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.

June 5, 2013

Charles Village Pride! Talk and tour on the early history of Baltimore’s LGBT Community

Together with the Baltimore City Historical Society, we are excited to present two upcoming programs on Baltimore’s LGBT history with a talk by historian John Wood on Thursday, June 20 and a walking tour of Charles Village with Richard Oloizia, Louis Hughes and many more special guests on Saturday, June 22.

The Baltimore Gay Community: The Early Years

Thursday, June 20, 2013, Reception at 7:00 PM, lecture at 7:30 PM
2521 St. Paul Street, Baltimore, MD 21218

Mayor Kurt Schmoke at Gay Pride after Gay Rights Bill passed, 1988

The Baltimore City Historical Society & Village Learning Place are hosting the final spring Baltimore History Evening with a presentation by John Wood, a local historian and teacher at the McDonogh School on the early history of Baltimore’s gay community. Wood will share how members of the city’s LGBT community organized and fought for civil rights from 1975 up through the passage of the city’s landmark gay and lesbian civil-rights bill in 1988. The period was shaped by the growth of pride in gay and lesbian identity, tensions between gay men and lesbians, the impact of AIDS, and the professionalization of the equal rights campaign during the 1980s. The program will include special guest Jody Landers, a City Council member at the time the bill passed, talking about the impact that negative opposition testimony during the bill’s hearing had upon his vote.

Charles Village Pride! LGBT Heritage Walking Tour

Saturday, June 22, 2013, 10:00 AM through 12:00 PM
Meet at Normal’s Books & Records, 425 East 31st Street, Baltimore, MD 21218
Sign up online today! Tickets are $10 for Baltimore Heritage members, $15 for non-members

Gay Pride in Wyman Park, June 1988

Although Charles Village is better known for its colorful “painted ladies,” the neighborhood was home to many of the activists and institutions at the heart of the city’s LGBT community in the 1970s and 1980s. Historian Richard Oloizia and activists Shirley Parry and Louis Hughes will take us on a walk past local landmarks from the original home of the Gay Community Center of Baltimore, now the GLCCB, to the St. Paul Street church that supported the growth of the Metropolitan Community Church, Baltimore’s oldest LGBT religious organization, and the radical feminist publishers, writers and activists that gave a voice to lesbian authors who might not otherwise have been read. Whether you lived this history or are learning it for the first time, this tour is a unique opportunity to explore the places that shaped the growth of Baltimore’s LGBT community and civil rights movement.

June 3, 2013

Photo: Scaffolding at Calvert and Biddle Streets

Designed by architect Charles Carson for Baltimore banker John S. Gilman, this 1889 Calvert Street mansion is undergoing a major renovation by developers Azola & Associates and partners to turn the former Inn at Government House into The Ivy – a new boutique hotel in Mt. Vernon. William Painter, inventor and founder of the Crown Cork and Seal Company, lived at the home with his family up through his death in 1906.

Photograph of the William Painter Mansion from “William Painter and his father, Dr. Edward Painter” (1914)

May 29, 2013

Looking Up Downtown tours are free for Blue Star Families now through Labor Day

As a participant in the Blue Star Museums program, first launched in the summer of 2010, we are proud to offer free admission to all active duty military personnel and their families for Looking Up Downtown walking tours from now through Labor Day, Monday, September 3. On this 75-minute guided walking tour, everyone from first-time visitors to Baltimore to born-and-raised locals can learn something new and surprising about the architecture and history of downtown Baltimore.

The route – less then one mile and stroller friendly for families with small children – winds through the grounds of the Zion Lutheran Church, continues past a few enduring local landmarks like the Alex Brown & Co. building that still bears the scorch marks from the Great Baltimore Fire of 1904. the and ends right back where it started at the Baltimore Farmer’s Market. All Looking Up Downtown! Gargoyles & More walking tours start at 9:30am on the first and third Sunday from April through November. Meet at the Baltimore Farmers’ Market in front of the Hollywood Diner at North Holiday and South Saratoga Streets. RSVP to join us this weekend or stay tuned to check out another tour later this year!

Don’t forget to check out other local history museums participating in the Blue Star Museums program this summer! In Baltimore, along local museums and historicsites include:

Blue Star Museums is a collaboration among the National Endowment for the Arts, Blue Star Families, the Department of Defense, and more than 2,000 museums across America. Leadership support has been provided by MetLife Foundation through Blue Star Families.

May 29, 2013

Baltimore meets Florence! Enjoy Italian-inspired Desserts and Architecture by Bike on June 15

Have you ever seen a handsome building in Baltimore and swear that you had seen it before? Maybe around Florence, Italy? Join Dr. Ralph Brown for our fun bike tour around Baltimore and you’ll swear you are back in Florence—even for just a few hours. Florence has Michelangelo’s David, the Duomo, the Palazzo Vecchio, the Medici, the Arno River spanned by the Ponte Vecchio and great gelato. Baltimore has the Bromo Seltzer Tower, the Jones Falls and, of course, our own tasty gelatos in Little Italy.

We’ll re-discover the sights, sounds and tastes of the great Renaissance city of Baltimore has while learning something new about iced desserts and Baltimore’s key role in their history.

May 24, 2013

How does an abandoned factory become urban farm?

After decades of neglect, it takes a bit of imagination to look at the cavernous A. Hoen & Co. Lithography Plant and see a unique opportunity for neighborhood revitalization. Fortunately, an exciting partnership between the American Communities Trust, Humanim, East Baltimore Development Inc., Big City Farms, Historic East Baltimore Community Action Coalition Inc., Woodberry Kitchen and Johns Hopkins (whew!) is leading the way to transform the plant and the nearby Eastern Pumping Station site into the new Baltimore Food Hub. By fall of 2014, these long vacant historic buildings will be bursting with entrepreneurs, urban farmers, students, and job trainees working with food-related businesses and learning about healthy food and sustainable agriculture.

The A. Hoen Co. Lithography Plant includes a series of buildings from the mid 19th century through the turn of the 20th century and remained in use by the company up through the 1980s. Established in the 1840s, owner August Hoen became a pioneer in both the technology and business of printing – distributing affordable color maps, books, decorative prints and more across the country. Built in 1890 just a few blocks away on the opposite side of the railroad tracks, the Eastern Pumping Station was once stylish industrial landmarks in northeast Baltimore even rivaling the architecture of the nearby American Brewery Building (then known as the Bauernschmidt and J.F. Weissner Brewery) with a more dignified Romanesque style. Architect Jackson Gott who designed the Pumping Station completed a number of projects for Baltimore City included the Maryland Penitentiary in 1893 and the Southern District Police Station in 1896.

Join us to discover more on the fascinating history of both buildings and the exciting future of food and healthy living that their preservation and re-use promises for East Baltimore! Our tour guides will include project manager Gregory Heller from Econsult and Bill Streuver, President of the American Communities Trust.