Diminutive but nationally significant, Baltimore’s Irish Shrine at Lemmon Street offers a rare glimpse of immigrant home life in America in the middle of the 19th century. Please join us for a tour of the Shrine, two restored 1848 alley houses in the Hollins Market neighborhood, with our hosts from the Shrine and its affiliate, the Railroad Historic District Corporation.
Tour Information
Dates: Wednesday, June 23, 2010 / Thursday, June 24, 2010
Time: 5:30 to 6:00 PM wine and cheese reception
6:00 to 7:00 PM tour
Place: 900 Lemmon Street – one block north of the B&O Railroad Museum
Parking is available along nearby streets
Cost: $15 (includes wine and cheese reception)
Registration: Click Here to Register
An avalanche of Irish immigrants hit Baltimore in 1840 and1850, many escaping Ireland’s Great Hunger Famine of 1845-1853. Many settled in southwest Baltimore and promptly went to work for the vibrant Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. The B&O had located in the countryside that was then West Baltimore in 1827 and feverishly built a roundhouse, station, shops, and other buildings in the years that followed. All of this construction required human labor, as did the operation of the railroad itself, and Irish immigrants came to fill the need. The Irish Shrine consists of two renovated alley houses in 900 block of Lemmon Street that were built in 1848 for railroad workers. One of the houses is furnished as a period-house museum, reflecting the lives of the Irish-immigrant family that lived there in the 1860s. The other house offers exhibits on Irish-American history and local neighborhood life. With a lot of hard work and a lengthy law suit, a number of dedicated Baltimoreans founded the Irish Shrine in 1997 to save the buildings in the 900 block of Lemmon Street from proposed demolition. The block is now on the Baltimore City historic registry and the National Register of Historic Places. Please join us for a tour of this preservation success story and historical gem with guides from the Shrine and its affiliated organization, the Railroad Historic District Corporation.
The Shrine is small and space is limited on each tour. Confirmations will be sent by email, and payment will be due upon confirmation. For additional information and questions, call Baltimore Heritage at 410-332-9992. This tour series is made possible in part by a generous contribution from the Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts and the Maryland State Arts Council.
Thank you to our 50th Anniversary Year Sponsors!