Our Newest Centennial Home: The Parago-Culbreath Family

On July 30, 2024, Baltimore Heritage, in partnership with the Bolton Hill Community Association (BHA), awarded the Parago-Culbreath family with a Centennial Homes certificate. The Parago-Culbreath family has lived in their home on Dolphin St. for over 116 years. This is the longest occupancy by a family in Bolton Hill, and for a few generations they held strong here through segregationist housing policies. We are grateful to this family’s endurance, strength and continued stewardship of the property.

The Baltimore Centennial Homes project, developed in collaboration between Baltimore Heritage and City Councilman James Kraft, recognizes families that have been in the same house for 100 years or more. These families have anchored Baltimore’s historic blocks and neighborhoods through good times and bad. Their stories show the changes that our communities and our city have experienced as well as the critical roles that neighborhoods and their families have played in keeping historic neighborhoods thriving.

Members of the Parago-Culbreath family with the Centennial Home certificate.

2024 Preservation Celebration: Save the Date – October 10 & Send Us Ideas for Awardees and Micro Grants

We are thrilled that this year’s Baltimore Heritage Preservation Celebration will be at the newly restored historic Hollins Market. Please join us on October 10. It’s free and we’d love to have you with us.

On October 10, we’ll honor our 2024 Preservation Award winners and, with your help, give out five micro-grants 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. This gathering also acts as Baltimore Heritage’s annual meeting where we elect new board members. With food and drinks from Baltimore vendors, we hope you will join us for what promises to be a wonderful evening. The event is free with suggested voluntary donation of $25.

In addition to joining us on October 10, please take a minute to send us your suggestions for our annual preservation awards. 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.

 

 

About Our 2024 Historic Preservation Awards

At our October 10 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 send nominations to info@baltimoreheritage.org by September 4.

 

About Our 2024 Microgrants

We’re in our 9th year of giving away micro-grants to help fund preservation work in the city. If you have a good idea to help preserve a historic building or place in Baltimore or help revitalize a historic neighborhood, we’d love to hear from you! The process is easy: simply fill out the online application and hit send by September 13.

We’ll pick the most promising ideas and give them a chance for one $2000 grant, two $1000 grants and two $500 grants. The grants will be given on October 10 at our Preservation Celebration at Hollins Market (35 S Carrollton Ave, Baltimore, MD 21223). 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 the 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 amounts of the award ($500, $1000, and $2000) 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 Take Our Very Short Hands-On Preservation Survey

We at Baltimore Heritage are committed to expanding our assistance in revitalizing historic neighborhoods in Baltimore, and are exploring the idea of coordinating hands-on volunteer work to help with community projects. To help us understand how we can best use our time and resources, please take 45 seconds and fill out this 4 question survey.

 

Click here to take the survey

 

If you choose to enter your email, you will be entered into a drawing for two free Baltimore Heritage tour tickets. Thank you for your participation!

Bmore Historic Save-the-Date & Register — Sept 27, 2024

We hope to see you this September at the Baltimore Museum of Industry for Bmore Historic 2024! 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 four session blocks: two in the morning and two in the afternoon. We usually have between four to six sessions in each of the time blocks for a total of twenty sessions throughout the day.

 

By the Marble: Podcasting Baltimore’s Queer History

Baltimore Heritage is delighted to partner with UMBC’s Summer 2024 Interdisciplinary CoLab program and Dr. Kate Drabinski to showcase Baltimore’s undiscovered Queer history with a new podcast, By the Marble: Podcasting Baltimore’s Queer History. Often the first step in justifying violence against a group is to deny, distort, or erase their history. Researched, written and produced by UMBC students, By the Marble aims to preserve the histories of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer people, and reveal the ways queer life has shaped Baltimore. By the Marble‘s pilot episode is “Black Theater and Queer Performance in Baltimore.” Stay tuned for future episodes–you can find this podcast on Spotify and and wherever you stream podcasts.

 

Created by:
 
Cayla Amouzou is a second-year Statistics and English major at UMBC. They are interested in researching statistical methods in social science research and applying culturally sustaining demographic methodologies to marginalized communities.
 
Sage Zoz (She/Her) is a third year Gender, Womens, and Sexuality Studies major at UMBC. She is immensely interested in the formation of community as it pertains to grassroots and mutual aid organizing.
 
Marlon Brown Jr. (He/They) is a Baltimore native, senior acting student at UMBC, and aspiring playwright/educator. Much of Marlon’s work pertains to telling stories of marginalized existence in various facets and hopes to utilize the skills he’s developed to create impactful art for the city.