Author: Johns

Johns Hopkins has been the executive director of Baltimore Heritage since 2003. Before that, Johns worked for the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development developing and implementing smart growth and neighborhood revitalization programs. Johns holds degrees from Yale University, George Washington University Law School, and the University of Michigan’s School of Natural Resources and Environment.

Join us on June 15 at Lexington Market for Preservation Awards, market tours, and great food!

If you haven’t already bought your tickets, you still have time to join us on the evening of Thursday, June 15 for our 2017 Awards Celebration. Lexington Market is kindly hosting us for an evening that includes tours of the “catacombs” under the west market, delicious food from Faidley’s, Mary Mervis and more market favorites, and a celebration of the best historic preservation work of the year. We are especially excited to congratulate this year’s award winners. The array of diverse and exceptional award-winning projects includes the rehabilitation of alley houses in East Baltimore, the Herring Run Archaeology project, and the meticulous restoration of grand rowhouses in Bolton Hill. We’ll have parking available in the surface lot next to the market, and with Light Rail and Metro Subway stops close by, there is every reason to get yourself to Lexington Market on June 15!

As we round out the month of June, we also hope you can join us on an upcoming tour. We have three Monumental City Tours on Sundays: June 11 is Downtown Landmarks and Lions; June 18 is Mount Vernon Place and the Washington Monument; and June 25 is Patterson Park Observatory and the Battle of Baltimore. On Saturday, June 24, we are exploring LGBTQ heritage with Charles Village Pride: LGBT Heritage Walking Tour. And finally, on June 25, we have our final bike tour of the spring: The Enduring Value of Baltimore’s Historic Parks: A Tour by Bike. We’ll see you outdoors in June!

New tours of immigration, Cylburn Mansion, and Baltimore desserts

We hope you can join us over the next several weeks on tours by bike and on foot as we explore immigration into Baltimore, look inside one of the city’s great historic gems at Cylburn Mansion, and eat our way across East Baltimore. You can also check out two great events from our partners this evening: the centennial celebration of the Lafayette Monument at Mount Vernon Place and the Preservation Society’s Annual Reception in Fell’s Point.

On May 21, our Florence Meets Baltimore by Bike: Gelato and Ice Cream bike tour returns with a unique comparison of two great cities in architecture and frozen treats. We’re offering a second bike tour, Food From Home: Immigration, Bakeries, and Delis by Bike on June 10, to discuss immigration past and present, meet the owners from Attman’s Deli, DiPasquales, and Hoehn’s Bakery, and sample their delicious food!

On our Natural and Architectural Beauty at Cylburn Mansion and Arboretum tour on May 23, we’ll take a stroll around the grounds of Cylburn Arboretum and look inside the Tyson family’s historic mansion. And finally, on June 4, we’re pleased to host a tour with Jewish historian Deborah Weiner: Exploring Jewish Immigration: A Walking Tour in Bolton Hill and Reservoir Hill where we’ll highlight some of the Jewish immigrants, their homes, and synagogues, who played leading roles in Baltimore’s development.

Celebrating the year’s best preservation work at World Famous Lexington Market

What better place to celebrate outstanding historic preservation work in Baltimore over the past year than at Lexington Market? We hope you agree and can join us on Thursday, June 15 for our 2017 Preservation Awards Celebration. All the food for our celebration comes from market vendors: Faidley’s Seafood, Mary Mervis, Berger’s and more market favorites. The evening features this year’s preservation award-winners. The recipients range from people who rehabbed humble rowhouses to those who restored the expansive warehouse spaces such as Open Works and the Lion Brothers Building.

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Works of Art in the Past and the Artists Who Make Them Today

On two new tours this spring we are celebrating great art from Baltimore’s past and meeting the people who are making and teaching art in Baltimore’s present. On April 27, please join us on a visit to one of the grandest art collections in the city on our tour: Travel to the Gilded Age at Evergreen House. Evergreen House, once the home of Ambassador T. Harrison Garrett and his artist wife Alice Garrett, is a splendid building filled with the Garrett family’s art collection (including paintings by Degas and Picasso and one of the world’s largest collections of Tiffany glass).

On May 11, our tour of the Schuler School of Fine Arts is a chance to learn about a school that carries on the work of master Baltimore sculptor Hans Schuler. From Samuel Smith at the top of Federal Hill to Martin Luther near Lake Montebello, Schuler’s figurative monuments and sculptures adorn the city. Today, students learn the techniques of the Old World masters in the house and studio that has been part the Schuler family story for over a century. On our tour with the Schuler relatives and art instructors, we’ll see finished work by Schuler and works-in-progress by current students at the school.

Finally, we hope you can join us and our partners with the Herring Run Archaeology Project at our 2017 open house this Saturday, April 29. Project archaeologists Jason Shellenhamer and Lisa Kraus along with a great group of local volunteers are looking forward to sharing the story of the Eutaw manor house and the archaeology of the park with visitors from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm.

Get outside this spring with our Monumental City tours and more

Spring is here and I know you are all eager to get outside! The arrival of spring is a sign that we’re kicking off our 2017 Monumental City Tours with a climb up to the top the Patterson Park Observatory on April 23. In May, we return to the Baltimore Farmers’ Market & Bazaar where we offer tours of Jonestown and downtown landmarks on the first and second Sunday of the month through November.

This month, you can also join our Mount Vernon Pride tour of LGBTQ heritage from the original building of the Chase Brexton Health Center to the locations where early twentieth-century lesbian women helped shape some of Baltimore’s premier educational institutions. We’ll continue to explore downtown with Theatrical Baltimore: a walking tour with theater historian Bob Headley. Spend a morning learning about our city’s rich performing arts history, from vaudeville venues to historic movie houses.

If two wheels are your thing, we’re hosting our first spring bike tour on May 21: Florence Meets Baltimore By Bike: Gelato and Ice Cream. If you promised your sweetheart a trip to Florence but just can’t make it work, do the next best thing by joining our tour. You’ll learn why Baltimore is way more important than Florence in the history of frozen desserts.

Finally, don’t miss two upcoming events from our partners: tomorrow’s Opening Day for Trails and next weekend’s Everyday Utopias public art installation at Pool No. 2 in Druid Hill Park. Pool No. 2 (1921-1956) operated as a segregated pool in the historically black section of Baltimore’s Druid Hill Park. Everyday Utopias invites viewers to consider the promise of both real and imagined aspects of civic participation as they navigate their way through physical structures and spiritual spaces of the pool’s remains. Sheena M. Morrison, MFA Candidate in MICA’s Curatorial Practice Program, brings together eleven contemporary artists who respond to the palpable history of Pool No. 2 with imaginative wit, humor, and compassion. Please join Ms. Morrison on for the opening reception on Saturday, April 15, 4:00 pm to 8:30 pm.