Station North is Baltimore's designated arts district, centred on the area around North Charles Street and North Avenue. The neighbourhood takes its name from the Pennsylvania Station train terminus at its south end, and it has developed over the past two decades into a genuine creative district with galleries, studios, independent restaurants, music venues, and the kind of independent bookshops and coffee bars that appear wherever artists settle.
The Copycat Building, a former mattress factory, is home to dozens of artist studios. The Charles Theatre shows independent and foreign films. The area around Maryland Institute College of Art and the Ottobar music venue has the highest concentration of arts-related businesses. Station North is best explored on foot, and best on evenings when the galleries and venues are active.