Author: Molly Ricks

Thank You for Attending Our Preservation Celebration 2026!

Last Thursday night, October 8, Baltimore Heritage had its annual Preservation Celebration at the Baltimore Streetcar Museum! We handed out 14 awards to groups and individuals doing fabulous work celebrating and preserving our city’s history and buildings. We gave out 6 micro-grants to 6 very worthy community projects. And we said a big thank you to our wonderful volunteers. They make historic preservation possible in Baltimore. We also gave out out some cool door prizes–gift certificates to the Charles Theatre, Faidley’s Seafood, and Wockenfuss Candies to name a few! All the while, we ate delicious food from Neopol Smokery and drank wine from Spirits of Mt. Vernon. Thank you to everyone attended. See our Facebook post for more photos!

Award Winners:

Volunteer of the Year: Bob Goldstein

Dedication to sharing Baltimore’s rich history

 

Charles Street Development & Downtown Partnership

For showcasing historic Charles Street with the Charles Street Promenade

 

Baltimore Architecture Foundation

For showcasing Baltimore’s architecture through Doors Open Baltimore

 

The Sanctuary Collective

For transforming a historic church into a youth basketball court & safe space

 

Christina Delgado, Yaritza Velez & Tola’s Room

For the exhibit,

From Borinquen to Baltimore: Puerto Rican Players of the Baltimore Elite Giants

 

The Baltimore Legacy Project

For producing video documentaries of Baltimore’s Black elders

 

The Ships Caulkers’ Houses & Friends of 612-614 S. Wolfe St, Inc.

For heritage education through walking tours

 

Baltimore Finishing Works & C&H Restoration

For over 100 years of saving Baltimore’s historic treasures

 

Greg Otto

For memorializing Baltimore‘s historic places in art

 

Bon Secours Community Works & Sisters of Bon Secours

For transforming vacant houses on Fulton Avenue

 

Key Tech

For restoring the McHenry Theater & Public School No. 15

 

Central Baltimore Partnership

For transforming empty spaces into neighborhood places

 

Douglas Gordon Award: Sally Johnston & Henry Hopkins

A lifetime of commitment to advancing Baltimore’s architecture and history

 

 

Pitch Party Winners: 

Baltimore Streetcar Museum – $1500

For a new WWI exhibit at the museum

 

Multilingual Education Center – $1000

For introducing schoolchildren to Baltimore’s church architecture through printmaking 

 

Renaissance Academy High School – $500

For a Marble Hill documentary produced by high school students

 

Friends of Hanlon Park – $500

For website start-up support and community gathering funds

 

Cameroon American Council – $500

For a project on Anna Murray Douglass and Baltimore’s Free Black Francophones of Nineteenth-Century Fells Point

 

Memorial Episcopal Church – $500

For roof repairs to the historic church, which is a community gathering spot

Bmore Historic is on September 25

We hope to see you this September at the Baltimore Museum of Industry for Bmore Historic 2026! Students are free this year.

Questions? Please email us at info@baltimoreheritage.org.

Thanks,

The Bmore Historic Organizing Committee

What is Bmore Historic?

Bmore Historic is a participant-led unconference for people who care about public history and historic preservation in and around Baltimore. Learn more about Bmore Historic or read our introduction to unconferences.

What do we do at Bmore Historic?

Past, in-person unconferences have been structured around three session blocks: two in the morning and one in the afternoon. We usually have between four to six sessions in each of the time blocks.

Join Us on October 8 at Our Preservation Celebration

Join us for our free Preservation Celebration 2026 at the Baltimore Streetcar Museum! On October 8, we’ll honor our 2026 Preservation Award winners and, with your help, give out five micro-grants (from $500 to $1500) to people working on the front lines in our historic neighborhoods. We’ll say thank you to our volunteers and honor all of their hard work this year. And, we’ll be celebrating local Baltimore businesses by giving away door prize gift certificates to local restaurants, theatres and more! With dinner and drinks from locally-owned Baltimore vendors, we hope you will join us for what promises to be a wonderful evening. The event is free with a suggested donation of $25.

Event Schedule: 

5:30 pm – Doors Open with Food and Drink

6:00 pm – Welcome

6:05 pm – Presentation of 2026 Awards

6:30 pm – Microgrant Presentations and Selection

About Our 2026 Historic Preservation Awards

At our October 8 celebration, we will honor people in Baltimore who over the last year have made an impact in helping save our historic places and improve our historic neighborhoods.

Our awards recognize work of all kinds: people who have done an excellent rehab job on their house or building; people who have volunteered at a historic site; people who have stepped up to improve their historic community with a new program or partnership. Individuals are eligible, as are organizations, corporations, and government agencies or programs. Self nominations are encouraged! Please email nominations to Johns Hopkins (hopkins@baltimoreheritage.org) by July 31.

 

About Our 2026 Microgrants

We’re in our 11th year of giving away microgrants to help fund preservation work in the city.

We’ll pick the most promising ideas and give them a chance for one $1500 grant, one $1000 grant and three $500 grants. Supporters of each idea will get three minutes to pitch them and at the end, all of us present will cast ballots to decide which ideas receive which micro grants.

The types of eligible projects are endless, and as long as they relate to Baltimore’s history, heritage, historic buildings or historic neighborhoods we will consider them. Past award winners include: restoring leaking masonry at a historic church, launching an after school arts-based safe space program in a historic neighborhood, supporting archaeological efforts at a historic furnace, and providing supplies for a community trying to provide access to a neighboring park. The sky’s the limit!

The award amounts may not be enough to complete an entire project. That’s OK. The goal is to help spark new and support existing neighborhood-level preservation work. You don’t need to be a nonprofit organization or even a formalized group to be eligible. Individuals and small groups are welcome! Complete rules can be found on the application. Please apply by September 11, 2026.

August 1: Join us for a Inner Harbor Boat & Trolley Tour!

Baltimore Heritage is excited to partner with American Limousines for a Boat and Trolley Tour! On August 1, join us for a morning boat tour around our Inner Harbor. We’ll return to land and pause for lunch. Then in the afternoon, we’ll take a trolley tour around our beautiful city! This is a package tour–one ticket gets you a boat tour, a trolley tour and lunch at Miss Shirley’s Cafe!

The Boat Tour: America defeated the British here. Frederick Douglass escaped from here. Today we are pioneering watershed restoration here. We will start near the Harborplace pavilions and go all the way out to see Fort McHenry from the water and back again. Join veteran boat tour guide, Rebecca Cohen, for 300 years of history on a live-narrated tour of Baltimore’s world famous Inner Harbor. (90-minutes long)

The Lunch: Enjoy a prix fixe lunch from Baltimore’s own Miss Shirley’s Cafe with Baltimore Heritage Executive Director Johns Hopkins. See the menu below.

The Trolley Tour: Hop aboard an old-timey trolley for a fun-filled tour around our city! Join Baltimore Heritage Executive Director Johns Hopkins as we wind through some of Baltimore’s most charming neighborhoods including Fell’s Point, Canton, the Fort McHenry Tunnel, Locust Point, Federal HIll and our downtown/Inner Harbor area. We hope to see you on the history-packed live-guided tour! (90-minutes long)

Parking: We have partnered with Power Point Live! to provide you with $10 parking. Please park in the 15 S Frederick Street parking garage. Before returning to your car, you can get your parking ticket validated inside Power Plant Live! (34 Market Pl. Baltimore, MD 21202) to make sure you get the rate.

 

 

2026 Preservation Celebration: Send Us Ideas for Awardees and Microgrants!

We are thrilled that this year’s Baltimore Heritage Preservation Celebration will be at the Baltimore Streetcar Museum! On October 8, we’ll honor our 2026 Preservation Award winners and, with your help, give out five micro-grants (from $500 to $1500) to people working on the front lines in our historic neighborhoods. We’ll say thank you to our volunteers and honor all of their hard work this year. And, we’ll be celebrating local Baltimore businesses by giving away door prize gift certificates to local restaurants, theatres and more! With dinner and drinks from locally-owned Baltimore vendors, we hope you will join us for what promises to be a wonderful evening. The event is free with a suggested donation of $25.

In addition to joining us on October 8, please take a minute to send us your suggestions for our annual preservation awards (email hopkins@baltimoreheritage.org with award nominations). And if you are helping improve a historic neighborhood or place in the city, please consider applying for one of our microgrants. See below for more information.

–Johns Hopkins, Executive Director

About Our 2026 Historic Preservation Awards

At our October 8 celebration, we will honor people in Baltimore who over the last year have made an impact in helping save our historic places and improve our historic neighborhoods.

Our awards recognize work of all kinds: people who have done an excellent rehab job on their house or building; people who have volunteered at a historic site; people who have stepped up to improve their historic community with a new program or partnership. Individuals are eligible, as are organizations, corporations, and government agencies or programs. Self nominations are encouraged! Please email nominations to Johns Hopkins (hopkins@baltimoreheritage.org) by July 31.

 

About Our 2026 Microgrants

We’re in our 11th year of giving away microgrants to help fund preservation work in the city.

We’ll pick the most promising ideas and give them a chance for one $1500 grant, one $1000 grant and three $500 grants. Supporters of each idea will get three minutes to pitch them and at the end, all of us present will cast ballots to decide which ideas receive which micro grants.

The types of eligible projects are endless, and as long as they relate to Baltimore’s history, heritage, historic buildings or historic neighborhoods we will consider them. Past award winners include: restoring leaking masonry at a historic church, launching an after school arts-based safe space program in a historic neighborhood, supporting archaeological efforts at a historic furnace, and providing supplies for a community trying to provide access to a neighboring park. The sky’s the limit!

The award amounts may not be enough to complete an entire project. That’s OK. The goal is to help spark new and support existing neighborhood-level preservation work. You don’t need to be a nonprofit organization or even a formalized group to be eligible. Individuals and small groups are welcome! Complete rules can be found on the application. Please apply by September 11, 2026.