Boo! Greenmount and New Cathedral Cemetery tours for Halloween

Who’s Who in Baltimore: Greenmount Cemetery and Famous Marylanders Lunch, Talk and Tour

Saturday, October 27, 2012, 12:00 pm to 2:30 pm
RSVP today!  $40 per person (includes lunch)
Tour begins with lunch and a talk at the Baltimore Montessori Public Charter School, 1600 Guilford Avenue

Greenmount Cemetery, image courtesy Jack Breihan

From elites like William and Henry Walters, Johns Hopkins, and Enoch Pratt, to extraordinary slaves like Patty Atavis, and even the infamous assassin John Wilkes Booth, the dead at Greenmount Cemetery tell a rich and fascinating story of the growth of Baltimore. For this tour, we’re pleased to be partnering with the Maryland Historical Society and Greenmount Cemetery tour guide Wayne Schaumburg.

The program will begin with lunch and a discussion of some of the Marylanders buried at Greenmount led by curators at the Maryland Historical Society using items in the Society’s collections. After lunch, we’ll drive over to the cemetery to join Baltimore historian and Greenmount guide Wayne Schaumburg for a tour of the cemetery, its ornate grave stones, and its notable inhabitants. Space is limited!

Behind the Scenes at New Cathedral Cemetery

Saturday, November 10, 2012, 10:00 am to 12:00 pm
RSVP today! $10 per person
Meet at the Cemetery’s main entrance  – 4300 Old Frederick Road, 21229

New Cathedral Cemetery, courtesy jomiwi/Flickr.

Covering 125 acres in West Baltimore and with its origins dating to St. Peter’s Kirkyard at Saratoga and Cathedral Streets in the 1770s, New Cathedral Cemetery is a historic gem that is surprisingly hidden. Among other things, it is the resting place of more Hall of Fame baseball players than any other cemetery in the country, including Orioles greats from the 1890s Ned Hanlon, Joe Kelley, and John McGraw. It is also the resting place of Baltimore mayors Solomon Hillen, Thomas D’Alesandro, Jr., and Clarence (du) Burns, entrepreneur and philanthropist Reginald F. Lewis, and Mother Mary Lange, founder of the Oblate Sisters of Providence, the first ever congregation of women religious of African descent. Charles Carroll of Carrollton was originally buried here until he was reinterred at Doughoregan, the family estate in Howard County, but the cemetery still claims at least two other Carroll family members: Charles Carroll of Homewood and Governor John Lee Carroll.

With three centuries of wonderful headstones and statuary, the cemetery is also rich with sculpture and art, and of course stories about Baltimore. Please join us and cemetery historian Susan Schmidt on this trip through Baltimore history as told through New Cathedral Cemetery.

Photo walk & tour of Jewish Landmarks on the West Side this Saturday!

Baltimore residents of all backgrounds remember the bustling shops of Howard and Lexington Streets but a handful of Jewish-owned businesses – Hutzler’s, Hecht’s, and Read’s Drug Store just to name a few – stand out in stories and memories from the history of downtown’s west side. Bring your camera and join Baltimore Heritage for a free photo walk and tour exploring the history of Jewish entrepreneurs and workers – making clothes, selling furniture, and more – who made Howard and Lexington a place to remember.

West Side Photo Walk & Tour

October 27, 2012, 10:00 am to 12:00 pm
RSVP today or sign up on Facebook! Free thanks to Free Fall Baltimore.
Meet at the east entrance to Lexington Market – Eutaw and Lexington Streets

This tour is presented in partnership with the Jewish Museum of Maryland for the Jewish Landmarks Photo Competition. Special thanks to The Baltimore Sun for featuring our tour on the Darkroom blog.

We deeply appreciate the support of our donors who make Free Fall Baltimore possible.  Special thanks goes to Susquehanna Bank, The Abell Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts, with additional support provided by American Trading and Production Corporation, William G. Baker, Jr. Memorial Fund, and the Henry and Ruth Blaustein Rosenberg Foundation.

Old Hamilton Library listed on the National Register of Historic Places

On September 25, the Old Hamilton Library was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Designed by Baltimore architect Theodore W. Pietsch, the historic branch library was built thanks to the organized efforts of the Woman’s Club of Hamilton and the Hamilton Improvement Association along with support from Pittsburgh industrialist Andrew Carnegie.

Baltimore Heritage submitted the nomination to the Maryland Historical Trust in February with support from both the owner and the Hamilton-Lauraville Main Street. We hope this designation and the financial incentives of city, state and federal historic tax credits can help our partners find a new use for this neighborhood landmark and restore it to its long-time role as an asset to northeast Baltimore communities.

Bring a Friend, Win a Prize! 2012 Membership Challenge

Behind the Scenes Tour of the USS Constellation, March 2011

In fall, Baltimore Heritage launched our annual membership drive and the new 2012 Membership Challenge. As part of our ongoing efforts to get more Baltimoreans engaged in learning about and preserving our great historic buildings and neighborhoods, we are asking for your help by bringing friends, neighbors, family members, and others to our tours and events. We know we need a large and diverse group of friends and supporters to effectively preserve and promote Baltimore’s historic places, and we believe that coming to one of our events is a great way to introduce people to our work.

As a way of saying thank you for your help and support, we are raffling off private guided tours of historic neighborhoods – a walking tour of Mount Vernon, a bike tour of West Baltimore Parks and more – led by myself and Baltimore Heritage Field Officer Eli Pousson. Anybody who joins us for a tour or to an event and then becomes a member of Baltimore Heritage, along with any current Baltimore Heritage member who refers a new member is eligible to win. We’ll announce the winners in early January. So the next time you register for one of our Behind the Scenes tours or other events, please bring a friend! Thank you for helping us with our 2012 Membership Challenge, and for helping us protect our shared history and revitalize our historic neighborhoods. I hope to see you and a guest at one of our events soon.