Category: Ongoing

300 Five Minute Histories Videos!

We can hardly believe it, but today marks a milestone in our Five Minute Histories series! We just published our 300th video. Thank you to everyone who has watched, subscribed, sent the videos to their families and sent us corrections! For today’s milestone, we thought we needed a big topic. And what bigger topic than our city’s iconic Lexington Market? Thanks for watching and see you next week with our 301st video. 

Want to explore our past videos? Find them all on YouTube or this map!

 

What Are We Planning for 2024?

And why we need your support to make it happen!

There are only a few days left in 2023, 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 tours at Westminster Hall & Burying Ground in addition to our recurring tours at Clifton Mansion, Green Mount Cemetery and in historic neighborhoods around our city. This spring we will be able to return with more robust tours and events, including three new bus 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 2024.
  • Critical Preservation Advocacy: This past year we helped fight to preserve architecturally significant rowhouses on Preston Street in Mt. Vernon and several buildings in the Five & Dime Local Historic District near Lexington Market. In 2024, we will continue this work throughout the city, which a special focus on disinvested historic neighborhoods.

 

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 2023, 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

Johns Hopkins’ 20th Anniversary at Baltimore Heritage

Hi friends,

My name is Lesley Humphreys and I am the current President of the Board of Baltimore Heritage. 2023 marks the 20th anniversary of Johns Hopkins joining us as Executive Director. As a way of saying thanks for all he has done for our organization, for our members, and for Baltimore, we put together a short two-minute video.

We at Baltimore Heritage are also honoring Johns’ anniversary (and hopefully many years ahead!) by raising funds to support our current work and to secure our future. We hope you will consider making a contribution today. You can donate online, call us at 410-332-9992, or send a donation through the mail (100 N. Charles St, Suite P101, Baltimore, MD 21201).

We can’t thank Johns enough for his thoughtful and steadfast tenure as the Executive Director of Baltimore Heritage. And on behalf of Baltimore Heritage’s board of directors, I also can’t thank you enough for your commitment and support.

Sincerely,

Lesley Humphreys, Board President
Baltimore Heritage

Save the Date! Bmore Historic 2023 is September 22

Baltimore’s annual unconference on people, places, and the past will be at the Baltimore Museum of Industry on Friday, September 22, 2023! Students are free this year.

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.

The Historic West Preston Street Rowhouses: Our Newest Five Minute Histories Video

Today’s Five Minute Histories video is a bit different! The historic block we are featuring on West Preston Street in Mount Vernon showcases one of the city’s grandest Victorian buildings, the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Annunciation, as well as Baltimore’s very earliest switch away from Victorian architecture to a new NeoColonial style. This block was also the home of three pioneering women of science in the early 20th Century, as well as Baltimore’s mayor during the great 1904 Fire. The Greek Cathedral has begun seeking authorization to demolish five of the historic rowhouses on the block and we are sharing this video in hopes that it will help convey why we think this block and these particular rowhouses are important and should be reused rather than demolished. Watch the video here:

 

This is our series called “Five Minute Histories.” We record short videos about different historic places all over Baltimore and post them on our Facebook page, YouTube channel, and website.