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 for The Raven Forevermore: A Poe House Fundraiser

Many of you have heard that after many years of stewardship, Baltimore City is no longer providing funds for the operation, programming and upkeep of the Edgar Allan Poe House and Museum. We are pleased to be a partner in one of the creative efforts underway to raise support for this city landmark. Gaia, a MICA-trained and critically acclaimed emerging artist with gallery shows in Chicago, New York and Washington and street art from Madrid to Seoul, has donated 100 limited edition prints of his block print “The Raven (Forevermore), 2011” to help the Poe House.

We are hosting a special reception with the artist at the historic Railway Express building to learn about the Poe House and raise money for its upkeep through the sale of this generously donated artwork. The invitation-only event is free (even the wine and cheese!) and you will have an opportunity to purchase a print before they go on sale to the public. All proceeds from the sale will go directly to the Poe House. Baltimore art collectors Claribel and Etta Cone had to go all the way to Paris to find up and coming artists like Picasso and Matisse. All you have to do is get yourself to the Railway Express Building. I hope you can join us.

Event Details

July 14, 2011
Urbanite@Case[werks] in the Railway Express Building
1501 St. Paul Street, Suite 116 (across from Penn Station)
6:00 pm to 8:00 pm
Free!
RSVP Today!

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2011 Preservation Awards: Baron and Company Cigars Building

In June, Baltimore Heritage recognized 14 great historic preservation projects and people who have contributed significantly to the preservation of Baltimore’s historic places. Read on over the course of the summer as we cover these buildings and people, beginning with the Baron and Company Cigar Building.

The Baron and Company Cigar building at 1007 East Pratt Street lies within the South Central Historic District, along Central Avenue just east of Little Italy. Most of the structures in this area are vernacular rowhouses but a few, including the Cigar Building, are much larger industrial buildings that help give the area its distinctive flair. Baron and Company Cigars first occupied the space beginning about 1880, and by 1910 a company called the American Coat Pad Company had moved in. American Coat Pad was an apparel company that distributed throughout the United States, Mexico and Canada devoting itself exclusively to the little poofy parts of men’s and women’s coat fronts. In 2010, Mr. James Seay and his company, Premier Rides, Inc., along with Fishell  Architecture, renovated the building into office space for a number of companies and light manufacturers.

The current restoration included saving and restoring existing doors, replicating metal windows where the originals had deteriorated too badly to be salvaged, and keeping the original metal shutters. The interior spaces were largely compatible for light manufacturing, and were kept intact, with much patching of plaster of course. Many of the original interior doors were salvageable and were kept, as was much of the original wooden flooring. Overall, the work seems squarely in keeping with the purposes for which this late 19th century industrial building was built. Starting out life as a cigar company, then as a clothing manufacturer, it has a new lease on life as offices and light manufacturing.

Read on for more shots of the building from before and after this award winning rehabilitation!
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Behind the Scenes Tour of Baltimore’s Battle Monument

Did you notice that Baltimore’s Battle Monument at Calvert and Fayette Streets was recently covered in scaffolding and black tarps? What’s happening is a whole-monument restoration effort in advance of the commemoration of the War of 1812 beginning next year. Thanks to the Baltimore Commission for Historical and Architectural Preservation and monument restoration specialists S.A.T., Inc., we have a rare opportunity to peek behind the tarps, so to speak, to learn about the monument close up and how the experts are going about restoring nearly 200 year old marble, iron, and bronze. Please join us!

Battle Monument

Calvert and Fayette Streets
Wednesday, June 29, 2011 | Noon to 1:00 p.m.
$10/members, $15/non-members
RSVP Today!

Please Note: Due to very real space constraints at the monument site, space on this tour is limited to 25 people. Sorry! We’ll fill up on a first to RSVP, first served bases. This is a hard hat tour that may include climbing a few stairs on scaffolding. We will supply the hard hats.
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A fantastic (and wet) celebration of this year’s historic preservation highlights

This past year ushered in great historic preservation work around Baltimore, and we at Baltimore Heritage were pleased to recognize some of the best projects and the people behind them in our 2011 Preservation Awards Celebration last Friday in Union Square. With a series of thundershowers sweeping through West Baltimore exactly at the moment the outdoor program was set to begin, the event was a wet and wild time. Some call Baltimore the “City of Firsts.” We lay claim to the house of the first American saint (Elizabeth Ann Seton), the first umbrella factory (William Beehler, 1828), the first African American Supreme Court Justice (Thurgood Marshall), and the tallest building up to the Civil War (the Shot Tower). And now I think we can lay claim to having the wettest historic preservation awards event ever.

With the untiring work of a horde of volunteers and board members, and gracious hosting by the Union Square Association and many residents around the Square, 300 people from around Baltimore celebrated the best historic preservation projects of the year (listed below), and got more than a fair share of summer showers. Historic Union Square shone brightly, and despite the rain, or maybe even because of it, many of us reaffirmed our appreciation for Baltimore’s great historic places and those who work to preserve and revitalize them. This is the first in a series of posts that will highlight the people and projects that won preservation awards this year from Baltimore Heritage. I hope you enjoy learning a little more about some wonderful buildings and the great efforts that have gone into saving them.

I would be remiss if I didn’t thank our hosts for the event, the Union Square Association, the gracious owners who opened their houses for house tours, our corporate sponsors, all of our volunteers, and the intrepid event committee: Jim Suttner (chair), Elise Butler, Lisa Doyle, Jean Hankey, Lesley Humphreys, Mary Beth Lennon, and Stephen Sattler. Read on for a full list of our 2011 Preservation Award Winners and check out our many photos from the evening celebration on Flickr.

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Baltimore Heritage Behind the Scenes Tour of the McKim Free School and Old Quaker Meeting House

McKim Center, This Place Matters Community Challenge
Today’s tour announcement of the McKim Free School and Old Quaker Meeting House is especially important as it comes with an opportunity for you to help win $25,000 for the restoration of the McKim Free School through the This Place Matters Community Challenge organized by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Last year, we nominated the Baltimore Hebrew Orphan Asylum and came in 9th nationally. This year we aim to win!

The 1833 McKim Free School is a rare treasure– a Baltimore landmark with deep roots in the city’s history and a long record of education and social service, including nearly 70 years as home to the McKim Center that provides youth and community services to the Jonestown neighborhood. Unfortunately, the McKim Free School building has a leaky roof in urgent need of repair and cracked masonry requiring a major restoration. Please take two minutes to vote for the McKim Free School and help preserve this piece of Baltimore’s history.

Old Quaker Meeting House and McKim Free School

1201 East Fayette Street, 21202
Monday, June 27 | 5:30pm to 7:30pm
$15/members, $20 for non-members (including refreshments)
Our tour will include both the Old Quaker Meeting House and the McKim Free School. We’ll meet at the Old Quaker Meeting House. On street, metered parking is available on Aisquith and Baltimore Streets.
RSVP for the tour today!

The McKim Free School was built in 1833 from the generous gift of John McKim. McKim had made a fortune in Baltimore as a merchant in the early 1800s, and during the War of 1812 gave the City of Baltimore $50,000 for its defense. McKim, a Quaker who was a member of the neighboring Friends Meeting House (the other building on this tour) served as a state senator and was twice elected to Congress. John and his son William McKim established the McKim Free School to help the city’s youth regardless of religion. They hired two notable architects for its design, William Howard, the son of Baltimore’s Revolutionary War Hero John Eager Howard, and William Small, who designed the Archbishop’s residence on Charles Street among other buildings. The Greek Revival building, perhaps the best example of this style of architecture in Baltimore, is modeled after the Temple of Hephaestus in Athens, Greece.

The Old Quaker Meeting House actually predates the McKim building by over 50 years. Built in 1781, it is the oldest religious building in Baltimore. In its day, Quaker luminaries such as Elisha Tyson, Joseph Townsend, and Johns Hopkins (the philanthropist) worshipped here, and the Friends School of Baltimore has its origins here. Both the Meeting House and the School building are used by the McKim Center, a youth and community services group that has operated out of them for over 70 years. We are thrilled to have three great guides for this tour: Kathleen Kotarba, Executive Director of the Commission for Historical and Architectural Preservation, architect Bruce Manger with Hord Coplan Macht, and McKim Center Executive Director Dwight Warren. Please join us as we explore the 175 year history of these buildings and look at a few of the challenges that they currently face.