Category: Tours

A stone sculpture of a horse sitting on an abstract wave with columns in the background.

Enjoy the fall weather on a unique tour this October

Fall weather is perfect for going new places and exploring the city by bike and bus. We have three new tours lined up over the next few weeks including a beer history themed bike tour, a classical concert at a classical landmark, and a bus tour with local architect Tom Liebel for Doors Open Baltimore.

Baltimore Beer Week 2017 is coming up and Dr. Ralph Brown has volunteered to lead a morning ride on Saturday, October 14 covering breweries and beer-drinkers from the past. The bike tour ends with a sampler flight of beers at the Heavy Seas Alehouse (price included with registration), where we’ll hear from some of the folks making beer in Baltimore today.

The next day, October 15, we’ll be at the War Memorial Building for a tour where we can check out the recent window restoration of this historic landmark and then sit down to enjoy a performance by the Hopkins Symphony Orchestra. We’re excited to partner on this program with the orchestra and to offer a second performance on December 3 with new selections and soloists from the JHU Choral Society and Baltimore School for the Arts chorus.

Finally, you can close out the month with a Doors Open bus tour of local architecture and history from downtown to West Baltimore and back again led by Tom Liebel, architect and chair of Baltimore’s Commission for Historical and Architectural Preservation. Our ride will include stops at six wonderful historic places: the 1814 Peale Museum, Union Baptist Church on Druid Hill Avenue, the Arabber Center off of Pennsylvania Avenue, the 1806 St. Mary’s Seminary Chapel in Seton Hill, the Le Mondo art and performance space on Howard Street, and the War Memorial Building near City Hall by architect Laurence Hall Fowler.

Doors Open Baltimore now includes a full weekend with free open houses and self-guided tours of over fifty sites on Saturday, October 28 and dozens of special events and guided tours on Sunday, October 29. We hope you can be part of this fun annual event!

Two men standing in the street; one is pointing and the other is holding a tape measure.

Upcoming heritage tours, an archaeology volunteer open house, and more fall events

With summer in the rear view mirror, it’s time to turn to the fall when we hope you can join us on the heritage tours, seminars, and events we’ve lined up in September and October.

Beginning on Saturday, September 9, we are continuing our monthly tours of Lexington Market “catacombs” and historic vendors. If you missed our Lexington Market tours in the spring, now’s your chance! That afternoon, you are welcome to get involved with the Herring Run Archaeology Project at a volunteer open house where project archaeologists will share updates on the dig and upcoming opportunities.

Thursday, September 12 marks the 137th birthday of H.L. Mencken, and we’re celebrating with a tour: “My Own Two Hands”: A Birthday Tour of the H.L. Mencken House. Our partners, the Friends of the H.L. Mencken House and the Baltimore National Heritage Area, will share the history of the building and its curmudgeonly resident, as well as plans for restoration and reopening. At the end of the month, on Saturday, September 30, we’re taking a one-hour walking tour of Ellicott City, with Preservation Maryland’s executive director Nick Redding. Nick will share a close look at the challenges and progress of the recovery one year after a devastating flood.

On Tuesday, October 3, we are saying thank you to everyone who volunteers with us, joins our heritage tours, and supports Baltimore Heritage as members, donors, and sponsors. We’re hosting an evening of thanks at Whitehall Mill with a reception, a tour of this historic former textile mill, and a chance to help us give away four micro-grants for preservation work in Baltimore. We hope you can join us for this free event and give us the chance to say thank you for all you do.

Large brick building with a sign reading "Whitehall Mill" painted on the side.
Photograph by Brian P. Miller, 2016. Courtesy Baltimore Architecture Foundation.
A green-tinted photograph of a large stone house with overlaid white text reading: "Orianda House at the Crimea Estate"

New tours of the Orianda House, H.L. Mencken House, and more

After a quiet July, we are back with new tours of historic places all across the city! On August 24, we’re returning to the grand Orianda House at the former Crimea Estate in Gwynns Falls Park. Then, on September 12, we’re celebrating the birthday of Baltimore’s own H.L. Mencken with a tour of his beloved Hollins Street rowhouse.

If you have any visitors in town this summer (or you feel like being a tourist in your own backyard), be sure to check out one of our upcoming Monumental City tours of Jonestown and the Shot Tower this Sunday, August 6, downtown landmarks on August 13, the Washington Monument on August 20, and the Patterson Park Observatory on August 27. Of course, Lexington Market is open for visitors and local shoppers all year round but you can enjoy a special treat by exploring the market “catacombs” with our latest market tour on September 9.

Finally, you can get outside the city on September 30 as our friends at Preservation Maryland share how historic Ellicott City is recovering from last year’s devastating flood. We hope you are having a wonderful summer and we look forward to seeing you on a tour soon!

Tours on the move this summer!

We’re enjoying a hot start to summer but before it gets really hot we’re squeezing in a few tours that combine Baltimore’s great heritage with a little outdoor activity. Tomorrow, June 24, we’re taking a walk through Baltimore’s LGBT heritage with our Charles Village Pride tour. On Sunday, June 25, we’re pedaling and talking our way from Cylburn Arboretum to Druid Hill Park and back again on The Enduring Value of Baltimore’s Parks: A Tour by Bike. And on Thursday, June 29 you can check out moving images with a screening of the 1981 16mm film “Memories” organized by the Greater Hampden Heritage Alliance.

Finally, on Friday, June 30, we’re partnering with Goucher College’s Historic Preservation Program to offer a truly unusual tour: a visit with project engineers as they move three one-thousand ton mid-century modern dormitories across campus. How in the world can they do that? We’ll get up close on this hard hat tour to find out! We hope you can join us.

P.S. You can also check out our photos from last week’s 2017 Preservation Awards Celebration at Lexington Market. Congratulations again to all of our award winners!

Join us on June 15 at Lexington Market for Preservation Awards, market tours, and great food!

If you haven’t already bought your tickets, you still have time to join us on the evening of Thursday, June 15 for our 2017 Awards Celebration. Lexington Market is kindly hosting us for an evening that includes tours of the “catacombs” under the west market, delicious food from Faidley’s, Mary Mervis and more market favorites, and a celebration of the best historic preservation work of the year. We are especially excited to congratulate this year’s award winners. The array of diverse and exceptional award-winning projects includes the rehabilitation of alley houses in East Baltimore, the Herring Run Archaeology project, and the meticulous restoration of grand rowhouses in Bolton Hill. We’ll have parking available in the surface lot next to the market, and with Light Rail and Metro Subway stops close by, there is every reason to get yourself to Lexington Market on June 15!

As we round out the month of June, we also hope you can join us on an upcoming tour. We have three Monumental City Tours on Sundays: June 11 is Downtown Landmarks and Lions; June 18 is Mount Vernon Place and the Washington Monument; and June 25 is Patterson Park Observatory and the Battle of Baltimore. On Saturday, June 24, we are exploring LGBTQ heritage with Charles Village Pride: LGBT Heritage Walking Tour. And finally, on June 25, we have our final bike tour of the spring: The Enduring Value of Baltimore’s Historic Parks: A Tour by Bike. We’ll see you outdoors in June!