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.

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.

We have a really exciting mix of programs coming up on Saturday and over the next couple weeks! This Saturday, you could spend the day improving Wikipedia’s coverage of local history and meeting Dr. John Bedell (the lead archeologist for our We Dig Hampstead Hill investigation in Patterson Park). Next week, you can find us celebrating with the Commission for Historical and Architectural Preservation at City Hall—a key partner in saving places that turns 50 years old this year. Finally, in early November, we are remembering the 150th anniversary of Emancipation in Maryland with a walking tour on the history of slavery and emancipation around Mount Vernon Place.

Special thanks to all of our members who have renewed their support for Baltimore Heritage over the last few weeks. Renewing your support is critical in helping us continue to offer tours and educational programs. Your support also helps us to save historic places like the Hebrew Orphan Asylum, which is celebrating new plans for a $12.4 million rehabilitation, and assist partners like the brand-new G. Krug & Sons Museum. Please join Baltimore Heritage or renew your membership today!

We had a great time in Patterson Park this weekend as we helped to celebrate the Bicentennial of the Battle of Baltimore and shared information and artifacts from this spring’s archeological dig in Patterson Park. Over the next few weeks, we are exploring the history of the First World War with downtown Behind the Scenes tours at Zion Lutheran Church and the War Memorial Building.

We’re also excited to share that Cindy Kelly – one of our favorite tour guides and an expert on the history of Baltimore’s public art – is leading our next Mount Vernon Place tour in October and we’re partnering with AIABaltimore to organize a tour of the recently rehabilitated Chesapeake Shakespeare Theater. And don’t forget about Hampdenfest this weekend! Our friends from the Greater Hampden Heritage Alliance will be unveiling their brand-new self-guided tour brochure of Hampden landmarks.