Category: Tours

New Monumental tours of Baltimore history and architecture – Sundays from April to November

Looking for a fun activity on a Sunday morning? Friends and family coming to town and you’d like to show off the best of Baltimore? Join us for a Monumental City tour!

We are expanding our Looking Up Downtown tours at the Baltimore Farmer’s Market walking tours into a new tour series highlighting the history and architecture of four iconic Baltimore landmarks & neighborhoods almost every Sunday morning from April to November.

First Sunday – Downtown Landmarks and Lions

Courtesy Library of Congress, Historic American Building Survey.Come with us to find a piece of the Berlin Wall, a War of 1812 cannon ball mounted on a Conestoga wagon hitch, and over a hundred lions looking down at you from the tops of Baltimore’s buildings.

Second Sunday – Jonestown and the Shot Tower

Courtesy Wikimedia Commons.Walk with us just a few blocks east of the Baltimore Farmer’s Market to explore one of the oldest neighborhood’s in the city and get inside the famed Phoenix Shot Tower—the tallest structure in the United States until 1846.

Third Sunday – Mount Vernon and the Washington Monument

Courtesy Wikimedia Commons.Take a short stroll around Mount Vernon Place to hear the stories of local residents including the owners of the B&O Railroad, the founders of the Walters Art Museum, and the wealthy owners of Mercantile Bank. End the tour with a climb up the newly renovated 200-year old Washington Monument! This tour begins on July 19.

Fourth Sunday – Battle of Baltimore and the Patterson Park Observatory

Patterson Park Pagoda by Smallbones, 2012 March 14. Wikimedia Commons.Climb the stairs of the Patterson Park Observatory and enjoy an unparalleled panoramic view revealing the fortifications where Baltimore defeated the British during the War of 1812, the home of the original butcher on Butcher’s Hill, and Patterson Park’s rich history from the early 19th century up through the present day.

We hope you can come out and join us for all four tours this year. Find more details or register on our events calendar.

Our Monumental City tours are supported by the Baltimore National Heritage Area and our partners: the Friends of Patterson Park, Carroll Museums, and the Mount Vernon Place Conservancy. Special thanks to all of our volunteer tour guides who help us bring Baltimore’s landmarks to life!

Springtime is here! Check out our Baltimore by Foot tours from Mount Washington to Pigtown

The first day of spring is here (even if it arrives with a bit of snow) and it’s time for our annual Baltimore by Foot neighborhood walking tours. This year, we’re thrilled to be touring five quite different neighborhoods with resident experts and local historians. Come on one tour or come on them all!

If you missed our Mount Vernon Love Stories Valentine’s walking tour in February, you’re in luck. A cold alert forced us to cancel but we rescheduled with Jamie Hunt to lead the tour again on Sunday, April 12 with a morning and afternoon option. Finally, don’t miss our upcoming tour of the 1889 Jenkins House on Maryland Avenue on March 26 for a look into this historic orphanage that has helped generations of Baltimoreans.

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!