Category: Tours

Boo! Greenmount and New Cathedral Cemetery tours for Halloween

Who’s Who in Baltimore: Greenmount Cemetery and Famous Marylanders Lunch, Talk and Tour

Saturday, October 27, 2012, 12:00 pm to 2:30 pm
RSVP today!  $40 per person (includes lunch)
Tour begins with lunch and a talk at the Baltimore Montessori Public Charter School, 1600 Guilford Avenue

Greenmount Cemetery, image courtesy Jack Breihan

From elites like William and Henry Walters, Johns Hopkins, and Enoch Pratt, to extraordinary slaves like Patty Atavis, and even the infamous assassin John Wilkes Booth, the dead at Greenmount Cemetery tell a rich and fascinating story of the growth of Baltimore. For this tour, we’re pleased to be partnering with the Maryland Historical Society and Greenmount Cemetery tour guide Wayne Schaumburg.

The program will begin with lunch and a discussion of some of the Marylanders buried at Greenmount led by curators at the Maryland Historical Society using items in the Society’s collections. After lunch, we’ll drive over to the cemetery to join Baltimore historian and Greenmount guide Wayne Schaumburg for a tour of the cemetery, its ornate grave stones, and its notable inhabitants. Space is limited!

Behind the Scenes at New Cathedral Cemetery

Saturday, November 10, 2012, 10:00 am to 12:00 pm
RSVP today! $10 per person
Meet at the Cemetery’s main entrance  – 4300 Old Frederick Road, 21229

New Cathedral Cemetery, courtesy jomiwi/Flickr.

Covering 125 acres in West Baltimore and with its origins dating to St. Peter’s Kirkyard at Saratoga and Cathedral Streets in the 1770s, New Cathedral Cemetery is a historic gem that is surprisingly hidden. Among other things, it is the resting place of more Hall of Fame baseball players than any other cemetery in the country, including Orioles greats from the 1890s Ned Hanlon, Joe Kelley, and John McGraw. It is also the resting place of Baltimore mayors Solomon Hillen, Thomas D’Alesandro, Jr., and Clarence (du) Burns, entrepreneur and philanthropist Reginald F. Lewis, and Mother Mary Lange, founder of the Oblate Sisters of Providence, the first ever congregation of women religious of African descent. Charles Carroll of Carrollton was originally buried here until he was reinterred at Doughoregan, the family estate in Howard County, but the cemetery still claims at least two other Carroll family members: Charles Carroll of Homewood and Governor John Lee Carroll.

With three centuries of wonderful headstones and statuary, the cemetery is also rich with sculpture and art, and of course stories about Baltimore. Please join us and cemetery historian Susan Schmidt on this trip through Baltimore history as told through New Cathedral Cemetery.

Photo walk & tour of Jewish Landmarks on the West Side this Saturday!

Baltimore residents of all backgrounds remember the bustling shops of Howard and Lexington Streets but a handful of Jewish-owned businesses – Hutzler’s, Hecht’s, and Read’s Drug Store just to name a few – stand out in stories and memories from the history of downtown’s west side. Bring your camera and join Baltimore Heritage for a free photo walk and tour exploring the history of Jewish entrepreneurs and workers – making clothes, selling furniture, and more – who made Howard and Lexington a place to remember.

West Side Photo Walk & Tour

October 27, 2012, 10:00 am to 12:00 pm
RSVP today or sign up on Facebook! Free thanks to Free Fall Baltimore.
Meet at the east entrance to Lexington Market – Eutaw and Lexington Streets

This tour is presented in partnership with the Jewish Museum of Maryland for the Jewish Landmarks Photo Competition. Special thanks to The Baltimore Sun for featuring our tour on the Darkroom blog.

We deeply appreciate the support of our donors who make Free Fall Baltimore possible.  Special thanks goes to Susquehanna Bank, The Abell Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts, with additional support provided by American Trading and Production Corporation, William G. Baker, Jr. Memorial Fund, and the Henry and Ruth Blaustein Rosenberg Foundation.

Explore Colonial Grandeur at the Perry Hall Mansion

Join us in exploring one of Baltimore County’s most historic places, Perry Hall Mansion, home of the Gaugh Family. We’re pleased to host this event with our partners, the Friends of the Perry Hall Mansion and the Preservation Alliance for Baltimore County.

Behind the Scenes Tour of Perry Hall Mansion

Wednesday September 19, 6:00 pm to 7:00 pm
3930 Perry Hall Rd, Perry Hall, MD 21128
RSVP today! $15 per person.

Erected high on a hill above the Gunpowder River Valley, Perry Hall Mansion dominated life in northeastern Baltimore County in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Built in the 1770s by Harry Dorsey Gaugh, Perry Hall was named after the family castle near Birmingham England. The 16-room home, the seat of a vast plantation, soon became one of the leading houses in colonial Maryland. The mansion, considered a “sister” house to Hampton Mansion not very far away, turned from a house of raucous parties to a place of more reserved pleasure as Gaugh and his wife, Prudence, became ardent supporters of the early Methodist movement that had strong roots in Maryland.

Gaugh became a distinguished planter, a member of Maryland’s House of Delegates, and on the board of one of Maryland’s first orphanages. After Gaugh’s death in 1808, the mansion remained in the family for nearly 50 years. It was sold to a group of investors in 1852 that carved the plantation into lots for houses, many of which went to German immigrants. By 2001, the estate had dwindled to four acres and the house was sold to Baltimore County for use as a museum and community center. The County completed a first stage of restoration in 2004, and exterior restoration won an award from the Preservation Alliance of Baltimore County as an “outstanding public project.” The Friends are continuing with the restoration of this stately home.

Ride along with Baltimore by Bike this fall for War of 1812 and more

Join us this fall for three more fun Baltimore by Bike tours – a War of 1812 ride this Saturday to celebrate Defender’s Day with local scholar Kate Drabinski, a tour of West Baltimore murals with Baltimore Heritage board member Dr. Ralph Brown, and a free tour of Jewish Landmarks in northwest Baltimore (part of our new Baltimore Jewish Landmarks Photo Competition). Most of our rides are comfortable for everyone from teens to retirees and offer a great way to explore Baltimore’s historic neighborhoods.

War of 1812 by Bike

Saturday, September 8, 3:30 pm to 6:00 pm Rescheduled due to predicted thunderstorms! New date: Saturday, September 22, 9:30 am to 12:00 pm
RSVP today! $10 per person.
Meet at Riverside Park, Riverside Avenue and East Randall Street. Note – the starting location has been moved from Fort McHenry to Riverside Park.

This year we are taking our Defender’s Day celebrations beyond Fort McHenry with an afternoon bike tour around the harbor exploring the lives and landmarks that witnessed how the War of 1812 came home to Baltimore 200 years ago.

West Baltimore Murals by Bike

Sunday, September 16, 9:00 am
RSVP today! $10 per person.
Meet at the intersection of Frederick Avenue and the Gwynns Falls Bike Trail on the north side of Frederick Avenue – at 2800 Frederick Avenue.

With over a dozen murals decorating walls and bridges, West Baltimore comes alive in this tour that explores a rich part of our city that many rarely visit. Please join us to learn about some seminal events of the 19th century that occurred in West Baltimore and changed the course of world history.

Baltimore by Bike: Jewish Landmarks in Northwest Baltimore

Sunday, October 14, 10:00 am to 12:00 pm
Meeting location at Beth Am Synagogue, 2501 Eutaw Place, Baltimore, MD.
RSVP Today! Free thanks to Free Fall Baltimore.

In the decades after the Civil War, Baltimore’s economy boomed, countless immigrants arrived from around the world and many – including the city’s growing Jewish community – moved northwest into the rapidly expanding Baltimore suburbs around what is now Bolton Hill. We’re taking a two-hour bike tour past historic synagogues and other Jewish landmarks from from Eutaw Place to Park Heights – all free thanks to Free Fall Baltimore.

Launching the Baltimore Jewish Landmarks Photo Competition with a Photo Walk & Tour

We’re excited to announce the 2012 Jewish Landmarks Photo Competition – a new partnership between Baltimore Heritage and the Jewish Museum of Maryland to celebrate Baltimore’s rich history of Jewish residents, neighborhoods and buildings from Lloyd Street to Park Heights Avenue. Join us next Thursday evening as we kick off the competition with free admission to the Jewish Museum of Maryland and a free photo walk and tour for Late Night on Lloyd Street. Don’t forget to bring your camera!

Local celebrity judges, prizes, and information on how to submit a photo will be announced next week. Late Night on Lloyd Street takes place on the first Thursday of every month and are casual and drop-in evenings. Stop by on your way home from work, bring a friend or come to meet new people.

Late Night on Lloyd Street

Thursday, September 6, 6:00pm to 9:00 pm
Jewish Museum of Maryland, 15 Lloyd Street  Baltimore, MD 21202
Parking and transit details on the JMM website.
RSVP for a free photo walk & tour of the historic Jonestown neighborhood starting 6:30pm. Light refreshments will be provided.