Last night, Baltimore Heritage had its annual Preservation Celebration! We handed out 13 awards to groups and individuals doing fabulous work celebrating and preserving our city’s history and buildings. We gave out 6 micro-grants to 6 very worthy community projects. We conducted our organization’s annual meeting and welcomed a few new board members. And we said a big thank you to our wonderful volunteers. They make historic preservation possible in Baltimore. All the while, we ate delicious food from Pitamore and drank wine from Spirits of Mt. Vernon! Thank you to everyone attended.

Award Winners 

Volunteer of the Year: Pat Hawthorne
For years of dedication to Baltimore’s historic places

Afro Charities
For 60 years of preserving the Afro American Newspaper’s history

Raymond Bahr
For bringing the history of Canton to light

BGE Gas Regulator Fighters
For fighting for Baltimore’s historic neighborhoods

Siobhan Hagan and SHAN Wallace
For bringing Baltimore’s historic moving images and home movies to light

Friends of Herring Run Park
For creating the Heritage Trail at Herring Run Park

The Authors and Editors of A Place for Memory
For a new book on Laurel Cemetery

Maryland Women’s Heritage Center
For promoting the history of the Women’s Suffrage Movement

E. Evans Paull
For the book Stop the Road: Stories from the Trenches of Baltimore’s Road Wars

The Friends of the Ship Caulkers’ Houses
For the stabilization and exterior restoration of 612-614 S. Wolfe Street

Cory Ann Adcock-Camp
For the reclamation and restoration of 1810 Barclay Street

Latrobe Building / Ulysses Hotel
For restoration of the historic Latrobe Building into the Ulysses Hotel

Lexington Market
For conserving public market heritage in the new Lexington Market

Pitch Party Winners

$1000: St. Luke’s Youth Center

$1000: Govans Presbyterian Church Racial Justice Ministry

$1000: Maryland Women’s Heritage Center

$500: Friends of Herring Run Park

$500: Baltimore Lab School

$500: Baltimore Crime Museum

Join us for our Preservation Celebration 2023 at Open Works. On October 19, we’ll honor our 2023 Preservation Award winners and, with your help, give out four 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. Register here! 

About Our 2023 Historic Preservation Awards

At our October 19 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 25.

About Our 2023 Microgrants

We’re in our 8th 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 25.

We’ll pick the most promising ideas and give them a chance for one of two $1000 grants and two $500 grants. The grants will be given on October 19 at our Preservation Celebration at Open Works (1400 Greenmount Ave, Baltimore, MD 21202). 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 and 1000) 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.