Updated publication provides comprehensive take on Baltimore City designated landmarks

Baltimore’s Commission on Historical and Architectural Preservation has just published the first update to the official Baltimore City Designated Landmarks List since 2003. This report features summaries and photos for each of the 164 Baltimore City landmarks and public interior landmarks – from the designation of Baltimore City Hall back in January 1971 through Old Dunbar High School designated this past spring.

The new publication features cross-referenced, easy-to-use overview maps and index as well as information about the benefits, protections, and review procedures for Baltimore City Landmarks. Download a copy online today!

Tax credits and historic district offer new momentum for rehabilitation of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum

In February, we celebrated the announcement that Baltimore’s Hebrew Orphan Asylum received over $2.5 million in support from the Maryland Sustainable Communities Tax Credit program. In order to secure the claim to these tax credits, the Coppin Heights Community Development Corporation was required to pay a 3% fee – over $75,000 – which posed a tough challenge for a small non-profit. For the past several months, Dr. Gary Rodwell has worked with Baltimore Heritage and other partners to continue promoting interest in the project and identify partners who could provide the necessary funding. Thankfully, Coppin State University has stepped forward to pay the fee and secure the Hebrew Orphan Asylum’s claim to the state historic tax credits. With this support, the Coppin Heights CDC is in a strong position to continue planning and  push forward with fundraising for the rehabilitation of the building.

The past few weeks have also marked the end of work by the Red Line Station Area Advisory Committees – groups of volunteer residents, business owners, and other stakeholder who collaborated with designers, planners, architects and land-use experts to bring their insight into the design and planning of the nineteen proposed Red Line stations. The Rosemont Station Area Advisory Committee produced a vision plan (find a PDF here) for the future of the Rosemont area that highlighted the importance of historic district designation for neighborhood revitalization, established the reuse of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum as a key goal and considered landmark designation for the Hebrew Orphan Asylum and other historic properties.

Baltimore Heritage is helping make this vision a reality by starting to prepare a historic district nomination for the neighborhoods of Greater Rosemont and by working with the Coppin Heights CDC towards the restoration and reuse of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum.  As we continue to strive for the revitalization of historic West Baltimore neighborhoods, we welcome any questions or suggestions.

Discover a century of arts & industry in Station North during Artscape

Come out to Artscape this month and join us for a free walking tour on the history of the theaters, schools, factories and more that made North Avenue one of Baltimore’s most vibrant and creative neighborhoods decades before it ever became an arts district. We’re offering five identical tours from Friday through Sunday during the festival. Don’t forget to bring a bottle of water to beat the summer heat!

Station North Walking Tours

  • Friday, July 20 – 5:30pm and 7:30 pm
  • Saturday, July 21 – 3:30 pm and 5:30 pm
  • Sunday, July 22 – 3:30 pm

RSVP online today! Meet at the southwest corner of Charles Street and Lafayette Avenue.

Parkway Theater, 1915. Courtesy The Photography Collections, UMBC, P75-54-N458g.

Today, Station North has a growing reputation as a hub for art, performance and design but it also boasts a long history of creativity in industry, arts & entertainment. In the first few decades of the 20th century, the inventor of the modern bottle cap built his factory on Guilford Avenue, entrepreneurs on Charles Street pushed the theater business in new directions, and the stately Polytechnic High School on North Avenue trained thousands of young engineers, draftsman and designers who helped to shape Baltimore’s industrial growth. Today, architects, entrepreneurs and educators are adapting these old buildings to new uses from artist studios to the city’s new Design High School. Join us as we explore stories from the past and present of the Station North Arts District on a one-hour walking tour past local landmarks and lesser known gems from the Parkway Theater to Penn Station!

This project is supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, the William G. Baker, Jr. Memorial Fund, creator of the Baker Artists Awards, and Station North Arts & Entertainment, Inc. Special thanks to Elise Hoffman who contributed to the research on this project and will be leading our tours!

Congratulations to 2012 Preservation Awards Winners!

2012 Preservation Awards CelebrationOn June 21, Baltimore Heritage celebrated the best historic preservation projects of the past year and the people behind them. From the rehabilitation and conversion of the largest stone mill in Maryland – Union Mill – to rowhouse rehab work in the Patterson Park neighborhood, 13 projects in all won awards. The honorees included the Friends of St. Vincent Cemetery for their ongoing effort to reclaim an all-but-forgotten cemetery in Clifton Park, to Mr. Stephen Israel for a herculean task of researching, documenting, and photographing every single house in the Ten Hills neighborhood in West Baltimore.

Baltimore Heritage’s board bestowed a special award this year to Karen Lewand, honorary AIA, for lifetime achievement in historic preservation. The award is named after Douglas Gordon, a pioneering advocate who spearheaded the effort to save Mount Vernon Place from demolition in the 1960s. Among many things, Ms. Lewand has been a CHAP commissioner, an advisor to the Maryland Historical Trust, helped found the non-profit organization 1000 Friends of Maryland, and launched numerous innovative education efforts including heritage walking tours, neighborhood research projects, and education programs about historic neighborhoods for Baltimore schools.

Congratulations to all of the 2012 Award Winners!

Restoration and Rehabilitation Award

Garrett-Jacobs Mansion Ballroom Restoration
11 West Mount Vernon Place

The Engineers Club owner; Garrett-Jacobs Mansion Endowment Fund, partner; Thomas Moore Studios contractor; Christiana Cunningham-Adams mural restoration; Walter Raynes panel restoration; Brian Fick contractor; Mary Yeager contractor; Gillian Quinn mural restoration; Matthew Mosca paint analysis; Johnson Berman design consultant.

Lillie Carroll Jackson Museum
1320 Eutaw Place

Morgan State University owner; Gant Brunnett Architects, Inc. architects; Commercial Interiors interior decoration; Hayles & Howe plaster work; Crenshaw Lighting engineers.

Loyola University Francis Xavier Knott Humanities Building
South Chimney Repairs – 4501 North Charles Street

Loyola University Maryland owner; Structural Restoration Services contractor; American Platform & Scaffolding contractor; Whitney Bailey Cox & Magnani contractor.

Adaptive Reuse and Compatible Design Award

10 West Chase Street

WRH Property Holdings, LLC owner; Template Design, LLC architect; Mullan Contracting Company contractor; O’Connell and Associates tax credit consultant.

Fallsway Housing and Resource Center
620 Fallsway

Baltimore City Office of Homeless Services owner; Gant Brunnett Architects, Inc. architects; Roy Kirby & Sons, Inc. contractor.

3000 Chestnut Avenue

Practical Properties owner; 33:D architect.

Restoration Gardens
3701 Cottage Avenue

AIRS/Empire Homes owner; Cho Benn Holback + Associates, Inc. architect; Homes for America developer; Linden Contracting, Inc. contractor; Min Engineer Engineering, Inc. engineer; Mincin Patel Milano, Inc. structural engineer; Gower Thompson, Inc. civil engineer.

Union Mill
1500 Union Avenue

Seawall Development Company owner; Marks, Thomas architect; Hamel Builders contractor; Columbia Engineering structural engineer; Allen & Shariff Corporation engineer; Gower Thompson civil engineer; Poole Design, LLC landscape architect.

Heritage Preservation Award

126 South Patterson Park Avenue

Pagoda Trust LLC, owner.
2214 East Pratt Street

Noel Brown & Sereen Thaddeus owners; Architecture and Urban Views architect; Federal Masonry Restoration contractor; Thomson Remodeling Co. contractor; T & D Development contractor.

St. Vincent Cemetery, Clifton Park

Friends of St. Vincent Cemetery

Historic Baltimore Neighborhoods Award

Ten Hills Research, Documentation, and Recordation
Mr. Stephen Israel

Douglas Gordon Award

A Lifetime of Leadership and Dedication to Historic Preservation in Baltimore
Ms. Karen Lewand, Hon. AIA

Save the date for Bmore Historic 2012!

Bmore Historic — Baltimore’s preservation, public history and cultural heritage unconference — is back for 2012! Save the date on your calendar today:

Bmore Historic 2012

Friday, October 12, 8:30 am to 3:30 pm
Maryland Historical Society
201 West Monument Street

More than 100 local historians, humanities scholars, preservation advocates, museum professionals and archivists joined us at the inaugural Bmore Historic unconference in December 2011. Thanks to the continued generosity of the Maryland Historical Society and the hard work of our small organizing committee, we’re coming back on October 12, 2012 for more discussions on public history, historic preservation and community development in the Baltimore region and across the state of Maryland. We’re also pleased to announce our partnership with the Baltimore Cultural Education Roundtable to engage educators from local museums and cultural organizations.

Stay tuned for an update on registration in the next few months or take a look at our about page for more information. Don’t forget to join the Bmore Historic Facebook Group or connect with Bmore Historic on Twitter @bmorehistoric. We look forward to seeing you in the fall!