Tour hours expanding for historic Phoenix Shot Tower: Preservationists and city hope to restore, draw visitors to structure built in 1828, Alison Knezevich, The Baltimore Sun, April 18, 2014.

In one of the city’s first historic preservation battles, Baltimore residents paid $17,000 in 1924 to save the soaring Phoenix Shot Tower from a wrecking ball and a future as a Union Oil Company gas station.

Today, preservationists are again rallying around the Shot Tower. While it is no longer in danger — the city has abandoned a 2012 proposal to consider selling more than a dozen historic properties, including the tower — they say more needs to be done to showcase the attraction and to fully restore what was once the nation’s tallest building.

The nonprofit Carroll Museums, which manages the Shot Tower and the nearby historic Carroll Mansion, plans to open the tower for drop-in visitors next month. And starting Sunday, the nonprofit Baltimore Heritage is adding a tour of the historic Jonestown neighborhood that includes the Shot Tower.