Category: Tours

Announcing New Green Mount Cemetery Walking Tours!

All tours are full

Baltimore Heritage is happy to announce that we will be hosting four tours of historic Green Mount Cemetery starting in April. After 30 years without a break, Baltimore historian Wayne Schaumburg is finally taking a spring off and he has kindly shared his tour notes with us. We hope you’ll join us and tour guide Tim Fabiszak on one of these four dates: April 3, April 17, May 1, & May 15.

Opened in 1839, Green Mount is an early example of an urban-rural cemetery, that is, a cemetery with a park-like setting located close to the countryside. Green Mount is the final resting place of some of Maryland’s most famous, and infamous, figures including Johns Hopkins, Enoch Pratt, William and Henry Walters, Mary Elizabeth Garrett, Betsy Patterson, A.S. Abell, John H. B. Latrobe, A. Aubrey Bodine, John Wilkes Booth, and Elijah Bond, who patented the Ouija Board!

Due to Covid precautions, we are limiting space more than usual. All participants will be required to wear face masks and socially distance during the tour. See these events and more on our Events page!

Members Make It Happen: Thank You from Baltimore Heritage

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. We at Baltimore Heritage cannot say it enough. This year has been challenging for everyone and we could not have navigated it without your support. Our new Five Minute Histories video series and our ongoing Legacy Business and Centennial Homes programs, to name a few, are possible only with your help. If you haven’t yet done so, please consider joining or renewing your membership today.

Here are just a few of this past year’s projects made possible with your support:

We produced over 100 Five Minute Histories videos. Beginning the first day of Maryland’s Covid lock-down, we have traveled all over our city covering topics such as the Civil Rights Movement, mercantile history, immigration, religious development, Native American history, LGBTQ heritage, transportation, landscape design, women’s rights, and even some geology.

We expanded our Friday afternoon history lecture series and went virtual. In partnership with the Baltimore Architecture Foundation, we held engaging talks by Charlie Duff, Nancy Proctor, Jackson Gilman-Forlini, Aaron Henkin, Anne Bruder, Meg Fairfax-Fielding, and more.

We handed out 5 micro-grants and 18 preservation awards virtually. We pivoted to a Zoom pitch party to continue to make preservation a participatory sport with micro grants. Thank you to member Brigid Goody for making this yearly event possible. And we have been featuring our 2020 preservation awards winners on our website and on our YouTube channel.

We continued to fight to preserve Baltimore’s heritage. Restoration has begun at the Bruce Street Arabber Stable. Construction continues at the Lafayette Square bathhouses. And the Center for Health Care and Healthy Living at the Baltimore Hebrew Orphan Asylum will soon be 100% occupied by the Baltimore City Health Department and Behavioral Health System Baltimore.

For all of you who volunteer, log-on to our programs, email us kind words (and correct our mistakes), and support our advocacy work in Baltimore, please accept a sincere thank you from all of us at Baltimore Heritage. Your time, talents and financial support make a difference. Please consider joining or renewing your membership.

We wish you a safe holiday season and thank you again for doing so much for Baltimore.

P.S. Need a holiday present idea? Get in touch about how you can get a gift membership for a friend or family-member!

New Tours In Bloom for the Spring: Westminster Hall Burying Ground and the Baltimore by Foot Series

Spring is right around the corner and with it comes a host of new heritage tours. On March 7, we hope you can join us to explore the catacombs underneath Baltimore’s First Presbyterian Church, now called Westminster Hall, and the graves that surround it, including the final resting place of Edgar Allan Poe. March 7 is the first of four tours we’re doing at Westminster: we are offering them again on April 4, May 2, and June 6 and hope you can make it to one of them.

In April, our annual Baltimore by Foot neighborhood walking tour series begins! Please join us and our local guides this year on one or all of the following tours:

April 18 – Woodberry by Foot: Country Living with City Convenience

April 25 – Sharp Leadenhall by Foot: 250 Years of African American Heritage

May 2 – How to Read a Rowhouse: Colonial Architecture in Fell’s Point 

May 9 – Stone and Spirit: The Original Campus of Goucher College

May 16 – Brewers Hill by Foot: The Architecture of Brewing Beer

We hope to see you at Westminster and at one of our neighborhood tours this Spring!

Did You Know? Baltimore Heritage Has Exciting Tours and Talks In the Next Few Weeks!

Did you know that Baltimore was the capital of the United States for three months during the American Revolution? On February 2, join Baltimore historian and educator Wayne R. Schaumburg as we look at Baltimore and its citizens’ role in the American Revolution.

Also, did you know that historic Laurel (today a short hop down Interstate 95) is connected to Baltimore by the B&O Railroad? Originally called Laurel Factory, the settlement started as a 19th century milltown. On February 9, join us and our guide Ann Bennett, Executive Director of the Laurel Historical Society, as we look at restored millworkers houses and the ruins of the mill itself.

Finally, did you know Zeke’s Coffee is a local roaster and a family-owned business? Join us on February 12 in an encore tour to see how Zeke’s roasts its beans and creates its delicious blends. It’s the best smelling tour we’ve been on in a while.

We hope to see you at all or some of these fun events. You may be surprised at what you didn’t know you didn’t know, just like us.

Bmore Intriguing: Uncovering Our City’s Heritage with Talks and Tours in February

Mark your calendars for our winter/spring talks at the Garrett-Jacobs Mansion:

 · February 2 — From Stamp Act to Yorktown: A Talk on Baltimore in the American Revolution with Wayne Schaumburg

 · March 22–Destination Baltimore: A Talk on the Story of Immigration and Opportunity with Jack Burkert

 · April 5– New Light on Hidden Lives: A Talk on Discovering the Histories of Hampton’s Enslaved Workers with Gregory Weidman

 · May 3–The Industrial Valley: A Lecture on 200 Years of Manufacturing on the Jones Falls with Nathan Dennies

Happy New Year! We are kicking off the year exploring some of Baltimore longstanding historical questions. First up on February 2 is Baltimore historian and educator Wayne R. Schaumburg, who will talk on Baltimore’s role in the American Revolution, including the burning question: did George Washington sleep here?

On February 9, we are pleased that Baltimore historian Jamie Hunt will be back with a Valentine’s Day-themed tour of romance in Mount Vernon. For two centuries, the neighborhood has seen spectacular love stories, bitter feuds, and more than a few juicy trysts. Indulge in sweet intrigue and uncover some Gilded Age gossip with us.

Finally, you may ask how historic Laurel is connected to Baltimore? Originally called Laurel Factory, the settlement started as a 19th century milltown with ties to Baltimore along the B&O Railroad. On February 9, join us and our guide Ann Bennett, Executive Director of the Laurel Historical Society, for a walking tour of the town. As we soak in the historic atmosphere alongside the Patuxent River, you’ll be asking yourself why you hadn’t explored Laurel sooner.

We can’t wait to spend the beginning of 2020 with you at these tours and talks.