Baltimore Heritage

Historic Green Mount Cemetery
2025-10-04 09:30 - 11:30, 2025-10-25 09:30 - 11:30, 2025-11-01 09:30 - 11:30, 2025-11-22 09:30 - 11:30, 2025-12-06 09:30 - 11:30 (America/New_York) | Green Mount Cemetery, 1501 Greenmount Ave, Baltimore, MD, 21202, United States
Inherited from the great Baltimore historian Wayne Schaumburg, join Baltimore Heritage to tour Baltimore’s historic Green Mount Cemetery.
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, John Wilkes Booth, and Elijah Bond, who patented the Ouija Board!
Accessibility: Although there are some paved pathways, we will be walking over mostly uneven grassy terrain and cobblestones.

Baltimore by Boat
2025-10-04 10:30 - 23:45, 2025-10-25 10:30 - 23:45 | Harborplace Watertaxi Stop, 201 E. Pratt St, Baltimore, 21202, United States
Join us to discover America’s history on Baltimore’s water with our new Inner Harbor boat tours! America defeated the British here. Frederick Douglass escaped from here. Today we are pioneering watershed restoration here. Join us for 300 years of history on a live-narrated tour of Baltimore’s world famous Inner Harbor. Come see how Baltimore’s wonderful waterfront connects the past with the present and Baltimore to the rest of the world.

We partner with the Baltimore Water Taxi to use their vessels. This tour starts and ends at the Baltimore Water Taxi stop at Harborplace (behind 201 E. Pratt St). This is the water taxi stop next to the USS Constellation and the Harborplace pavilions. We do the tours rain or shine.
Tickets are $25. Boat tours are 75 minutes long.

Patterson Park
2025-10-05 09:30 - 10:30, 2025-11-02 09:30 - 10:30 | 28 S Patterson Park Ave, Baltimore, MD 21231, 28 S Patterson Park Ave, Baltimore, 21231, United States
Join us to walk through Patterson Park and through time starting back when it was officially created in 1827. During the War of 1812, the park saw action defending Baltimore. And during the Civil War, troops here made sure Maryland didn’t secede from the Union. The park has been used for strolling, fishing, hockey, swimming, festivals and even as a beef market. Over its 198-year history, it has grown from 6 acres to 137 acres, partially thanks to the famous Olmsted Firm. Discover the history of Patterson Park, which is in many ways the story of Baltimore itself, and see how it really is “the best backyard in Baltimore.”

Preservation Celebration 2025
2025-10-09 18:00 - 20:00 | One Charles Center, 100 N. Charles St, Baltimore, MD, 21201, United States
Join us for our free Preservation Celebration 2025 in the Modernist Mies van der Rohe building, One Charles Center (100 North Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21201)! On October 9, we’ll honor our 2025 Preservation Award winners and, with your help, give out six micro-grants (from $500 to $2000) to people working on the front lines in our historic neighborhoods. We’ll say thank you to our volunteers and honor all of their hard work this year. And, we’ll be celebrating downtown Baltimore by giving away door prizes that include a two-night stay at the Lord Baltimore Hotel, two tickets to a show at Everyman Theatre, and gift certificates to local businesses! With dinner and drinks from locally-owned Baltimore vendors, we hope you will join us for what promises to be a wonderful evening. The event is free with a suggested donation of $25. We will be providing free parking underneath the building.
Event Schedule:
6:00 pm – Doors Open with Food and Drink
6:30 pm – Welcome and General Business (Including proposed amendments to our bylaws)
6:40 pm – Presentation of 2025 Awards
7:00 pm – Microgrant Presentations and Selection

Microgrant Pitches:
Arena Players Inc.
Present Company
Beloved Community Services Corporation
Parity Homes
Market Center Community Development Corporation
Baltimore Streetcar Museum
Victorine Q Adams Gardens, Inc.

Thank you for support from Trademark Properties, the Lord Baltimore Hotel and Everyman Theatre.

A Walking Tour of East Baltimore’s Historic American Indian “Reservation”
2025-10-16 17:30 - 18:30 | South Broadway Baptist Church, 211 South Broadway, Baltimore, 21231, United States
The place now known as Baltimore, like the rest of what is now known as the United States, has always been home to Native peoples. Baltimore is part of the ancestral homelands of the Piscataway and the Susquehannock, and a diverse host of American Indian folks from other nations have passed through or lived here at different times — and still do! In the mid-twentieth century, thousands of Lumbee Indians and members of other tribal nations migrated to Baltimore City, seeking jobs and a better quality of life. They settled in Upper Fells Point and Washington Hill and created a vibrant, intertribal American Indian community, which they affectionately referred to as “the reservation,” in its heyday. In the decades since the community has gradually moved away from the area. Recent generations never experienced “the reservation” as such. Today, most Baltimoreans are surprised to learn that it ever existed. Join historian and artist Ashley Minner Jones to learn about places and spaces important to American Indian history and heritage in the city, with a focus on East Baltimore’s Historic American Indian “Reservation” in the 20th century.

Federal Hill
2025-10-19 09:30 - 10:30, 2025-11-16 09:30 - 10:30 | Federal Hill Park (Southwest Corner), 301 Warren Avenue, Baltimore, MD, 21230, United States
Baltimoreans celebrated atop Federal Hill when we ratified the U.S. Constitution. We used it to defend the city from the British in the War of 1812 and to make sure we stayed in the Union in the Civil War. We have even tunneled under it to quarry minerals. Join us on a tour of Federal Hill and the neighborhood around it to learn about this waterfront community’s rich history, including stops at one of the last wooden houses in the city, the oldest house in Federal Hill, and the wonderful alley houses along Churchill Street.

Historic Clifton Mansion
2025-10-25 10:00 - 11:00, 2025-11-01 13:00 - 14:00, 2025-11-08 10:00 - 11:00 | Clifton Mansion, 2701 Saint Lo Drive, Baltimore, MD, 21218, United States
Join us for a tour inside Clifton Mansion, the unique Italianate country house that has overlooked Baltimore City for over 200 years! At one time the summer home of War of 1812 captain Henry Thompson and then philanthropist Johns Hopkins, the story of Clifton Estate is one about two prominent businessmen, enslaved & free Black people, and more. You’ll see the latest restorations made possible by the Friends of Clifton Mansion and Civic Works. You will also be invited into unrestored spaces that are brimming with stories to tell! And the tour wouldn’t be complete without climbing the tower and taking in one-of-a-kind views of Clifton Park and our surrounding city. We hope to see you there.

Mount Vernon Place
2025-10-26 09:30 - 10:30, 2025-11-23 09:30 - 10:30 | Washington Monument (South Entrance), 699 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, MD, 21201, United States
Mount Vernon began as a country estate for Revolutionary War hero John Eager Howard and grew to be the place to live for Baltimore’s rich and famous in the mid-nineteenth century. The Garrett family, owners of the B&O Railroad, the Walters, founders of the Walters Art Museum, and the Thomases, owners of Mercantile Bank, are among the families that built handsome mansions along the four parks that surround the Washington Monument. Join us on a tour to hear the stories behind the landmarks of Baltimore’s grandest historic neighborhood.

Booth, Baltimore & Lincoln’s Assassination: A Walking Tour of Green Mount Cemetery
2025-11-08 09:30 - 11:30 | Green Mount Cemetery, 1501 Greenmount Ave, Baltimore, MD, 21202, United States
Join us at Green Mount Cemetery to discover the tangled history of John Wilkes Booth, Baltimore, and the plots to kidnap and assassinate Abraham Lincoln. We’ll trace Booth’s childhood on Exeter Street and how he followed his Shakespearean-trained father’s footsteps into the theater world. We’ll get to know Booth–the womanizer, the white supremacist, and the presidential assassin. We’ll also revisit major events of the Civil War, including the Pratt Street Riots and the surrender at Appomattox, and how they influenced the conspirators’ actions leading up to the day Booth murdered Lincoln.
As we walk, you’ll hear about the events of the fateful day and the fates of the Booth’s co-conspirators. And of course, we’ll see the unmarked burial site of Booth and the graves of two of his co-conspirators. We hope you’ll walk to the grounds of Green Mount Cemetery with us to discover this poignant history in a whole new light.
*This is a special tour! After we finish walking, author Frank Gorman will be signing copies of his book, Confronting Bad History: How a Lost Cause and Fraudulent Book Caused the John Wilkes Booth Exhumation Trial. After assassinating Abraham Lincoln, John Wilkes Booth was killed near Front Royal, VA on April 26, 1865 and eventually was buried at Green Mount Cemetery. In 1907, an American lawyer, author, and conspiracy theorist proffered the notion that Booth in fact eluded capture and lived for many years afterward, ultimately committing suicide in 1903. In 1994, conspiracy theorists unsuccessfully petitioned Green Mount Cemetery to exhume his remains to verify this theory. They then filed suit against the cemetery, resulting in a trial. In his book, Frank Gorman, who represented the cemetery at trial, describes the overwhelming testimony and evidence showing that the myth of Booth’s 1903 death was a Lost Cause false narrative.
Accessibility: Although there are some paved pathways, we will be walking over mostly uneven grassy terrain and cobblestones.

Fell's Point
2025-11-09 09:30 - 10:30 | Broadway Market, 637 S Broadway, Baltimore, MD, 21231, United States
Join us to see how Fell’s Point developed in the 1730s to become one of Baltimore’s premier waterfront communities. Great wealth through trade was created here for the likes of Johns Hopkins, George Peabody, and William Walters. These shores were the first place over a million immigrants started their American dream, yet also where enslaved people either arrived in bondage or were shipped south in chains. As we walk, we’ll point out historic homes and industrial heritage, like the country’s first Black-owned shipyard, and share some of the rich stories that this 300-year-old waterfront neighborhood has to offer.

Feisty Females of Fell's Point
2025-11-15 15:00 - 16:00 | Median on Broadway, 301 S. Broadway, Baltimore, MD, 21231, United States
On November 15, join us for a walking tour of the Feisty Females of Fell’s Point! Everyone knows that this neighborhood has a rich history, but do you know about the Caribbean immigrant, Mary Lange, who dared to teach children of color out of her home and rose to be the first Black mother-superior in American history? How about the single mom who helped stop the development of an interstate highway through these historic streets? Spoiler–it’s not Barbara Mikulski, but of course we’ll talk about her important work too. And we’ll stop by the former rowhouse of someone else you might know–Billie Holiday. We hope you’ll join us and tour guide Robin Minor to hear about these fierce women who helped forge Fells Point into the vibrant, distinctive neighborhood it is today.

Out of the Ashes: The Great Baltimore Fire of 1904
2025-11-22 10:30 - 12:00 | The Replica Gaslight, 300 E Baltimore St, Baltimore, MD, 21202, United States
In February 1904, Baltimore’s chief firefighter cabled Washington DC: “Desperate fire here. Must have help at once!” A tremendous fire was sweeping through downtown and showed little signs of stopping. Not until 5:00 p.m. the next day was the fire brought under control. Overall, it destroyed 1500 buildings, left 35,000 people unemployed, and damaged $150 million of property. Resilient Baltimore rebounded quickly, erecting new buildings, widening streets, and improving fire safety designs. Rising out of the ashes, Baltimore used the fire to rethink the city, and the downtown we know today is shaped largely by this incident. Join us on this walking tour as we see what 2500 degrees Fahrenheit heat can do to blocks of solid stone, learn how the fire shaped architecture locally and across the country, and hear the tale of one of the fire’s great heroes: Goliath the horse.

The Catacombs Under Westminster: Two Hundred Years of Tombs and Edgar Allan Poe’s Gravesite
2025-11-23 11:00 - 12:00, 2025-12-07 11:00 - 12:00 | Westminster Hall and Burying Ground, 519 W Fayette Street, Baltimore, MD, 21201, United States
Join us to explore the eerie 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. The burial ground predates the church, which was built on arches above the gravesites, so that the graveyard and its tombstones lie both underneath and around the building. We bet you will also recognize more than a few Baltimore street names as we walk among the patriots and civic leaders buried at Westminster including Calhoun, Hollins, Gilmore, and Bentalou. All told, the compact cemetery next to the University of Maryland School of Law is the final resting place for over 1,000 individuals. We can’t wait to see you “Where Baltimore’s History Rests in Peace!”

Baltimore’s Marble Hill: How A Neighborhood Shaped the Civil Rights Movement
2025-12-06 11:00 - 12:00
Join us for a guided tour of Baltimore’s Marble Hill neighborhood, which was the home to an astonishing amount of groundbreaking Civil Rights leaders. Reverend Harvey Johnson began one of the first collective action movements here in the 1880s. In the 1930s Lillie Carroll Jackson engaged youth in “The Movement” and pioneered new non-violent protest tactics that were later picked up in cities across the country. Thurgood Marshall grew up here, as did the chief lobbyist for the 1964 Civil Rights Act, Clarence Mitchell. Most recently this was the district for the late Representative Elijah Cummings, one of the most powerful voices for civil rights in Washington. Join us to learn how fundamental pillars of the Civil Rights Movement got built here by driven, activist neighbors with their eyes on the prize.

Baltimore After Dark: Holiday Lights (and Treats) Along Charles Street Downtown
2025-12-10 17:30 - 18:45 | Washington Monument (South Entrance), 699 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, MD, 21201, United States
Holiday lights suspended from the Washington Monument. The Pratt Library windows lit up in the dark. Holiday cheer beaming out of storefront windows along Charles Street. Baltimore’s charm comes through even in the dark. Join Baltimore Heritage director Johns Hopkins on a stroll along the streets of Mount Vernon and downtown to take in the holiday lights and some early December good cheer. The tour will include quick stops at Stem and Vine for a sample cocktail (or mocktail) and end with a holiday treat at the Hotel Revival. We’ll also poke our heads into a few other establishments to see what they are up to for the holidays. 200 years ago Baltimore became known as Light City for being the first city in America to light up its streets with gas lamps. Although they are mostly electric today, Baltimore still exudes the same Light City magic after dark as it did back then. We hope you can join us to start the holidays out with a smile.

Booth, Baltimore & Lincoln’s Assassination: A Walking Tour of Green Mount Cemetery
2025-12-13 09:30 - 11:30 | Green Mount Cemetery, 1501 Greenmount Ave, Baltimore, MD, 21202, United States
Join us at Green Mount Cemetery to discover the tangled history of John Wilkes Booth, Baltimore, and the plots to kidnap and assassinate Abraham Lincoln. We’ll trace Booth’s childhood on Exeter Street and how he followed his Shakespearean-trained father’s footsteps into the theater world. We’ll get to know Booth–the womanizer, the white supremacist, and the presidential assassin. We’ll also revisit major events of the Civil War, including the Pratt Street Riots and the surrender at Appomattox, and how they influenced the conspirators’ actions leading up to the day Booth murdered Lincoln.
As we walk, you’ll hear about the events of the fateful day and the fates of the Booth’s co-conspirators. And of course, we’ll see the unmarked burial site of Booth and the graves of two of his co-conspirators. We hope you’ll walk to the grounds of Green Mount Cemetery with us to discover this poignant history in a whole new light.
Accessibility: Although there are some paved pathways, we will be walking over mostly uneven grassy terrain and cobblestones.

The Catacombs Under Westminster: Two Hundred Years of Tombs and Edgar Allan Poe’s Gravesite
2025-12-20 11:00 - 12:00

Inside the Clarence M. Mitchell, Jr. Courthouse
2025-12-29 14:00 - 15:30 | Clarence M. Mitchell, Jr. Courthouse, 100 N Calvert St, Baltimore, Maryland, 21202
Completed in 1900 and long celebrated as Baltimore’s “Temple of Justice,” the Clarence M. Mitchell, Jr. Courthouse is a masterpiece of civic architecture. Inside, visitors encounter marble facades, monumental brass doors, intricate mosaic floors, rich mahogany paneling, and some of the most striking courtrooms in the country. The corridors and courtrooms feature domed stained-glass skylights and murals depicting pivotal moments in Maryland and American history, from General Washington resigning his commission in Annapolis to the British surrender at Yorktown. Join Baltimore Heritage board member and legal historian Derek van de Walle for a special behind-the-scenes tour highlighting the building’s art, architecture, and stories spanning more than a century of Baltimore legal history.

Historic Green Mount Cemetery
2026-01-10 09:30 - 11:30 | Green Mount Cemetery, 1501 Greenmount Ave, Baltimore, MD, 21202, United States
Inherited from the great Baltimore historian Wayne Schaumburg, join Baltimore Heritage to tour Baltimore’s historic Green Mount Cemetery.
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, John Wilkes Booth, and Elijah Bond, who patented the Ouija Board!
Accessibility: Although there are some paved pathways, we will be walking over mostly uneven grassy terrain and cobblestones.
This tour is scheduled to carry on light snow or shine, please bundle up! If the weather is dangerous, we will send you an email to cancel the morning of.
