The Oral History of ‘The Wire Spot’ A.K.A. Marlo’s Hangout

📝 Intro + Interviews by Frozen in Carbonite

If you ask me, shit just hasn’t been the same since Home Box Office brought us all together every Sunday night at 9 P.M.

Finding spots in movies and television has long been a quantum-level subdivision of skate nerdery, from Breakfast at Tiffany’s (that black marble ledge on the east side of Manhattan) to The Godfather (Courthouse Drop) to Michael Mann’s Heat (DTLA Arco Rails area.) On an October 10, 2006 episode of The Wire, viewers caught a glimpse of a location known as Marlo’s hangout (Season 4, Episode 5) — a bleak concrete expanse with an array of banks, ledges, and bank-to ledges. It seemed insane that A) such a place existed, and B) one of the flagship programs of the “Golden Age of Television” used it as a key location.

As the legend of The Wire grew, so did that of the “The Wire Spot,” popping up in a slew of 2010s videos – primarily of the east coast variety. It seemed dope that an infamous locale in Wire lore became a destination spot, not only for locals, but for visiting pros.

There had to be a story here. So I interviewed four of the Baltimore-Washington metro area’s most prominent filmers and skaters to delve into the history of the area and its genesis as a nexus point of the scene.

Like the world of The Wire itself, the tale of The Wire Spot is steeped in Baltimore lore and serves as a reminder that skating is interconnected with all aspects of city life – from the mayor on down to the stick-up kid.

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How did you first find out about the spot?

Gary Smith, owner of Vu Skateshop in Baltimore: Probably almost fifteen years ago, my buddy Steve Batton – he’s like the biggest video collector, biggest skate nerd, he skates for my shop — he had a black book of every spot. Everyone would hit him up for spots. So when we watched The Wire, he found the spot, and in [the show], they’re like, “No one gets shot on Sundays.” It’s a church day. So we were like, “Alright, we’re gonna go on a Sunday” — but we’re gonna go crazier – we’re gonna go on Easter Sunday. Definitely [nothing] can happen right?

So we went Easter Sunday, it was my first time there, and it was rough, dude. The rubber ground – it used to be a playground, and I’m guessing they have banks like that so when you play with balls, they don’t roll away. It was rubber ground where the bank-to-wall is, and it had grass growing out of it. Nothing was waxed. So we skated it, filmed some shit, and then the people in the neighborhood were really cool because they thought we were there filming for another HBO show.

Then, we met this guy Kevin who lives on the block. We actually exchanged phone numbers with him, and he’s the reason we were allowed to skate there. Super nice dude. He actually knew the real Marlo, who was in jail when the show was filmed, and then he got out of jail and was gonna sue HBO. He’s like, “this isn’t how it was.” If you’re watching The Wire, [Kevin] grew up in the house on the right.

Chris Teta, Traffic Skateboards rider who has clocked many hours skating The Wire Spot: I moved to Baltimore about 15 years ago, and I was skating with my buddy Zach Dykes a lot. This guy from Pittsburgh, Rob Starr was doing school here – he’s a filmer and skater, too. I found out through them about that spot, and most of the [spots] when I first moved here. This dude from Boston, Fritz Mead, was in town. He waxed up the dish and did front 5-0 fakie on it. He’s the first person to grind it, I think.

There’s this older guy Kevin that used to live right next to it, and he’s been cool as shit since day one – super supportive of skating. He would have barbecues there and stuff, we’d be drinking beers together, and we’d take care of the neighborhood kids. He’s an awesome guy.

Jake Baldini, who filmed an entire video part at The Wire Spot with his friends while living in Baltimore in 2018: It’s actually a pretty quiet neighborhood most of the time. Just a little park in a little neighborhoody zone. Nobody really was ever around that much.

“[Kevin] actually knew the real Marlo, who was in jail when the show was filmed, and then he got out of jail and was gonna sue HBO. He’s like, ‘this isn’t how it was.'”

Smalls, the videographer behind the Stop Fakin’ series, a decade-plus spanning series of skate videos filmed mainly between Washington, D.C. and Baltimore: Growing up, we would go to Baltimore every once in a while, but we really had no idea what we were doing – poking around the Inner Harbor and stuff like that. Probably in 2009, around the time that I met Chris Teta, Zach Dykes, Jason Spivey and a lot of those dudes, they started having us up there, and we’d have them down [here in D.C.]. That’s when we started skating all the spots that were more in the neighborhoods, which is by far the most interesting stuff to skate in Baltimore.

By way of linking up with them almost every other weekend, they would take us to The Wire Spot because, as most people know, Baltimore doesn’t really have a Pulaski-type spot. There are not a lot of good warm-up spots with a lot of space. The Wire Spot has that space. It’s obviously not good flatground, but it’s got enough space for people to warm up. I have to credit those guys – we would have never ventured into those neighborhoods if it hadn’t been for them showing us the way. I think the playground had a bunch of rubber glued to it and they had to scrape a lot of that out. I have to credit those guys for making the spot skateable.

In terms of the neighborhood, Baltimore is just a cutty city. In some of the research I did on the neighborhood, I want to say the median [household] income was like $29,000. 65, 66% of people have no access to a car — just a really tough place to try and make it.

What was the first clip you ever saw from there?

Gary: I think it was the stuff we filmed. I did a nollie heelflip out of the ditch into the little bank and then I did a smith stall on the bank-to-wall. That was when we had to put a sign down to get over the grass of the bank. Then more and more people started coming – not from out of town, but like, Zach Lyons started skating there, [Zach] Dykes started skating there.

Chris: My buddy Rob that I was talking about – he was making a video called Barefoot in Baltimore. It was Zach Dykes: he does a front big spin on the dish, and there’s a couple other tricks in there, too.

Jake: Maybe Jason Spivey wallie to front blunt in Belly of the Beast.

Smalls: It could have been one of those guys I was mentioning, like Teta or Dykes. Gary Smith was a pretty early one to skate there, so it could have been him as well. I feel like once the first clip came out, it was a free-for-all because there’s so many different ways to hit the spot. In my experience, the [local] people were always really cool about people skating there. Now, I have heard about people getting robbed in the past few years, but I think that could happen at any spot. I know that happened at Lockwood, and the skaters have robbed each other at Pulaski, so that shit happens no matter where you are.

“In terms of the bank, that whole dish piece is pretty damn good for something that wasn’t meant to be skated.”

What’s it like actually skating it?

Gary: Oh, it’s hard. It’s uphill. If you go toward the main cylinder bank from the flat, it’s all uphill that way. It had to be rub-bricked and everything else. I remember I fell trying to tailslide something and ripped the whole arm open from my wrist to my elbow.

Remember when Gilbert Crockett rode for Alien? He came from the houses that were all abandoned, through the sidewalk, through the open the fence, and kickflipped from bank to bank, which is fucking bananas — all uphill. To do tricks on the dish – I’m goofy footed, so it’s backside for me, frontside for regular – it’s basically run and drop your board. And then the bottom of it is all fucked up. They bondo’d over it, but it’s fucked.

Chris: It’s crusty. Down by the bank-to-ledge, it used to be this rubbery ground. To my knowledge, it was a playground and the top of the dish was a fountain – you can clearly see that. You think it’s all concrete if you don’t know. I’ve seen people just get worked on [the rubber.] If you go there with a new board, don’t be bummed if it’s trashed after that session, but it’s such a sick spot that it’s worth ruining your board over.

Jake: It’s not that easy. It seems rare that you have a spot that has so many embankments and unique shit that’s actually in a public space that you don’t get kicked out of.

Smalls: The ground is your typical crust. If you’re skating in Baltimore, that’s not going to be surprising. I would say trying to grind the actual ledge is a real challenge because of the material — and it’s really, really waxed. In terms of the bank, that whole dish piece is pretty damn good for something that wasn’t meant to be skated.

Who do you think has the best footage and or photos there?

Chris: Zered Bassett did that crazy-ass switch bluntslide, switch frontside flip all the way around the dish – that was probably the craziest trick I’ve seen there. Lurker Lou did switch backside flip 5-0 on the dish. Jake Baldini did a bunch of stuff there. Austin Kanfoush did a really sick trick: he ollied off this ledge and then crooked this really tall part of the bank ledge to fakie.

Oh, actually, my favorite trick there ever: Brian Tucci skated the bank the wall, and he rode up the bank-to-wall like it was a quarter pipe and did nollie back disaster on it and rode fully back in four wheels down. Up and in like it was a quarterpipe. That was insane; that dude’s a legend.

Jake: The wallie front blunt comes to mind: Spivey. Zach Dykes, Chris Teta, and their whole crew.

Smalls: Teta’s my homie, so I have some bias there. But I feel like, in terms of over time, he puts out at least one new clip there every year. Teta’s definitely got some longevity there. I think Gary [Smith]’s definitely in that conversation as well. Jake Baldini did a whole little part there, that was really cool. I like some of the shit [Brian] Tucci’s done there a lot, although I haven’t really seen anything from him from there in a while.

Did the spot or the neighborhood change over time as skateboarding grew and the sight of skateboarders there became more common?

Gary: Absolutely. There’s another lady that’s in charge now — her and her brother. She got really pissed off at skateboarders, because they’d go there with large groups of people; there’s shit for everyone to skate, so you could spend the day and not get kicked out. But she started getting really pissed off about the trash.

So I’d try to talk to everyone. I think I even posted something years ago, like “Hey, make sure you clean your trash,” but she’s had enough.

I’m not gonna call out anyone’s names, but I took some team there – I don’t remember, it was a bunch of dudes. And the lady came over and she’s like, “Hey, make sure you take your trash. We skated, motherfuckers left their trash and I had to pick it all up. And I’m like, “Dude, she just told you guys about your fuckin’ trash.” You know, like out of sight out of mind. They forgot. People still skate there, but she’s had enough. I don’t know her name or anything, but she’s over it.

“We always try to spread skating in the neighborhood; whenever little kids would come around, we’d always be handing out Skate Jawns or boards.”

Chris: The place had always been really great up until a couple years ago when a lady moved into the neighborhood, and she’s not too stoked on skating. But before that lady was there, everyone was always cool. I remember, when COVID happened, she tried to say that you couldn’t skate there because of COVID. She also tried to say that she bought the place and you need a permit to skate here.

With the evolution of skating’s popularity, any team that comes to town is going there. So there might have been a time where only people that lived in Baltimore were skating there, but now anyone that comes to Baltimore is gonna go there. I’ve shown up and there have been out-of-towners there, which for Baltimore is kind of crazy. It’s not a scene where you’re just gonna run into other crews of people from out-of-town at spots.

Jake: We always try to spread skating in the neighborhood; whenever little kids would come around, we’d always be handing out Skate Jawns or boards. We had a barbecue there where we handed out a bunch of boards. The neighborhood was supportive for the most part – cool with us trying to spread that in their neighborhood.

Smalls: It never really got blown out. I’ve never been at a spot in Baltimore where it’s mobbed out, because I think a lot of people are really intimidated to go into those neighborhoods. If I didn’t live in Philly for a few years, I probably wouldn’t care so little about it, but a lot of times, people are really stoked on skating – just people coming into a neighborhood and doing something positive. Letting kids use the board and borrow the camera.

Gary: The neighborhood [has] changed a lot now that John Hopkins Hospital is buying up that area. I would imagine it’ll be gone in the next ten years, five years.

“I always want to get there for as long as as it exists, because you never know. Spots these days.”

You said you’ve done some research on the spot on your own. Can you tell us about that?

Smalls: It’s a really odd design for a playground and there’s a weird, small road that it’s right off of, so there are a lot of weird things about it that made me wonder what was there in the past. Obviously, it’s a lot of harsh concrete, so it’s hard to imagine how kids could have played on that. Unfortunately, a lot of the research I did was threads that I was pulling at, but not a lot to show for it.

Most people going to skate the spot will park on Bond Street and walk down that little short paved path to the spot. But the path is technically a narrow road, and it’s called Faith Lane, and I found a bunch of maps going back over 100 years. There were all these row houses that were built along Faith Lane where the playground is now, facing northwest. The earliest map that I found was 1921; there were probably like 20 row houses there. Those were there until like 1970. I couldn’t really figure out why, but the city bought out all the people that live there, and then tore down all the houses.

1972 Aerial Shot

By 2002, there’s the old playground there; that’s the same year that The Wire started. I hit up a bunch of different departments at the city: Planning and Housing got back to me, but the Recreation and Parks department didn’t. That’s what I was really most interested in seeing – like a picture from a ribbon cutting or something like that from when the playground was actually there, and I haven’t really been able to find out anything else.

Obviously it’s Marlo’s hangout on The Wire, so I decided to hit up somebody involved with the location scouting. IMDb is such a great resource –they have a list of 18 different location scouts that worked on the show. I found contact info for maybe six of them. I hit all of them up, and only one guy got back to me. After the first email, he ghosted me.

Do any other stories particularly stick out?

Gary: Around eight years ago, because of that guy Kevin, we started doing stuff with the community. I did a school drive and we gave out these Wire t-shirts that I made – my buddy David Stupp shot the photo. They had a bounce house, and we gave out school supplies.

So we did another drive where we gave out used completes. We were going to barbecue and have everyone show up. We got there early to set up and it was me, Zach Lyons, Sam Schumann, Zach Dykes, and we’re all sitting on the dish. Zach Dykes goes to get a cooler out of the car, and I never had any problem for like 10 years, right? So this dude walks up, puts a gun to us, and he’s like, “I don’t want your cards. I don’t want your wallets. I don’t want your phones. I want cash. I want it now.” I think Zach Lyons had a $20 bill on him, gave him that, and there was a dude skating flatground. So he robs us, and then he robs the dude skating flat who didn’t even notice this happened. What’s funny is Zach Dykes comes back from the car with the cooler and doesn’t even know what happened. He’s like, “Oh, hey I got the cooler,” and we’re all, “Dude, we got fucking robbed at gunpoint.” One dude with a little .22. Then we had to stay, do the event and give out completes.

Honestly, I got two kids now, a wife – I stopped street skating. I’ll just skate parks. It’s not even worth it.

Jake: One time we were skating there – it was just me and Dykes. It was around dusk and we were filming. We were down in the bottom area and I had my camera bag sitting on a table up at the top. It got dark while we were skating, and I had a candy bar back in my camera bag. When we got back up there, it was completely dark so I couldn’t see anything. I just threw my jacket on, put these gloves on, and went to throw my bag on my back and I saw a bug crawling on it. I was like, “What the fuck is that?”

I like looked down and I was surrounded by cockroaches. They were all over my jacket, all over my bag, all over everything. I was tweaking.

Vu Skateshop Friends & Family over the years. Filmed by Bobby Spero, Kim Scott & Smalls.

Are you trying to go back anytime soon?

Gary: Nah, probably not. I’m getting older and probably getting worse at skateboarding. You get spoiled after skating nothing but polished concrete skateparks, then you go there and it’s the worst fucking ground. It might not be as bad now because the neighborhood cleans it up, but at the bottom where the bank is, there were always a bunch of leaves, and it’d be heroin needles in the leaves. They had to bring a broom and make sure you cleaned all that shit up.

Chris: I always want to get there for as long as as it exists, because you never know. Spots these days.

Smalls: Oh, absolutely. I know a lot of the people that I skate with are pretty sick of skating there, but anytime I have friends come from out of town, I’ll be like “Let’s do a day in Baltimore,” and they always want to skate that spot. It’s got something for everybody.

I did a quick little Google search and actually found that they’ve removed more of the houses that face Chase Street, which is the spot, and they’re converting portions of the property back into a park. And it sounds like it’s a phased thing. I honestly don’t know what’s gonna happen to the spot. I was reading and they were like: “Yeah, technically, this is a park. We just haven’t done shit about it in 50 years.”

Thanks to Chris, Jake, Smalls and Gary + the Vu Skateshop family (Bobby Spero + Kim Scott for the footy) for helping this thing come to fruition. Thanks to Larry Warnken for the feature idea. Thanks to Gabe Tennen for helping on Wire intel. If you go to the spot, clean up your trash.