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.

Archeology, Wikipedia and the 150th Anniversary of Emancipation? Our fun mix of fall events

We have a really exciting mix of programs coming up on Saturday and over the next couple weeks! This Saturday, you could spend the day improving Wikipedia’s coverage of local history and meeting Dr. John Bedell (the lead archeologist for our We Dig Hampstead Hill investigation in Patterson Park). Next week, you can find us celebrating with the Commission for Historical and Architectural Preservation at City Hall—a key partner in saving places that turns 50 years old this year. Finally, in early November, we are remembering the 150th anniversary of Emancipation in Maryland with a walking tour on the history of slavery and emancipation around Mount Vernon Place.

Special thanks to all of our members who have renewed their support for Baltimore Heritage over the last few weeks. Renewing your support is critical in helping us continue to offer tours and educational programs. Your support also helps us to save historic places like the Hebrew Orphan Asylum, which is celebrating new plans for a $12.4 million rehabilitation, and assist partners like the brand-new G. Krug & Sons Museum. Please join Baltimore Heritage or renew your membership today!

Coppin Heights CDC buys the Hebrew Orphan Asylum for a planned $12.4 million rehabilitation

Over the last several weeks, the effort to restore Baltimore’s Hebrew Orphan Asylum took a big step forward when Coppin State University, which purchased the building in 2003, and the University of Maryland agreed to sell the property to the Coppin Heights Community Development Corporation.

For nearly five years, the Coppin Heights CDC and Baltimore Heritage have led a tireless effort to rehabilitate and reuse the Hebrew Orphan Asylum. As the Baltimore Sun reported last month, the CDC is planning $12.4 million rehabilitation and to open the building in December 2015. The CDC’s architect, Kann Partners, recently completed detailed construction plans and is working with engineers and contractors to hammer out the details.

As soon as this transfer is complete, the Coppin Heights CDC is prepared to begin rehabilitation work transforming the building into the new Center for Healthcare and Healthy Living with Total Health Care Inc. as the building’s new tenant. Total Health Care currently operates eight clinics in West Baltimore and will use the entire building for a clinic, physician offices and a pharmacy. Community residents and anyone interested in the future of this West Baltimore landmark are encouraged to attend the “Prelude to Victory” meeting next week to discuss the next steps on the project. Although we are not opening the champagne bottles yet, the future for Baltimore’s Hebrew Orphan Asylum looks brighter than ever.

Rendering of proposed reuse of Hebrew Orphan Asylum, August 2011
Rendering of proposed reuse of Hebrew Orphan Asylum, August 2011

Two Baltimore walking tours with two local authors in Mount Vernon Place and Catonsville

On our busy schedule of programs this fall, we’re pleased to have two great authors leading two heritage walking tours.  Ms. Cindy Kelly, author of Outdoor Sculpture in Baltimore: A Historical Guide to Public Art in the Monumental City, is leading a tour of public sculpture on Mount Vernon Place this Saturday! If you’ve been on one of CIndy Kelly’s other tours with us, you know she makes Baltimore come alive through the artwork and stories they tell.

Early next month, we have another author-led tour: a walking tour of historic Catonsville led by our own Marsha Wise, the author of not one, but two pictorial history books on this historic community. As always, we walk rain or shine. Please come along!

World War One Centenary Tours of Zion Lutheran on September 22 and the War Memorial on October 8

We had a great time in Patterson Park this weekend as we helped to celebrate the Bicentennial of the Battle of Baltimore and shared information and artifacts from this spring’s archeological dig in Patterson Park. Over the next few weeks, we are exploring the history of the First World War with downtown Behind the Scenes tours at Zion Lutheran Church and the War Memorial Building.

We’re also excited to share that Cindy Kelly – one of our favorite tour guides and an expert on the history of Baltimore’s public art – is leading our next Mount Vernon Place tour in October and we’re partnering with AIABaltimore to organize a tour of the recently rehabilitated Chesapeake Shakespeare Theater. And don’t forget about Hampdenfest this weekend! Our friends from the Greater Hampden Heritage Alliance will be unveiling their brand-new self-guided tour brochure of Hampden landmarks.

Mount Vernon Place tomorrow! And new tours of Lutheran Zion Church and Downtown Baltimore

Although the Farmer’s Almanac says that we have three more weeks of summer, we’re ready for fall with an exciting line-up of heritage tours and events in the month ahead. We hope you can join us for tomorrow’s tour at Mount Vernon Place, our Patterson Park-sized “huzzah!” for the Bicentennial of the War of 1812 at the Hampstead Hill Festival, and a new tour at Zion Church reflecting on the crossroads of German and American heritage on the 100th Anniversary of WWI.

Don’t forget to catch up on our recent posts about the history of development in Guilford from Tom Hobbs along with a few photos from recent heritage programs in Hampden and Northeast Baltimore. We hope you can come out for a tour soon!