Category: Tours

Looking for a good excuse to enjoy the beautiful spring weather? Get outside on our upcoming tours!

If you’re looking to get outside and enjoy springtime in the city, we have plenty of opportunities to get some fresh air on our upcoming walking tours, a bike tour through Druid Hill Park, and the latest chance to get inside the Shot Tower.

On Saturday, May 11, our Baltimore by Foot series continues in Union Square where we’re asking what H.L. Mencken might think of summer concerts and window boxes. That same day, we’re also offering our final Lexington Market tour for the spring—and it even has a few spots still open! The following Saturday, May 18, our last Baltimore by Foot tour for the season explores the history (and future) of arts and entertainment on Pennsylvania Avenue.

Early next month, on Saturday, June 8, we hope you can put a little air in your tires and ride along for The Nooks and Crannies of Druid Hill Park by Bike with our two veteran tour leaders Dr. Ralph Brown and artist Graham Coreil-Allen. We keep to a modest pace and a mostly flat grade so people of all biking abilities are welcome.

Finally, whether it rains or shines, our Monumental City Tours continue on Sunday mornings with Historic Jonestown and the Shot Tower on May 12 and Mount Vernon and the Washington Monument on May 19. These affordable tours are a great way to show off the city to visiting family and friends.

With wishes for a happy spring, I hope to see you on one (or two or more!) of our upcoming tours.

A streetscape showing a brick former theater building next to a large brownstone house.

March Tours and Talks at the Baltimore School for the Arts, G. Krug & Son Ironworks and More!

If you explore the Baltimore School for the Arts on Cathedral Street you’ll find more than young talented artists. The school’s two main buildings—the former Alcazar Hotel and the Graham House—are full of fascinating Baltimore history. Please join us on Saturday, March 16 for a tour of the buildings (and a sneak peak at rehearsals with some of the school’s talented performing artists).

On Wednesday, March 20, we’re returning to G. Krug & Son Ironworks for a tour of the nation’s oldest iron-working shop. Our tour will be led by Mr. Peter Krug, part of the fifth generation of Krugs to operate the business, who will show off some of the fantastic decorative iron pieces made here in Baltimore over the past two hundred years.

Finally, our last lecture of the spring at the Garrett Jacobs Mansion will take place on Sunday, March 24 with Antero Pietila talking about his new book: The Ghosts of Johns Hopkins: The Life and Legacy that Shaped an American City.

I hope you can join us at some of these events in March, and stay tuned for an announcement shortly on our 2019 Baltimore By Foot neighborhood walking tours.

G. Krug & Sons Tour, Antero Pietila Book Talk, and Mount Vernon Love Stories

Did you know that Baltimore has the nation’s oldest iron working company? G. Krug & Son Ironworks has stood in the same building just a block from Lexington Market since 1810, and today produces fantastic iron pieces as it has for over two hundred years. On Wednesday, March 20, Peter Krug is sharing the history of the business on our Behind the Scenes tour. As a member of the fifth generation of the Krug family to run the business, Peter not only knows the history but will also demonstrate ironworking on machines that are nearly as old as the company itself!

On Sunday, March 24, we’re looking forward to a talk by author Antero Pietila on his new book The Ghosts of Johns Hopkins: The Life and Legacy that Shaped an American City. We are pleased to offer this event at the Engineers Club as part of our ongoing lecture series with the Garrett Jacobs Mansion Endowment Fund.

We also still have a few spots left for this Sunday’s Mount Vernon Love Stories tour with local historian Jamie Hunt. With a morning tour at 11:00 am and an afternoon tour at 1:00 pm, we hope you can join us to hear some great tales of jilted lovers and secret trysts spanning over two hundred years while learning about the history about this great historic neighborhood.

Finally, we are asking you to share your nominations for the city’s best preservation projects over the past year. Do you know somebody who has done a wonderful rehab on their house? Or who has organized volunteers to help restore a neighborhood landmark? We’d love to hear their story. Our online nomination process is simple, and I am always here try to help and answer questions. Please take a minute and help us recognize the people who are working to ensure our historic buildings and neighborhoods continue to be vibrant places.

Keep your hat and coat by the door, and I hope to see you on some the upcoming talks and tours.

Side by side images of a painted synagogue with columns in front and an ornate brick synagoe with arched windows.

Historic Synagogues and Mount Vernon Love Stories: Upcoming Talks & Tours in February

Hang on to your hats and fight back the February “blahs” by coming out for one of our upcoming talks and tours. On Sunday, February 10, we’re teaming up with the Jewish Museum of Maryland to offer a ”two-fer” tour of historic synagogues. We’ll start with a walk through the 174-year-old Lloyd Street Synagogue (the third oldest synagogue in the country!) and then head down the block to visit the ornately-detailed B’Nai Israel which maintained the Jewish community presence in East Baltimore since the 1870s.

On Sunday, February 17, we’re bringing back Jamie Hunt’s popular Mount Vernon Love Stories walking tours. Starting at the Marburg Mansion on Mount Vernon Place, this walk covers two centuries of celebrity gossip, intrigue, and off-beat love lives from John Eager Howard in the 1780s to Jada Pinkett Smith in the 1990. We are offering the same tour in the morning at 11:00 am and the afternoon at 1:00 pm so sign up for the time that works for you.

On Sunday, February 3, we’re planning a warm welcome at the Engineers Club for everyone who wants to hear historian Wayne Schaumburg tell the story of the Great Baltimore Fire of 1904. And, finally, we still have a few tickets left for our Saturday, February 9 tour of legacy businesses and catacombs  at Lexington Market.

To borrow from the endlessly popular World War II-era British slogan Keep Calm and Carry On, we’ll end by saying, Keep Warm and Tour On!

The wreckage of downtown following the Great Baltimore Fire

Warm up this winter with talks & tours on the Great Baltimore Fire and Lexington Market

After being briefly buried under snow on Sunday, we’ve all been thinking warm thoughts—but at Baltimore Heritage we’re thinking hot—like the 2500-degree fire that burned through downtown Baltimore 114 years ago next month. We hope you can join local historian Wayne Schaumburg at the cozy Garrett-Jacobs Mansion on Mount Vernon Place on Sunday, February 3 to learn more about the Great Baltimore Fire. In his talk, A Hot Time in the Old Town, Wayne will share how hot the fire burned (yes, up to 2500 degrees) and how the event fundamentally shaped the Baltimore we know today.

Mosaic sign reading Lexington MarketOn Saturday, February 9, we are excited to bring back our monthly tours of Lexington Market showcasing historic vendors and exploring the catacombs below the west building. Lexington Market boasts three legacy businesses that have been around for a hundred years or more: Faidley’s Seafood, Konstant’s Candies and Peanuts, and Mary Mervis Delicatessen. Throughout the year, you can expect more tours of legacy business as part of our effort to document and highlight the city’s long-lasting and well-loved business institutions.

Finally, I want to say a very sincere thank you to everybody who joined or renewed their membership in 2018. Nearly two hundred people joined or renewed their membership in the last two weeks of December, bringing our total to nearly seven hundred supporters for the year. We’ve said it before, but we never get tired of repeating it—we are a small organization and your gifts make all of our work possible. Thank you!