Author: Eli

Eli Pousson started as a Field Officer at Baltimore Heritage in partnership with the National Trust for Historic Preservation in October 2009. Prior to moving to Baltimore, Eli worked for the DC Office of Historic Preservation and completed graduate work in anthropology and historic preservation at the University of Maryland College Park. Eli continues to work with the Lakeland Community Heritage Project and other heritage organizations in Prince George’s County, Maryland.

This Saturday! Meet Baltimore’s historic homeowners and learn new ways to help your house

This Saturday, we are partnering with Retrofit Baltimore and Live Baltimore to host our very first historic homeowner social. Stop by Second Chance anytime from 10:00 am to 11:30 am to enjoy coffee, donuts, and answers to all your questions about weatherization, historic tax credits, and home buying in Baltimore City.

This event is also your first chance to sign up for the 2015 Baltimore Historic House Co-op. The co-op is a way for homeowners to save money on weatherization services through Retrofit Baltimore. For each home-owner who signs up before April 25 and pledges to complete their project by the fall, Retrofit’s contractors are offering a 1% discount – up to a 15% discount for everyone who participates. Learn more about the benefits of weatherization for historic properties or sign up for the Historic House Co-op today.

This new partnership is just one of many new resources that we’ve put together for historic home-owners over the past few months. Check out new or recently updated resources including:

We even have a new resource guide just for homeowners – a growing online toolkit  for the thousands of home-owners who preserve historic neighborhoods. If you have questions or suggestions for how we can help historic homeowners in Baltimore, please get in touch. And don’t forget to join us at Second Chance on Saturday morning!

News: And Service For All highlights history of Read’s Drug Store

Thank you to Ron Cassie for a detailed and thoughtful take on the legacy of the successful student sit-ins at Read’s Drug Store that took place 60 years ago this month. Check out the full story for more details on the long history of civil-rights student activism by Morgan State students or learn more about our exciting new partnership to document historic places connected with Baltimore’s Civil Rights heritage.

A few days later, the front page of the January 22, 1955, national edition of The Afro-American newspaper ran a short story, datelined Baltimore, with the headline “Now serve all.” Read’s, which had 39 area stores, had suddenly decided to desegregate, with the article citing a “sit-down strike” at its “largest store in the heart of the city, the day before the change of policy was announced.” …Baltimore Heritage director Johns Hopkins (distant descendant of the Johns Hopkins) says it was during the late 2000s, when demolition of the Read’s building was formally proposed, that the story of Read’s began to come to life again. He believes the location of the building and its historic sit-ins are central to understanding the city’s complicated record regarding racial prejudice—nowhere more obvious than at Howard and Lexington. The city’s beloved department stores—Hochchild’s, Stewart’s, Hecht’s, and Hutzler’s (“where Baltimore shops!”)—all maintained some form of segregation until 1960 or later.

“When it really hit home for me, what this building and block represent, was when a class of eighth graders and a class of ninth graders came out on separate field trips during demonstrations a few years ago,” Hopkins says. “Their reaction was very powerful. You could see what it meant to them to know that story and to be there, where it happened. It’s one of the few physical places like that in existence in Baltimore. It’s not the Taj Mahal, but landmarks like this draw kids in, and they get interested in learning about that history.”

Continue reading And Service For All: Sixty years ago, Morgan State College students staged the first successful lunch-counter sit-ins by Ron Cassie, Baltimore Magazine (January 2015).

Maryland Traditions honors Baltimore’s famous painted screens with a 2014 ALTA Award

Earlier this month, Maryland Traditions recognized Baltimore’s famous painted screens and the stewards of this unique rowhouse art at the 2014 ALTA Awards. Please enjoy a few photographs from the evening by Edwin Remsberg Photographs and join us in congratulations Elaine Eff and all of the screen painters who sustain this tradition today! Read on for more details about this essential Baltimore tradition.

Photograph by Edwin Remsberg, 6 December 2014.
Photograph by Edwin Remsberg, 6 December 2014.
Photograph by Edwin Remsberg, 6 December 2014.
Photograph by Edwin Remsberg, 6 December 2014.

The Painted Screens of Baltimore is one of the most iconic and well-known living traditions unique to Baltimore City, celebrating its 101st birthday this year. Rooted in the vibrant neighborhoods of early 20th century East Baltimore, where they dotted the streets of endless row homes, the screens provided a decorative means of ensuring privacy: the painted exteriors “trapped” the vision of onlookers, preventing them from seeing inside. Such privacy was especially important during the warmer months when open windows provided much-needed ventilation. This clever invention is credited to William Oktavec, a storeowner on the East side from the Czech Republic (as it is known now).

Photograph by Edwin Remsberg, 6 December 2014.
Photograph by Edwin Remsberg, 6 December 2014.
Photograph by Edwin Remsberg, 6 December 2014.
Photograph by Edwin Remsberg, 6 December 2014.

While Oktavec painted his first screen in 1913, the tradition continues today through a variety of forms – from window screens to fly swatters and outdoor patio furniture – that reflect an evolution of innovations and tastes. Roughly a dozen screen painters, many of who have learned from the older generation, including John Oktavec, William’s grandson, are active in teaching the skills and meanings to younger enthusiasts.

In 1985, the Painted Screen Society was founded by folklorist Elaine Eff, co-founder of Maryland Traditions and author of The Painted Screens of Baltimore: an Urban Folk Art Revealed, and Dee Herget, who has been painting screens since the late 1970s, having learned “the secret” from the “old masters” of the time. The Society is active in promoting the living tradition to the public through demonstration events, classes, and museum and gallery exhibitions, and has helped to keep it alive within the city and beyond.

2015 Sustainable Communities Tax Credit awards nearly $7 million for preservation in Baltimore

On Wednesday, December 10, the Maryland Historical Trust announced the exciting preservation projects receiving the Sustainable Communities Tax Credit in 2015. Next year, the historic tax credit program will invest ten million dollars in nine projects from Western Maryland to the Eastern Shore. In Baltimore, four projects received historic tax credits—supporting a planned investment of over sixty million in the Fell’s Point, Stone Hill, Broadway East and Charles North neighborhoods.

  • Eastern Pumping Station/Baltimore Food Hub: Conversion of former pumping station to a mixed-use food center business incubator. Credit: $3 million; Estimated project cost: $15 million
  • Fell’s Point Recreation Pier: Conversion of the former municipal pier building for use as a hotel and restaurant facility. Credit: $3 million; Estimated project cost: $39.8 million
  • Florence Crittenton Home: Conversion of former mill owner’s mansion/social services campus for use as rental apartments. Credit: $520,000; Estimated project cost: $2.6 million
  • Eastwick Motor Company: Conversion of a 1914 Ford dealership for use as an arts organization center and restaurant. Credit: $453,968; Estimated project cost: $6.1 million
Rendering of planned rehabilitation for former Eastwick Motor Company.
Rendering of planned rehabilitation for former Eastwick Motor Company.

You may remember the Eastern Pumping Station from our Behind the Scenes tour last summer. We’ll also be visiting the Eastwick Motor Company next month—a building better known as the former home to Load of Fun and now known as the Motor House. According to a March 2009 study funded by the Abell Foundation, the state historic tax credit program has helped to create more than 26,000 jobs throughout the state. The Baltimore Sun quoted Elizabeth Hughes of the Maryland Historical Trust, “One of the things that they all share, the common thread, is good preservation practices, combined with promise of local economic return.”

Learn more about how you can advocate for continued investments in Baltimore’s historic neighborhoods at the Preservation Priorities Forum hosted by Preservation Maryland on January 13.

Photos: Christmas in Hampden with the Greater Hampden Heritage Alliance

The Greater Hampden Heritage Alliance holiday celebration at Church & Company last Friday was a great success! Thank you to everyone who came out for the evening and special thanks to Anastasia Tantaros of Side A Photography for capturing the event.