New Centennial Home: The Bauer Family in Bellona-Gittings

On December 18, 2024, Baltimore Heritage awarded the Bauer family with a Centennial Homes certificate. The Bauer family has owned this house on Hollen Road since before this part of Baltimore was incorporated into the city in 1918. The Bauer family also operated a florist near here for 99 years (and grew the flowers between the house and the florist shop).

One of the current owners, Lindsey Bauer, remembers visiting every Friday for dinner as a child. Thank you to the Bauer family for their continued commitment to this wonderful historic home.

What Are We Planning for 2025? And why we need your support to make it happen.

There are only a few days left in 2024, which means you have only a few days left to donate or become a member this year! We are a small organization so a gift of any size – from $5 to $500 – will help immensely. Here are a few highlights for how your gift will help in the year ahead:

Heritage Tours:

This past year we began hosting three new bus tours and even a new Inner Harbor history boat tour! This spring we will be able to return with more robust tours and events, including more boat tours. Please stay tuned!

Five Minute Histories Videos: 

Our Five Minute Histories series offers a way to connect that in-person programs just can’t. So, don’t worry, these are here to stay, and we’re ramping up for a full year of them in 2025.

Critical Preservation Work: 

This past year we helped restore the Perkins Square Gazebo in the Heritage Crossing neighborhood. In the coming year, we are planning to work with our partners in Herring Run and Leakin Parks on projects that will celebrate the parks’ histories and help improve the health of the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

 

We need your help today.

 

We at Baltimore Heritage are a little bit unusual. We rely heavily on kind volunteers to make our work possible, and nearly three quarters of our annual operating income comes from gifts from individuals. Most of these gifts are at our basic membership levels of $35 for an individual and $50 for a family. By donating at any level, be assured that your support goes a long way.

So once more for 2024, please accept an enormous thank you to everyone who volunteers with us, comes out for tours and programs (in-person and virtually!), and supports our work by generously donating. We look forward to working with you and connecting with you in the year ahead.

— Johns Hopkins, Baltimore Heritage

Coming Spring 2025: Inner Harbor History Boat Tours

Join us for our brand new Baltimore by Boat tours! America defeated the British here. Frederick Douglass escaped from here. Today we are pioneering watershed restoration here. Join us for 300 years of history on a live-narrated tour of Baltimore’s world famous Inner Harbor. Come see how Baltimore’s wonderful waterfront connects the past with the present and Baltimore to the rest of the world.

 

Please stay tuned for more boat tours coming Spring 2025!

Sign up for our mailing list to be notified of new tours. 

 

Boat tours are 75 minutes long. We have partnered with the Baltimore Water Taxi to use their vessels.

For Private Boat Tours: Starting at $250 plus the price of the boat rental (prices vary). Please contact Molly Ricks at ricks@baltimoreheritage.org or 240-305-3984 for scheduling.

Check out all of our upcoming events!

 

Thank you to PNC Bank and NPS Chesapeake Gateways for supporting this project.

 

St. Peter’s Cemetery Restoration Update

In October 2024, Baltimore Heritage held our annual awards event where we gave away 6 micro-grants to 6 very worthy community projects. One award went to the Friends of St. Peter’s Cemetery to support the restoration of this historic site in partnership with the PRINCE Program, which trains incarcerated citizens in cemetery preservation. Last week, we were able to visit the cemetery and see the valuable work being done here. The Baltimore Heritage micro-grant money was used in the last round of vegetation clearance and funded two additional days of clean-up.


Baltimore Heritage recently adopted a new strategic plan, along with new mission and vision statements. Each of these complements and supports community projects like the work being done by the Friends of St. Peter’s Cemetery.

Our new Mission Statement: To amplify Baltimore’s diverse cultural heritage through collaboration, advocacy, and education.

Our new Vision Statement: We create a thriving Baltimore by preserving, honoring and sharing our histories