New Baltimore District Court building dedicated to trailblazing Maryland judge

Baltimore’s new district court building has been open since last month, but a ribbon-cutting Tuesday was for more than just the building – it was to mark its new name, for the first Black woman to ever serve on any bench in the Maryland.

State officials and family members were on hand to rename district courthouse to honor the legacy of the late Judge Mabel Houze Hubbard. John Hubbard, son of the trailblazing judge, said he was “elated” that his mother’s memory and legacy would be honored with the building’s name change.

“She wanted everybody to have a fair chance and to really feel like they were heard,” he said. “I think people really remembered her and she stuck with people because of the way she made them feel … I can understand why people really, really appreciated her.”

The new courthouse, located at 500 Calvert Street, opened for public use in mid-October. After a push from district court judges to have it named after Hubbard and her legacy, state officials approved the name change later that month.

Lt. Gov. Aruna Miller (D), on hand for Tuesday’s ribbon-cutting event, said the new courthouse represents a “safer, modern, more accessible system of justice for Baltimore.”

“The fight for justice … takes on an even deeper meaning when people who were once denied access to justice, equality and opportunity rise to the highest levels of the system itself – as Judge Mabel H. Hubbard did,” Miller said.

“She was a barrier breaker and a history maker … at a time when people who looked like her walked into courtrooms only to be told, in ways spoken and unspoken, that they didn’t belong,” Miller said.

Born in Detroit in 1936, Hubbard first worked as an English teacher and administrator in Pennsylvania before receiving her Juris Doctorate degree at the University of Maryland School of Law in 1975, according to state documents.

In 1978, she was appointed as a master-in-chancery for the Supreme Bench for Baltimore City, what is now called the Baltimore City Circuit Court, marking her as the first Black woman to be appointed to a bench in Maryland.

District Court Administrative Judge Geoffrey Hengerer said that Hubbard brought “style and perspective” to District 1, donning bright red lipstick and bright red glasses and using humorous turns-of-phrase in the courtroom that became known as “Hubbard-isms.”

“But ultimately, Judge Hubbard had a calm, deliberate demeanor that resonated,” Hengerer said at the ribbon-cutting.

In her career, Hubbard served on both the District Court and the Circuit Court for Baltimore City, retiring from the latter in 1999. During that time, she was also known for mentoring other Black woman attorneys.

The new five-story 168,000-square-foot courthouse houses eight courtrooms, a detention area and multiple state and local agencies, among other features.

General Services Secretary Atif Chaudhry said the facility was a “huge achievement” for the state in both construction and in adhering to energy and carbon neutrality goals.

“We accomplished something really remarkable here in this facility, without acquiring additional land or disturbing the surrounding community,” Chaudhry said. “We took an old state building which was at the end of its useful life … and pulled it back to its steel frame. We then built it back up stronger, safer. More efficient and more accessible.”

The facility’s name change was approved by the Board of Public Works in October, when the facility was only known as the New Baltimore City District Court.

During that meeting, Gov. Wes Moore (D) said the name change would honor Hubbard’s “service … her leadership, and her commitment to the people that that court will serve for generations to come.”