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.

Congratulations to Baltimore’s 2013 Historic Preservation Award Winners!

Thank you to everyone who joined us last month for our 2013 Preservation Awards Celebration at Mill No. 1. We owe a special thanks to our event sponsor PNC Bank and to our host Terra Nova Ventures whose tremendous rehabilitation of the historic Mt. Vernon Mill Company No. 1 was a highlight of the evening.

1009297_10152946930315650_197939040_oEvery year we have the pleasure of honoring a host of projects and individuals for a diverse range of exceptional restorations, thoughtful adaptive reuse projects, and leadership within Baltimore’s preservation community. This year was no different, as we recognized the meticulous restoration of the Basilica of the Assumption, the inspiring rehabilitation of the former David Bachrach House in Reservoir Hill, and the adaptive reuse of the historic Morgan Millwork Company as the MICA Graduate Studio Center. We were especially glad to present Ms. Kathleen Kotarba with the Douglas H. Gordon Award for Lifetime Achievement for over 30 years of service to historic preservation through her work with the Baltimore Commission for Historical and Architectural Preservation and well beyond.

If you couldn’t join us last month you can find a gallery of photos from the event on Flickr or on our Facebook page. Read on for the full list of award winners and join us in celebrating the businesses and individuals who have contributed to these important accomplishments in historic preservation. Stay tuned for more updates over the summer profiling each award-winning project!

Restoration and Rehabilitation Award

Basilica of the National Shine of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary
Archdiocese of Baltimore, Cho Benn Holback + Associates, Lewis Contractors, Keast & Hood Company, Alan Gilbert Photography

1515 Eastern Avenue
Baltimore Home Rentals, David H. Gleason Associates, Inc.

106 South Gilmore Street
Urban Design

1711 Guilford Avenue
Mr. Umar Moulta-Ali

The Linden House
The Women’s Housing Coalition, Episcopal Housing Corp., K. Lechleiter Architects, Southway Builders, Peristyle LLC, Clifton Company LLC, T&D Plumbing and Heating Co., A-L Abatement, Inc., C.L. McCoy Framing Co., John H. Myer & Son, Inc., Western Cary Building Products, Tri-County Roofing and Sheet Metal, Inc., Chesapeake Siding Contractors, Inc., Walbrook Mill and Lumber, Zeskind’s Hardware and Millwork, Shenandoah Sash and Door, Inc., Carpentry & Hardware Services, Inc., Novo Construction, Healthy Neighborhoods

400 Block of East Oliver Street
TRF Development Partners, O’Connell and Associates

St. Mary’s Chapel at Paca Street
Associated Sulpicians of the United States, Kann Partners, Lewis Contractors, Thomas Moore Studios, Giorgini Construction

Adaptive Reuse and Compatible Design Award

Everyman Theater
Everyman Theater, Cho Benn Holback + Associates, Lewis Contractors, Theatre Projects Consultants, James Posey Associates, Inc., Keast & Hood Company, Gower Thompson, Shen Milsom Wilke, Inc., Dunlop Lighting Design, Alan Gilbert Photography

MICA Graduate Studio Center
Maryland Institute College of Art, Cho Benn Holback + Associates, Whiting Turner, James Posey Associates, Morabito Consultants, Gower Thompson, Lazarus Design Associates

Heritage Preservation Award

Monsignor Arthur W. Bastress
For the preservation and stewardship of St. Alphonsus Church

Douglas H. Gordon Award

Ms. Kathleen Kotarba
For over thirty years of service and leadership for historic preservation in Baltimore

Mill Cupola-01a

Eat your way through Baltimore’s Old Chinatown

nixon_eating_chinese_food
President Nixon’s historic 1972 visit to China

Behind the Scenes Tour of Old Chinatown
Saturday June 1, 2013 from 4:15 pm to 6:30 pm
RSVP Today!
$45 members / $55 non-members
Includes sampling of international food from several restaurants
Limit of 10 people

Beginning in the 1870s, Chinese settlers started arriving in Baltimore from California and other West Coast states. Most had worked as laborers for the transcontinental railroad that was completed in 1869 and came east looking for jobs and to escape a rising level of persecution. In Baltimore near Lexington Market, the immigrants established places of worship (Joss houses), laundries, gambling houses, and restaurants. The original “Chinatown” was in the 200 block of Marion Street and even included a school for 40 children. Baltimore’s Chinatown was relocated to Park Avenue during an urban renewal effort in the 1950s and achieved its peak in the years preceding President Richard Nixon’s historic visit to China in 1972. Today the area has a number of shops and restaurants featuring international cuisine, including of course Chinese.

Please join us and our guide, Ms. Sharon Reuter, on a walking and eating tour that will follow Baltimore’s Chinese immigrants through historic Chinatown along Park Avenue to the present-day hodgepodge of ethnic eateries. The tour will include sampling dishes from Vietnamese/Thai, Ethiopian, and of course Chinese restaurants. It will also include learning about this once-bustling two-block area in the heart of downtown Baltimore and finding out what happened to the vigorous Chinese community and its many restaurants that once inhabited the area and which newer immigrants have since opened restaurants nearby.

The tour will provide an early dinner with a menu of vegetables, legumes, beef, shrimp, pork and duck dishes, along with water, tea and a bottle of Chinese beer. Vegetarian options, with or without shellfish, are available with advance notice. I hope you can join us! Johns

Tiffany, tile work and more: historic church tour with authors Sally Johnston and Lois Zanow

brown_memorial_stained_glass_windowIn their recent book “Monuments to Heaven,” historians and authors Sally Johnston and Lois Zanow describe the architecture, art and history of many historic houses of worship in Baltimore. Please join us on a tour with Ms. Johnston and Ms. Zanow to learn about the stained glass windows, lovely mosaic tile work, and great history of two of the city’s most impressive churches: Corpus Christi-Jenkins Memorial Church and Brown Memorial Presbyterian Church. The churches are a short walk apart in the Bolton Hill neighborhood.

Behind the Scenes Tour of Corpus Christi and Brown Memorial Churches
Wednesday, May 15, 2013 from 5:30 to 6:30 pm
Meet at Corpus Christi Church: 110 W. Lafayette Ave., Baltimore 21217
RSVP today. $10 members | $20 non-members

Corpus Christi Memorial Church was built in 1891 in memory of Thomas and Louisa Jenkins by their children. Their goal was to build the most exquisite church in Baltimore. Patrick Keeley, the foremost architect of Catholic churches in his day, designed the building. The interior, designed by John Hardman & Company of London, glitters and glows with colorful mosaics accented with gold tessera, stained glass windows and a high vaulted ceiling with clerestory windows. Famous for its large Florentine style mosaics adorning the chancel, Corpus Christi also has smaller mosaic Stations of the Cross as well as a charming mosaic depicting the founding of Maryland. There are four chapels and a baptistery which boast  gold mosaic ceilings, marble walls, statues of saints and stained glass windows.

Just one block from Corpus Christi is Brown Memorial Presbyterian Church, built in memory of George Brown in 1870 by his wife Isabella Brown. The church was designed by Nathaniel Hutton and John Murdoch, and the stunning interior has 17 stained glass windows including 12 Tiffany windows, making it one of the world’s largest and finest collections of stained glass. The two largest windows measure 16″ by 32″ and are the largest windows the Tiffany Studios ever made. The chancel has a five part window in the medieval style by the Wilbur Burnham Studios. Without interior columns, there is an unobstructed view of these glorious windows.

I hope you can join us to learn about these wonderful churches and their artwork.