The holiday season is upon us and we want to spend it with you! Please check out our upcoming heritage tours to get to know even more about Baltimore’s history this winter season. We hope to see you this month!
When a tremendous Gilded Age mansion gets fully-adorned with holiday decorations, there’s a lot to see. On Tuesday, December 5, please join us for a special winter tour of the Evergreen Museum and Library, which holds 48 rooms, a soaring portico, a Tiffany designed glass canopy, and loads holiday decorations. Register here!
On Tuesday, December 19, join Baltimore Heritage at the Baltimore Immigration Museum to hear the stories of the various ethnic groups, including Germans, Irish, Jews, Poles, Lithuanians, Czechs, Italians, and Greeks, who started their American journey in Baltimore between 1830 and 1914. Register here!
On Wednesday, December 27, join us for a behind-the-scenes tour of the Bromo Seltzer Tower! Completed in 1911, the tower’s four clocks each measure 24 feet across, a foot more London’s Big Ben, and the tower itself was the tallest building in Baltimore at the time. Our tour through the building will include a trip up into the clockworks at the top to look at the tick-tock operation in process and peer out the translucent windows. Register here!
Finally, with Thanksgiving just behind us, we at Baltimore Heritage have a lot to be thankful for, starting with the kind volunteers who lead our tours, research and write about historic places for Explore Baltimore Heritage, join us in fighting for threatened historic landmarks, and so much more. You make our work possible. Thank you all!
— Johns Hopkins, Executive Director
PS: It’s the time of year when we both give thanks and look forward to the year ahead. It is also the time of year when we ask you to join or renew your membership support for Baltimore Heritage. Your gift makes our work possible.
My name is Lesley Humphreys and I am the current President of the Board of Baltimore Heritage. 2023 marks the 20th anniversary of Johns Hopkins joining us as Executive Director. As a way of saying thanks for all he has done for our organization, for our members, and for Baltimore, we put together a short two-minute video.
We at Baltimore Heritage are also honoring Johns’ anniversary (and hopefully many years ahead!) by raising funds to support our current work and to secure our future. We hope you will consider making a contribution today. You can donate online, call us at 410-332-9992, or send a donation through the mail (100 N. Charles St, Suite P101, Baltimore, MD 21201).
We can’t thank Johns enough for his thoughtful and steadfast tenure as the Executive Director of Baltimore Heritage. And on behalf of Baltimore Heritage’s board of directors, I also can’t thank you enough for your commitment and support.
Last night, Baltimore Heritage had its annual Preservation Celebration! We handed out 13 awards to groups and individuals doing fabulous work celebrating and preserving our city’s history and buildings. We gave out 6 micro-grants to 6 very worthy community projects. We conducted our organization’s annual meeting and welcomed a few new board members. And we said a big thank you to our wonderful volunteers. They make historic preservation possible in Baltimore. All the while, we ate delicious food from Pitamore and drank wine from Spirits of Mt. Vernon! Thank you to everyone attended.
Award Winners
Volunteer of the Year: Pat Hawthorne For years of dedication to Baltimore’s historic places
Afro Charities For 60 years of preserving the Afro American Newspaper’s history
Raymond Bahr For bringing the history of Canton to light
BGE Gas Regulator Fighters For fighting for Baltimore’s historic neighborhoods
Siobhan Hagan and SHAN Wallace For bringing Baltimore’s historic moving images and home movies to light
Friends of Herring Run Park For creating the Heritage Trail at Herring Run Park
The Authors and Editors of A Place for Memory For a new book on Laurel Cemetery
Maryland Women’s Heritage Center For promoting the history of the Women’s Suffrage Movement
E. Evans Paull For the book Stop the Road: Stories from the Trenches of Baltimore’s Road Wars
The Friends of the Ship Caulkers’ Houses For the stabilization and exterior restoration of 612-614 S. Wolfe Street
Cory Ann Adcock-Camp For the reclamation and restoration of 1810 Barclay Street
Latrobe Building / Ulysses Hotel For restoration of the historic Latrobe Building into the Ulysses Hotel
Lexington Market For conserving public market heritage in the new Lexington Market
Pitch Party Winners
$1000: St. Luke’s Youth Center
$1000: Govans Presbyterian Church Racial Justice Ministry
The evening of October 5, join the Baltimore Architecture Foundation and Baltimore Heritage for the Doors Open Baltimore 10th Anniversary kick-off with guest Jessica Henkin, Co-Founder, Producer, and Host of “Stoop Story Telling.” The Stoop’s motto is “Everyone has a story. What’s yours?”
The Baltimore Architecture Foundation believes that, not only does everyone have a story, but every building has a story too and that, by opening doors and connecting people, we can inspire creativity, foster inclusivity, and contribute to the continued growth and success of Baltimore’s artistic and cultural landscape.
Doors Open Baltimore is an annual event that celebrates Baltimore’s diverse cultural tapestry by highlighting its vibrant neighborhoods, captivating architecture, and distinctive spaces, both grand and intimate, that contribute to the city’s exceptional charm. In this 10th anniversary year, Doors Open Baltimore invites you to be a tourist in your own backyard, exploring new areas, meeting different people, and finding out what goes on inside some of Baltimore’s most interesting buildings.
About the Speaker
Jessica Henkin co-created the Stoop Storytelling Series with her friend Laura Wexler in 2006. The Stoop is a Baltimore-based live show and podcast that has featured the tales of more than 3000 people onstage. It’s featured weekly on WYPR, 88.1.
She is a first-generation college student and has a Masters in Education from Johns Hopkins University, allowing for a robust career in special education that has ultimately allowed her to become the Coordinator for Baltimore City Public School’s Office of Early Learning Program.
Jessica moved to Baltimore in 2004 and became a founding member of the Baltimore Improv Group. She’s passionate about her family (husband Aaron Henkin and children Charlie and Abby), special education, Baltimore City, storytelling, keeping her house clean, rescuing strays (both animal and human), and finding most things funny.
Lecture Schedule:
Doors Open at 5:30pm, Wheeler Auditorium – Enoch Pratt Free Library – Central Library – 400 Cathedral Street, Baltimore, MD, 21201
6:00, Guest speaker, Jessica Henkin
7:30pm, Reception at Pratt Hall, First Unitarian Church, 12 W. Franklin Street