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.

Parks, Preservation & Emancipation: Enjoy three new walking tours around Mount Vernon Place this fall

In partnership with the Mount Vernon Place Conservancy, we are glad to present a new series of walking tours exploring the rich history and architecture of one of Baltimore’s true treasures – Mount Vernon Place. Each month this fall, we’ll be meeting on the south side of the Washington Monument and leading a short tour around new theme – the history of the park squares, the fight to preserve Mount Vernon Place in the face of urban renewal, and the hidden histories of slavery and emancipation.

Mount Vernon Place: A History of the Squares

Saturday, September 7, 2013, 9:30am to 10:45am – Register today!

North Mount Vernon Place Square, 1906When the four squares of Mount Vernon Place were laid out in 1831, George Washington had only sat at the top of the monument for a few years and locals still knew the neighborhood as Howard’s Woods for the forested country estate that long occupied the hills north of the harbor. As the city grew up around the parks, their design was shaped by two luminaries in landscape architecture: Frederick Law Olmsted, Sr. contracted in 1876 to carry out improvements to the north and south squares and the architectural firm of Carrère & Hastings who designed the parks’ handsome Beaux Arts fountains, stairs and balustrades in 1917.

Since 2008, the Mount Vernon Place Conservancy has been working on a new vision to restore and maintain the parks as renewed world-class urban spaces. On our first Mount Vernon Place walking tour this fall, we’ll share nearly 200 years of history in these four squares and consider their promising future.​

Mount Vernon Place: Architecture, Urban Renewal & Preservation

Saturday, October 5, 2013, 9:30am to 10:45am – Register today!

Far removed from the city’s bustling harbor, Mount Vernon Place developed as an affluent suburb in the mid 19th century. It was home to men like William Walters, a successful wholesale merchant whose legacy helped to establish the Walters Art Museum, and Robert Garrettt II, the first born son and heir of John Work Garrett, the founder of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. Robert and his wife Mary Frick Garrett made the perfect high society couple and engaged architect Stanford White to turn an already grand townhouse into a palatial 40-room mansion.

With such a distinguished history and stylish architecture, it is hard to believe that the neighborhood narrowly avoided being flattened for the development of an east-west highway in the 1960s and the Garrett-Jacobs Mansion itself was lucky to escape demolition in the face of urban renewal. On our second Mount Vernon Place walking tour this fall, we’ll highlight the rich architecture around the Squares and how preservationists saved these unique blocks from destruction.

Mount Vernon Place: Stories of Slavery & Emancipation

Saturday, November 9, 2013, 9:30am to 10:45am – Register today!

The Fifteenth Amendment, c1870Around Mount Vernon Place, memorials in bronze and marble honor slave-holders – George Washington, John Eager Howard, and Roger B. Taney. No statute recognizes the labor of the enslaved people who worked and lived in the neighborhood’s handsome antebellum houses. No plaque recalls Frederick Douglass’ response to Taney’s notorious Dred Scott decision – “All that is merciful and just, on earth and in Heaven, will execrate and despise this edict of Taney” – or preserves the stories of men like Richard Mack, born into slavery and employed as a butler in a the Garrett-Jacobs Mansion at the turn of the century.

The stories of slavery and emancipation on Mount Vernon Place are far from simple, however, including the monument to the Marquis de Lafayette, a hero of the American Revolution who personally urged George Washington and Thomas Jefferson to emancipate their slaves and abolish slavery in the United States. On our third and final Mount Vernon Place walking tour this fall, we’ll uncover the lives of enslaved people and slave-owners with stories from violent politics of the Civil War and the revolutionary changes of emancipation.

Tickets are $10 per person for adults and free for children under the age of 16. All tours proceed rain or shine and advance registration is encouraged.

Take action now: Write to your Senator and help save the Historic Tax Credit

Miller's Court
Miller’s Court, 2009

Last month, the leadership of the Senate Finance Committee adopted a “blank slate approach” to tax reform where all tax expenditures for both corporations and individuals including the Federal Historic Tax Credit would be eliminated from the tax code. Under this plan, preserving the historic tax credit requires Senators to make a case for it directly with an argument that the historic tax credit helps the economy grow, make the tax code fairer, or effectively promotes other important policy objectives.

We know that the historic tax credit is an important economic driver supporting private investment and creating good jobs. The tax credit is essential to level the playing field for rehabilitating existing buildings when comparing costs and incentives with new construction. By supporting investments in historic preservation, like Miller’s Court, the American Brewery Building, or Mill No. 1, helps to revitalize neighborhoods, support local economies, and create lasting improvements in Baltimore and around the country.

Please reach out now – before July 26 – by phone or email to Senators Cardin and Mikulski and ask that they include the Historic Tax Credit as a priority in their letters to the Senate Finance Committee.

Find more information on this issue and the historic tax credit from Preservation Action or join our email list for updates on this issue in the months ahead.

American Ice Company listed on the National Register of Historic Places

Built in 1911, the American Ice Company is an enduring reminder of West Baltimore’s industrial development with a striking brick facade on West Franklin Street and a powerhouse that backs up to the railroad tracks. Baltimore Heritage nominated this distressed landmark to the National Register of Historic Places last fall with support from the building’s owner. We just received notice that the building was successfully listed on the National Register on July 3!

As plans for the Baltimore Red Line continue to develop, we are optimistic that this factory has the potential to support the revitalization of the West Baltimore MARC Station Area and remain an iconic landmark for generations to come. Download the full National Register nomination to learn more about this unusual factory and the history of industrial ice-making in Baltimore.

News: Baltimore’s Venerable Buildings Imperiled by Increasing Seas

Lauren Loricchio highlights the urgent issue of climate change’s impact of historic buildings and neighborhoods with her article Baltimore’s Venerable Buildings Imperiled by Increasing Seas:

From fragile wooden houses in Fells Point, along the city’s oldest blocks, to Fort McHenry, which inspired “The Star-Spangled Banner,” Baltimore’s waterfront historic places are at risk of being lost forever as sea levels rise and storm surges grow more powerful.

For a city founded because of the water—the Port of Baltimore was officially designated at Locust Point in 1706—much of its history rings the harbor. And though the state is cataloging Maryland’s treasures, neither the state nor City Hall has a plan to protect them…

“Some of the oldest houses in Baltimore are in the potential path of sea-level rise and storm surges,” said Johns Hopkins, executive director of Baltimore Heritage… “The last couple of hurricanes that came through really hurt.  I don’t know how many times the area can withstand that,” Hopkins said.  “And if it gets worse, who knows what will happen.”

The issues of historic preservation and rising sea level is not limited to Baltimore and is perhaps even more urgent on the Eastern Shore where rising sea levels threaten the new Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Monument:

Harriet Tubman led slaves to freedom through the thick reeds and marshes of her hometown on the Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay. In an effort to preserve that history, President Barack Obama recently designated the area the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Monument. But even a presidential proclamation can’t halt natural forces. Sea levels have been rising in the Chesapeake Bay at more than twice the global rate — and one of the most important stops on the Underground Railroad likely will be largely underwater within the next 50 years.