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.

All people are welcome in our community

We at Baltimore Heritage are deeply saddened by the recent racist and anti-Semitic attacks in Kentucky and Pittsburgh, and we stand in solidarity with those most impacted by last week’s horrific attacks. As we work to build community around historic places here in Baltimore, we want to affirm that people of all backgrounds and identities are welcome at Baltimore Heritage events and continue to ensure that our programs celebrate the diversity of people and cultures that make our city’s heritage so rich.

We also hope that you can continue to come out for this fall’s tours and talks to spend time with neighbors learning about our shared past—and helping us all grow together.

Join us for tours exploring immigration, horseradish, and Mount Vernon pride

Our next tour is this Saturday November 3, and we are exploring hundreds of years of immigration into Baltimore by biking (and sampling!) at a number of East Baltimore bakeries and delis. The next day, we hope to see you at the talk by historian Jack Burkert on the city’s early industry: Iron, Oysters and Railroads: Baltimore Enters the Industrial Age.

Leon’s of Baltimore. Baltimore Heritage (CC0)

The following week, we’ve got more great events celebrating the city’s history and diversity. If you’ve ever wondered how Baltimore’s Tulkoffs horseradish factory makes its divinely spicy sauces, join us for a tour on Friday November 9: Tulkoff Factory Tour: Making Horseradish in Baltimore for Three Generations. And on Saturday, November 10, we will explore LGBT heritage with Mount Vernon Pride: LGBTQ Heritage Walking Tour. Did you know that some of Baltimore’s LGBTQ pioneers helped launch the Johns Hopkins Medical School, helped make Mt. Vernon Place the gem that it is today, and helped create one of the greatest collections of Impressionist artwork in the country at the Baltimore Museum of Art?

We wish you a healthy and happy fall and we hope you can join us soon.

Black-and-white photo of three people holding bottles of Tulkoff's flaming hot horseradish.

Walking, Biking, and Eating Baltimore History this Fall

Whether walking, peddling, or listening to talks suits you best, have we got some great events for you!

On Saturday, November 3, we’re back with our popular bike tour, Food from Home: Immigration, Bakeries, and Delis by Bike, where we ride and sample our way through East Baltimore and while talking about how immigration has shaped Baltimore over the centuries.

If you grew up smelling horseradish and garlic from Tulkoff’s horseradish plant or if you’re curious to sniff out the history of this third generation Baltimore business, join us on Friday, November 9 for a factory tour of Tulkoff Food Products, including samples!

Form-stone covered three-story commercial buildings with a sign resembling a horseradish bottle.
Tulkoff”s Lombard Street location, 1963. Courtesy Jewish Museum of Maryland, JMM 2007.29.1

The next day, Saturday November 10, we’ll take a walk through Mount Vernon’s LGBTQ history with stories from the founding of Johns Hopkins medical school, the city’s first LGBT-oriented church, and contributions to the fight for civil rights. We also continuing our Baltimore history lecture series in partnership with the Garrett Jacobs Mansion. On Sunday, November 4, historian Jack Burkert will talk on “Iron, Oysters and Railroads: Baltimore Enters the Industrial Age.”

And finally, our Lexington Market Catacombs tours continue on Saturday, October 13 at 10:30 a.m., and our Sunday morning Monumental City tours continue with Historic Jonestown and the Shot Tower at 9:30 on October 14.

We hope you can get out and enjoy the fall in Baltimore.

A red brick church overlaid with blue text reading "Thank you!"

Tours, food, micro-grants, and a big thank-you at the historic Orchard Street Church

We’re throwing a party on Tuesday, October 2, 2018 and you are the reason for the celebration. This is our third year hosting a heartfelt thank you event for the many people who volunteer, participate in our heritage tours, and support Baltimore Heritage as members and sponsors. Our friends at the Greater Baltimore Urban League are opening up their historic Orchard Street Church for this free event that will include tours of the church (among the oldest structures built by a local Black congregation), food, drinks, and a chance for you to help us give away four preservation micro-grants.

This event is also our annual meeting where members elect new board members and officers. Please join us!

Also check out our jam-packed schedule of tours and talks over the next few weeks. On the afternoon of Sunday, September 23, local historian Jack Burkert will kick off our history lecture series at the Garrett Jacobs Mansion with a talk entitled: The Port of Baltimore: Shaping the City Over the Ages. On Wednesday, September 26, we are touring the Sheppard Pratt Hospital complex. And on the morning of Tuesday, October 2, we are repeating our tour of Fashions Unlimited garment factory.

Finally, we are teaming up with Doors Open Baltimore again for a unique bus tour: Masons, Jazzmen, Doctors and More. Join us and CHAP director Eric Holcomb on this narrated trip that includes five fantastic sites: the Prince Hall Masonic lodge, Eubie Blake National Jazz Center, Davidge Hall, Rachael’s Dowry Bed and Breakfast, and the Ambassador Marburg Mansion on Mount Vernon Place.

Thank you again to everybody who volunteers with us and supports our work as members and contributors. Without you, we could not do what we do. I hope you can join us on October 2 and on some of our upcoming events.

The front of a red-brick church with a large rose window.

Our micro-grant give-away is back! Submit your project idea by September 13 (deadline extended!)

Our micro-grant give-away is back for a third year and we’re looking for your ideas. Are you helping restore a community park? Planning a neighborhood tour? Or getting ready to tackle a hands-on preservation project? Share your project idea by Thursday, September 13 and you’ll have a chance at being one of the six projects competing for micro-grants during our preservation pitch party at the historic Orchard Street Church on Tuesday, October 2.

Share your project idea

The pitch party gives each of the six finalists just three minutes to make a pitch for why they deserve one of four micro-grants. The crowd votes and the four projects with the most support win one of two $500 grants or two $250 grants.

We know the modest award may not be enough to complete an entire project. But we also know even a little help can go a long way to starting something new or sustaining an existing preservation program.

You do not need to be an incorporated nonprofit or formal community organization to apply. Individuals and informal groups are welcome to submit ideas! If you have any questions, please get in touch with me at hopkins@baltimoreheritage.org or 410-332-9992.

Print showing a parade of Black men in uniform past Mount Vernon Place. The central image is surrounded by portraits and vignettes of Black life, illustrating rights granted by the 15th Amendment.

Enjoy the fall weather with our September talks & tours

Fall is just around the corner, and we’re looking forward to walking tour weather! We hope you can join us on Saturday, September 8 with a tour by our own Eli Pousson sharing stories of slavery and emancipation in Mount Vernon together with a guided tour of the recently updated Civil War exhibit at the Maryland Historical Society.

The following weekend on Saturday, September 15, historian and radio personality Lisa Simeone will walk us around Charles Village showing off the neighborhood’s fascinating history and eclectic architecture. And, on Wednesday, September 26, our hosts at Sheppard Pratt are leading a tour of their historic campus that has been the home of pioneering health care for over a century.

A gouache and pen and ink painting of a large stone Gothic building with a complex roof set in a pastoral landscape.
Sheppard Asylum. Illustration by Calvert Vaux, c. 1860. National Library of Medicine.

Next month, we are kicking off our Baltimore history lecture series in partnership with the Garrett Jacobs Mansion Endowment Fund. On Sunday, September 23, local historian Jack Burkert is delivering an afternoon talk entitled: The Port of Baltimore: Shaping the City Over the Ages. Monthly through the fall and winter, we’ll offer talks by Wayne Schaumburg, Ric Cottam, and Antero Pietila. Find the full list of upcoming talks on our calendar.

Enjoy the start of fall as you learn a little more about Baltimore on a tour or talk next month!

Members of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Philadelphia District and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Marine Design Center assist the crew of the commercial cargo vessel Merwedegracht offload the Philadelphia District’s new hydrographic survey vessel HR Spies at the Port of Baltimore in Baltimore.
Port of Baltimore, April 20, 2017. Photo by Alfred Barraza. ACE-IT NAB.