Preserving and promoting Baltimore's historic buildings and neighborhoods.
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.
We hope you can join us on January 26 at Hampton Mansion. In 1948, the federal government designated this eighteenth century manor a National Historic Site and, in 2017, the building remains one of the highest regarded examples of Georgian architecture in the country. We are thrilled that Ms. Gregory Weidman, the mansion’s head curator, is leading our tour.
Are you interested in our Lexington Market and catacombs tours but frustrated that you have been stuck on a waitlist? Our tour coordinator Marsha Wise is working with the market management to schedule monthly Saturday morning tours into the spring. Look out for an announcement when registration opens!
Finally, we could not be more pleased to share the news that one of our longest running preservation priorities, Baltimore’s Hebrew Orphan Asylum, took a big step towards a better future. The Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development recently awarded the Coppin Heights Community Development Corporation a grant to purchase the building from the University of Maryland University System. We plan to keep you updated as we continue to work to restore this fantastic building as an asset to the Greater Rosemont community.
Happy New Year! We are ready to ring in 2017 with some great new Baltimore Behind the Scenes tours.
On Tuesday, January 10, we’ll go backstage at the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall to learn about acoustical design, music legends, and the history of the Symphony Hall and the Meyerhoff family. On our tour, we will walk the stage and explore the basement, music library, and the area where the musicians hang out before the show.
On Saturday, February 4, we’re visiting the 150-year-old Manger Packing Corporation in southwest Baltimore to learn about the tradition of sausage making and Baltimore’s German heritage from Alvin Manger, great-grandson of the company’s founder and current patriarch of the Manger family’s business.
Finally, please join our statewide partner Preservation Maryland on Wednesday, January 4 for a town hall meeting to learn about how you can advocate for preservation during this year’s Maryland Legislative session. The meeting is at Union Mill (1500 Union Avenue) at 6:30 pm. Registration is not required!
I hope your new year is starting off well and I hope you can join us for these and other tours in the year ahead.
The final hours of 2016 are disappearing quickly but it is not too late to support Baltimore Heritage before the new year begins!
For a small nonprofit like Baltimore Heritage, every gift matters. If you donate five dollars or five hundred dollars, your support goes directly to helping preserve Baltimore’s historic places and revitalize our neighborhoods. Member giving in 2016 helped us:
Teach a free four-week class on research and writing to aspiring local historians
Fight for the development of the long-neglected Sellers Mansion and Hebrew Orphan Asylum
Thank you again to all of the people who volunteer their time and support Baltimore Heritage through membership and donations. Please become a member or make a donation of any amount. Together, we’re making a difference. Happy New Year!
Every year we say thank you to everyone who has volunteered their time with us, supported us as a member, and rolled up their sleeves while working to improve Baltimore and our historic neighborhoods. We rely on people like you for your support and we are grateful for every dollar you can give. Please consider making a donation today.
Thinking back on the changes and challenges of the past year, we believe 2016 showed us that preserving historic places and teaching local history is more critical than ever. We need to do more in the year ahead.
We need to preserve diverse historic places that tell all of Baltimore’s story.
Photograph by Eli Pousson, 2016 April 6.
Late last year we lost Freedom House, a former center of Civil Rights activism in Upton’s Marble Hill. In April, Public School 103, Thurgood Marshall’s own elementary school, suffered a devastating fire. When we lose buildings like these, we lose places that teach us about past efforts to redress inequality. Our losses have spurred us to redouble our efforts to protect our city’s Civil Rights history through our ongoing Landmarks from the Movement project.
We need to share more stories of struggle and success from past generations that help us overcome our challenges today.
Mount Vernon Pride walking tour on Charles Street. Photograph by Nicole Stanovsky, 2015 May 31.
With generous help from our volunteers, we are proud to have hosted fifty-six tours of twenty-nine unique historic places in 2016. We explored everything from the catacombs under Lexington Market to Baltimore’s brewing heritage. In the year ahead we plan to showcase our city’s immigrant experience through places like the Immigrant House in Locust Point and the courageous legacy of activism found in Mount Vernon’s LGBTQ landmarks. We seek to share the stories of the many people and places that shape our communities and our city.
We need to concentrate our preservation efforts even more in Baltimore’s most disinvested historic communities as they work to revitalize.
554-572 Presstman Street. Photo courtesy DHCD.
In January, the city and state launched Project CORE: a multi-year program to demolish vacant rowhouses and fund new investments in neglected buildings. Since the program began, we’ve sought to steer demolition away from the most important historic places and advocating for reinvestment where it can do the most good for historic neighborhoods that need it. In the year ahead, we are expanding our work in West Baltimore neighborhoods like Harlem Park and Greater Rosemont. We support and celebrate the people who are building on Baltimore’s heritage to lift up their communities.
If you have not already donated this year, please renew your membership or become a member for the first time. By supporting our work today, you can help us grab the opportunities and face the challenges that lie ahead for Baltimore’s historic landmarks and neighborhoods. Membership is still just $35 for you or $50 for your household and it only takes a few minutes to donate online.
We hope you have a happy and peaceful holiday season!
As we enter into the 2016 holiday season in earnest, we hope you can squeeze in one last heritage tour with us into your December: a peek inside the U.S. Custom House on Lombard Street. On Dec. 28, we’ll tour this fantastic building with its Beaux Arts architecture, fabulous call room, and elaborate nautical murals by noted artist Francis David Millet.
If you are looking for more ways to celebrate the holidays with historic sites in Baltimore, don’t miss the 31st Annual Union Square Christmas Cookie Tour on December 11 and the Snowflake Tour of Charles Village Homes on December 18. Each of these tours gives you the chance to get to know a historic Baltimore neighborhood while enjoying sweet treats!
We’ll take up our 2017 heritage tour season in January. Stay tuned and have a happy holiday.
