Category: Tours

New heritage tours from North Avenue to Thames Street

After a chilly February, we hope you will warm up with us next month on our new heritage tours in Station North and Fell’s Point.

We’re thrilled offer a tour of the Centre Theater on March 4 led by Jubilee Baltimore’s Executive Director Charlie Duff who is leading an ambitious rehabilitation project for the building. Jubilee and their partners at Johns Hopkins University and MICA are transforming this long-neglected Station North landmark into a home for film education and arts programming. On March 26, the Women’s Housing Coalition is opening up the grand Margaret Jenkins Mansion on Maryland Avenue for a unique tour of a former orphanage turned into a transitional home for women in 2008.

At the end of March we are launching a new series of walking tours in Fell’s Point in partnership with the Preservation Society to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the construction of the Robert Long House. Take a deep dive into the history of Fell’s Point on our tours and the Preservation Society lectures on topics including economic development, African-American heritage, and immigration. Distinguished local historian and former state archivist Dr. Edward Papenfuse, is leading the first tour in the series – Fell’s Point as Boomtown – on March 29.

Fall in love with a beautiful building on our upcoming heritage tours

February is the perfect time of year to share a memorable love story and fall in love with a beautiful building. Please join us on Sunday, February 15 for a Valentine’s Day tradition—the Mount Vernon Love Stories Valentine’s walking tour with volunteer guide Jamie Hunt!  Jamie’s tour weaves together stories of trysts, true loves and everything from Benedict Arnold to Al Capone. It’s a real treat and we hope you can join us.

Later in the month, we are looking forward to a preview of a restored Civil Rights museum at the Lillie Mae Carroll Jackson house on Eutaw Place. This tour is the first program in our Civil Rights Landmarks series highlighting historic places tied to the history of Baltimore’s African-American Civil Rights movement. The series is organized through our new partnership with the Maryland Historical Trust and the Baltimore National Heritage Area to document Baltimore’s Civil Rights heritage in the year ahead.

We are always looking for places to tour so, if you have ideas, we’d love to hear from you. You’ll see from our calendar of upcoming tours that we are continuing to branch out with new spring tours planned for Ellicott City and Havre de Grace, so any and all ideas are welcome! Don’t forget, membership support includes discounts on tours and early access to our spring 2015 Baltimore by Foot tours—including walks with local experts in Pigtown, Mount Washington, Hampden and more.

Come on a tour and help advocate for preservation priorities in the new year!

Happy New Year! We’re starting out 2015 with a new batch of heritage tours starting tomorrow night with Automobiles to Artists: A Pre-Rehab Tour of the Motor House in Station North. On January 20, we’ll take a look around the imposing Fifth Regiment Armory along with the Maryland Museum of Military History.

Rendering of planned rehabilitation for former Eastwick Motor Company.
Rendering of planned rehabilitation for former Eastwick Motor Company. Courtesy BARCO.

If you enjoy our tours, you also might want to get involved with our advocacy for historic preservation and neighborhood revitalization. This Wednesday, you can help us build the case that investment in the Red Line is essential for historic neighborhoods at the Build the Red Line Advocacy Summit organized by Red Line Now and the Central Maryland Transportation Alliance. Next week, we are excited to partner with Preservation Maryland and their new executive director Nicholas Redding to host a quick introduction to statewide preservation advocacy priorities for the 2015 Maryland Legislative Session.

Thank you once again to everybody who volunteered with us, came on a tour with us, and made a financial contribution in 2014. With you, we are able to work more than ever preserving Baltimore’s historic places and revitalizing our historic neighborhoods!

Explore Baltimore Brick by Brick this Saturday and the Motor House next month

Thank you so much to everyone who came out last week to help us celebrate the legacy of Karen Lewand at the Ivy Hotel. Please help us continue to sustain and grow our educational programs with a donation to the Preservation Education Fund and by renewing your support as a member of Baltimore Heritage.

We are excited to announce a new tour this Saturday and another great tour coming up next month! On December 13, we’re going behind the scenes with Baltimore Brick by Brick and Details Deconstruction to see how deconstruction can help to preserve historic materials, create new jobs and contribute to the revitalization of historic neighborhoods. On January 6, we are headed to the former Load of Fun building on North Avenue where BARCO (the Baltimore Arts Realty Corporation) is hosting our pre-rehab tour of their Motor House project.

Even as fall turns into winter we are keeping busy with archeology and preservation projects. In Herring Run Park, we teamed up with a group of residents and volunteer archeologists on a search for the early history of Northeast Baltimore. We are also just starting work on a new initiative to identify and document landmarks associated with Baltimore’s long Civil Rights history. Learn more about the project and stay tuned for an exciting line-up of Civil Rights heritage programs and stories in the new year. Finally, our partners from the Greater Heritage Hampden Alliance helped us highlight the history of the Mayor’s Christmas Parade last week and they’re hosting their own seasonal celebration at the historic Church & Company this Friday.

Holidays tours of a Medieval mansion and great Gothic church! Join our new Behind the Scenes tours

As we head into Thanksgiving and the holiday season, we’re pleased to be able to share a few new heritage tours. We hope you can spend an evening or two with us this fall. OnNovember 19, we’re heading to G. Krug and Son Ironworks – the oldest ironworks company in America and the home of a new museum to showcase 200 years of Baltimore iron-making. In December, we’re starting the holiday season with a tour of the Cloisters, an enchanting medieval house that will be decorated for the holidays. And finally, we hope you’ll join us (and bring an out-of-town guest) for a tour of St. John’s in the Village, a charming Gothic church that is ever so British.

You also might enjoy the first few posts in a series documenting what we are calling the Great Western Rowhouse Roadtrip—an exploration of rowhouse neighborhoods and historic preservation in Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and Wheeling. Keep an eye here on our blog for more fun posts from the trip!

Finally, we want to share our special thanks to Azola Companies for sponsoring our Baltimore Behind the Scenes tours in 2014. Thank you to everyone who has joined or renewed your membership in our fall membership drive. If you haven’t renewed, please consider doing so today. Your support makes these heritage tours and all of our work in Baltimore possible.