Our education programs include technical assistance to property owners, heritage education around the Civil War Sequicentennial and the Bi-Centennial of the War of 1812, and our ongoing Race and Place in Baltimore Neighborhoods project.
On June 20, 2023, Baltimore Heritage awarded Margaretta Callanan with a Centennial Homes certificate. Her family has owned their home on Foster Ave for over 108 years. Margaretta’s maternal grandmother, Barbara King, lived her sixty of her eighty-nine years. Margaretta’s mom, Marie Emily Miller, lived here ninety-four of her ninety-seven years. Thank you to this family for taking such great care of an iconic Baltimore rowhouse!
On June 17, please join us for a guided tour of Baltimore’s Marble Hill neighborhood, which was the home to an astonishing amount of groundbreaking Civil Rights leaders. Reverend Harvey Johnson began one of the first collective action movements here in the 1880s. In the 1930s Lillie Carroll Jackson engaged youth in “The Movement” and pioneered new non-violent protest tactics that were later picked up in cities across the country. Thurgood Marshall grew up here, as did the chief lobbyist for the 1964 Civil Rights Act, Clarence Mitchell. Most recently this was the district for the late Representative Elijah Cummings, one of the most powerful voices for civil rights in Washington. Join us to learn how fundamental pillars of the Civil Rights Movement got built here by driven, activist neighbors with their eyes on the prize. Register here!
Last Thursday, the Maryland Women’s Heritage Center (formerly the Women’s Industrial Exchange) hosted Baltimore Heritage and friends for a fabulous behind-the-scenes evening. We got to see an array of artifacts (many of which were found on the second floor of the building, untouched for decades) and exhibits that show how the building continues to honor Maryland women. We saw the Maryland Women’s Hall of Fame, which includes people like Margaret Brent, Pauli Murray, and Major General Linda Singh.
We also viewed the Valiant Maryland Women: The Fight for Suffrage exhibit, which featured Baltimoreans Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Etta Maddox, and Augusta Chissell, among other Maryland women. Dr. Amy Rosenkrans then gave us a fabulous historical overview of the Women’s Industrial Exchange, the third oldest women’s exchange in the country! This was a place for down-on-their-luck women to sell crafts and goods to support themselves. It also had an affordable and delicious lunchroom.
She also highlighted where she wants her research to go in the future. If you have memories or stories about the Women’s Industrial Exchange, or know anything about Baltimore’s Colored Women’s Industrial Exchange, please contact her at amyrosenkransphd@gmail.com.
Be sure to check out the Maryland Women’s Heritage Center to hear about the courageous, pioneering and often forgotten women that have made Maryland the great state is it today.
The Mitchell Law Office in Upton is set to receive $1.75 million from Congressman Kweisi Mfume. This money will be used to transform the building, which was once the office of Maryland’s first Black woman lawyer, Juanita Jackson Mitchell, into a legal hub in West Baltimore. Rev. Al Hathaway of Beloved Community Services Corporation is spearheading this alongside his other project, the PS 103/Thurgood Marshall School restoration. Here is a link to a Baltimore Banner article that ran yesterday.
On June 19, 1919, Sharon VanDyke’s grandparents, Harry and Edna Shivers, bought 406 E Randall St. in Riverside. Their daughter, Devera Steltz, was born in the front room and then occupied the home through the 1960’s. Devera’s daughter, Sharon VanDyke, currently lives here. This quintessential Baltimore rowhouse (marble steps, formstone and a Camark cat are all Bmore hallmarks!) has been owned by the family for over 100 years. On April 14, 2023 Baltimore Heritage presented Sharon VanDyke with a Centennial Homes plaque and certificate.
