him as the number one on the "50 Powerful People in Porn" list....

's Hustler Club, and its next-door neighbor Norma Jean's, an upscale urban strip club.

A 5 alarm fire on December 6th, 2010 heavily damaged four buildings, including the building that formerly housed the Gayety Theater. The fire was believed to be an arson.