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.

Call for 2018 Preservation Award nominations!

A lot of great preservation work happened in Baltimore last year. Local developers fixed up historic buildings, neighbors volunteered as tour guides, and architects made plans for remarkable restorations. Please help us discover all the great preservation work that took place in 2017 and all the people behind it! We need your nominations for Baltimore Heritage’s annual preservation awards and we are accepting submissions through Wednesday, February 14. Please send us a nomination today! Self nominations are welcome.

2017 Achievement Award Recipient, Herring Run Archaeology Project. Photograph by Jason Shellenhamer, 2015 May 16.

Our awards recognize preservation work of all varieties. Our Heritage Achievement Awards honor people who have made a contribution to Baltimore’s historic buildings and neighborhoods.
Do you have a friend who is tireless in promoting their historic neighborhood? Did you write a book on Baltimore history or architecture? Or volunteer with a local heritage nonprofit? Our Heritage Achievement Awards seek to recognize people and organizations that support, protect, and celebrate historic places.

2017 Project Award Recipient, Lion Brothers Building.

Our Preservation Project Awards honor owners, architects, contractors, and craftspeople who have recently completed brick-and-mortar projects, from restoring a historic rowhouse to creating new spaces in a former brewery or factory. We know that preservation work comes in all sizes and often requires a whole team of people, from developers and architects to masons, plumbers, and electricians. When we give out awards, we want to recognize all the people who make a rehab project happen!

Please take a look at our award categories and guidelines or go ahead and send in a nomination for a project award or achievement award today. We try to keep the process quick and easy but, if you run into trouble, please give me a call at 410-332-9992 or send me an email at hopkins@baltimoreheritage.org.

We are accepting nominations up until Wednesday February 14, 2018 so send in your nomination or help spread the word! Thank you for helping us recognize Baltimore’s heritage stewards. Stay tuned for details on our annual awards celebration this spring.

The entrance to a brownstone Gothic church building with a light blue and red door.

Our New Year’s resolution? Explore even more historic places in 2018

Do you make New Year’s resolutions? This year, we’re resolving to spend even more time exploring Baltimore’s historic places and you’re invited to join us. Please come along on Tuesday, January 23, as we tour the first true brownstone building in Baltimore: today’s Grace & St. Peter’s Church and rectory. With ornate stained glass and floor tiles imported from England, this 1852 landmark shows off the high Anglican origins of the congregation.

We are excited to bring back one of our tastiest tours for the new year: Lexington Market. Our January tour is sold out and there are just a few tickets remaining for February. Fortunately, our monthly market tours continue through May so you have plenty of dates to choose from.

You can discover another chapter from Baltimore’s buried past next month with a talk on the archaeology of Herring Run at the Garrett-Jacobs Mansion on Sunday, February 18.

And, of course, we’re still speaking up to protect historic places. Mark your calendar for Maryland History Advocacy Day on Thursday, February 1 to bring your voice to Annapolis.

What we’ve achieved together in 2017

I just took a look back at the programs and events, advocacy, and technical assistance our Baltimore Heritage community accomplished this past year and I am amazed.

I’m amazed by the 2,415 people and organizations that donated, volunteered, and supported our work preserving historic places and promoting historic neighborhoods. With just two-and-a-half staff, we are not the biggest non-profit in Baltimore but we feel fortunate to have so many friends and neighbors who love this city just as much as we do!

Here’s what’s behind that truly extraordinary number:

  • Three generous donors funded our preservation micro-grants
  • Three volunteers and three great partners helped launch our new Maintain Civic Spaces project
  • Seventy-seven people showed up for our Vacant Buildings 101 workshops
  • Forty-six volunteers led eighty heritage tours of historic places
  • Over fifteen hundred people came on tours generating over $2,000 for local historic sites
  • Over eight hundred people supported our work as members
  • Nineteen corporations and thirteen foundations gave grants or sponsorships

Wow! For all of you who volunteer, come out to our programs and tours, and support our work in Baltimore, please accept a sincere thank you from all of our staff and board of directors at Baltimore Heritage. Here is how your time, talents and financial support make a difference.

Leading tours of thirty unique historic places

In 2017, forty-six people volunteered their time, talent, and knowledge to lead eighty tours of thirty separate historic places around Baltimore. Our annual Baltimore by Foot neighborhood walking tour series took visitors to Stone Hill and Dickeyville. Our Behind the Scenes tours explored historic theaters downtown, the “catacombs” at Lexington Market, and the H.L. Mencken House — just to name a few.

With over fifteen hundred participants, your tour tickets raised nearly $2,000 for preservation of small museums and historic sites across the city. We covered a lot of territory thanks to our tour volunteers:

Melissa Archer, Shelley Arnold, Joanne Baker, Tom Beck, Ralph Brown, Blaine Carvalho, Marianne Colimore, Graham Coreil-Allen, Sally Craig, Kate Creamer, Kate Drabinski, Bill Dunn, Patricia Foster, Rose Gallenberger, Marjorie Goodman, Virginia Green, Francesca Guerin, Patricia Hawthorne, Robert Headley, Duncan Hodge, Guy Hollyday, Matthew Hood, Louis Hughes, Lesley Humphreys, Jamie Hunt, Lisa Kraus, Sarah Krum, Lindsey Loeper, Alvin Manger, Richard Messick, Stephanie Moore, Peter Morrill, Richard Oloizia, Stacy Pack, Shirley Perry, Wayne Schaumburg, Doris Sharkey, Jason Shellenhamer, Terry Shepard, Lisa Simeone, Rick Smith, Willy Sydnor, Debra Thomas, Dave Tirschman, Tom Walker, Gregory Weidman, and Debra Wiener.

Teaching Vacant Buildings 101 to neighborhood advocates

Vacant buildings cause problems for residents all across Baltimore City. But residents can also work to solve these problems! Baltimore Heritage and the Community Law Center teamed up to lead three workshops and publish a new online resource for Baltimore residents, property owners, and community leaders to take action on this issue. Thanks to our colleagues Becky Witt and Kristine Dunkerton at the Community Law Center for working with us.

Giving away micro-grants for preservation projects

A gothic stone church seen from the roof of a building across the street.
Union Baptist Church, 2016 April 6. Baltimore Heritage.

With the generous support of one of our members, Ms. Brigid Goody, and surprise gifts from FreedomCar and Southway Builders, in the second year of our preservation micro-grant program we offered six grants totaling $3,000 to the Preservation Society of Fell’s Point, the Beloved Community Services Corporation at Union Baptist Church, Mount Clare House Museum, Poe Baltimore, H.L. Mencken House, Lillie Carroll Jackson Civil Rights Museum, and Civic Works.

Maintaining historic buildings as civic spaces

This year, we partnered with the Neighborhood Design Center’s Community Design Works program to recruit volunteer architects and conduct conditions assessments of the Village Learning Place and the Hodge House at First & Franklin Church. We’re now interviewing local nonprofit leaders with the Friends of Patterson Park and McKim Center to understand best practices for maintaining community-serving buildings. Thanks to Laura Wheaton at NDC, volunteer architects Darragh Brady, Andrew Chaveas, and Jay Orr, PNC Bank for its support, and everyone who has helped us to launch this exciting new initiative.

Sustaining our work and mission as members

Over eight hundred individuals and families contributed as members, nineteen corporations provided sponsorship support, and thirteen foundations and organizations supported our programs and events. These contributions make up over fifty percent of our operating budget and provide the critical funding for all we do, from advocating for places like the Sellers Mansion to providing technical assistance on historic preservation projects.

Corporate & Business Supporters: Agora, Brennan and Company Architects, Cho Benn Holback, a Quinn Evans Company, Delbert Adams Construction Group, FreedomCar, GLB Concrete Construction, GWWO Architects, McLain Wiesand, Michael J. Walkley, PA, Murdoch Architects, O’Connell & Associates, PNC, Rohrer Studio, SM+P Architects, Southway Builders, Terra Nova Ventures, The Whiting-Turner Contracting Company, Zeskinds Hardware and Millwork, Ziger/Snead Architects

Foundation Supporters: Abell Foundation Matching Grant, Annie Casey Matching Grant, Baltimore Office of Promotion and Arts, Greater Cincinnati Foundation, Kaiser Foundation Matching Grant, Marino Foundation, Maryland Association of History Museums, Mount Washington Garden Club, National Recreation Foundation, Preservation Maryland, University of Maryland, University of Maryland Foundation, Van Buren Family Foundation

I wish you a wonderful holiday season and I look forward to working with you in the new year.

P.S. You can help that number go from 2,415 to 2,416. Please consider renewing your support or becoming a member or signing up to join us for an upcoming tour. Thanks!

Enjoy holiday tours at Mount Clare Museum and the Mother Seton House

As we head into the holidays, we hope you can join us on our two remaining heritage tours of 2017. On Saturday December 16, we’re heading to the Carroll Park home of Charles Carroll the Barrister for The Holiday Season “Colonial Style”: Mount Clare Museum House Decorated for December. In addition to touring one of Maryland’s best preserved Colonial-era residences, we hope you’ll enjoy the building’s holiday decorating glory.

Our final tour of the year is a visit to the Mother Seton House and Godefroy Chapel on the afternoon of Wednesday, December 27. The Mother Seton House is the former residence of America’s first saint and the original St. Mary’s Seminary Chapel was designed by noted early American architect Maximilian Godefroy. We hope you can include this tour in your plans for the final week of 2017!

Finally, we still need your help to save the federal historic tax credit program from elimination by the tax bill now before Congress. This federal tax credit has been critical to fostering investment in Baltimore’s historic buildings and neighborhoods and Congress is now threatening to cut off this key source of support. Developers have used federal historic tax credits on everything from the American Can Company to Clipper Mill, from Montgomery Ward to Tide Point. Learn more about the program from our partners at Preservation Maryland then contact your elected officials to let them know how important this program is.