Public park at Baltimore Peninsula named after Elijah Cummings, longtime Maryland politician and activist

The new public park at the Baltimore Peninsula, the South Baltimore waterfront redevelopment project, has been renamed Elijah’s Park in honor of the late U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings on his birthday.

Cummings represented Maryland’s 7th Congressional District from 1996 until he died in 2019.

A Baltimore native, Cummings was also a well-known civil rights leader. In a 2019 Baltimore Sun article about his life, his constituents regarded him as a civil rights icon, ranking him with the late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Rev. Jesse Jackson.

The Baltimore Peninsula development team decided to rename Triangle Park after Cummings because of his advocacy for children’s education and health care.

“Elijah’s Park is a living memorial and a beautiful tribute to my father’s legacy,” Jennifer Cummings, the congressman’s eldest daughter, said in a news release. “My Dad would often say of his work, ‘this is bigger than me,’ and this park is exactly that, a large public greenspace for the community to make productive use of and enjoy.”

The park, which is 28,000 square feet and located between Rye Street Market and 250 Mission, is the latest addition to the Baltimore Peninsula. Elijah’s Park features a sculptural pavilion structure and a large oval lawn playground with slides, landscaping and a jungle gym shaped like a blue crab.

“This is a great opportunity for the City of Baltimore to continue expanding its recreational offerings into the South Baltimore Peninsula,” said Reginald Moore, executive director of Baltimore City Recreation and Parks. “We’re excited about adding this park to our inventory as it features a playscape, promenade and greenspace, and provides users with another city park they can enjoy, active lifestyles.”

Additionally, Elijah’s Park will honor Cummings’ legacy with a mosaic inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement designed by high school students in the Choice Program at the University of Maryland, a program to help youth stay out of the juvenile justice system and strengthen community ties with educational and vocational opportunities.

The mosaic will have a Cummings quote engraved that says, “Our children are the living messengers we send to a future we will never see… so, we want to send them to that future healthy, strong, vibrant, and with their destinies in their own control.”

The mosaic will be located on the Northeast pathway of Elijah’s Park.

Along with the park, the Baltimore Peninsula has Under Armour’s global headquarters, Sagamore’s Spirits, Nick’s Fish House and West Covington Park on its 235 acre site.

Before Triangle Park became Elijah’s Park, the Baltimore Peninsula finished the development of 1.1 million square feet of mixed income homes and retail space, the Baltimore Ravens’ new preview suite and the upcoming small business retail market.

Elijah’s Park is open from dusk til dawn, seven days a week.

For more information, visit baltimorepeninsula.com.