Mount Vernon Place: A Monumental City Tour
2023-07-23 09:30 - 10:30, 2023-08-27 09:30 - 10:30, 2023-09-24 09:30 - 10:30, 2023-10-22 09:30 - 10:30 (America/New_York) | 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.
Our Monumental City tours are guided walks exploring iconic Baltimore landmarks in Federal Hill, Downtown, Mount Vernon and Ridgely’s Delight on the first four Sundays of each month from April through November, except holiday weekends.

Passion & Pride: Discover Belair-Edison’s Public Art and Puerto Rican Cultural Hub
2023-07-23 10:00 - 12:00 | Tola’s Room, 4212 Sheldon Avenue, Baltimore, MD, 21206, United States
On July 23, join Baltimore Heritage for an art walk & talk in Belair-Edison with artist, curator, and community organizer Christina Delgado! The tour will include a history of community art projects along Belair-Edison’s Main Street and sections of Herring Run Park. We’ll also talk a little about the history of the neighborhood, which was once known as Georgetown. The tour will end at Tola’s Room, a Puerto Rican home museum & culture space, with delicious empanadas by Cane de Sucre. The only Puerto Rican culture hub in Baltimore City, the museum designed by Delgado draws on personal cultural perspective, displaying a passion and pride for identity in family and homeplace. We can’t wait to walk around Belair-Edison with you to discover its past, present and future!

Historic Irvington
2023-08-05 11:00 - 12:00 | 4004 Frederick Ave, Baltimore, MD 21229, 4004 Frederick Ave, Baltimore, MD, 21229, United States
Join us to discover the past, present and future of Irvington, a leafy neighborhood nestled in Southwest Baltimore! Located on the old National Road and developed in 1874, this historic neighborhood is dotted with sublime pocket parks, peaceful gardens and vibrant murals created by the non-profit Cooperative Community Development Inc Group (the Cooperative). On this walk Johnny D. Martin, Board President of the Cooperative, and Baltimore Heritage’s Molly Ricks will take us back through Irvington’s history and showcase its bright future!

Out of the Ashes: The Great Baltimore Fire of 1904
2023-08-06 09:30 - 10:30, 2023-10-01 09:30 - 10:30 | 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.
Our Monumental City tours are guided walks exploring iconic Baltimore landmarks in Downtown, Ridgely’s Delight, Mount Vernon and Federal Hill on the first four Sundays of each month from April through November, except holiday weekends.

Historic Ridgely’s Delight
2023-08-13 09:30 - 10:30, 2023-09-10 09:30 - 10:30 | Babe Ruth Birthplace and Museum, 216 Emory Street, Baltimore, MD, United States
For a tiny neighborhood squeezed between the University of Maryland and Camden Yards, Ridgely’s Delight contains an oversized history. George Washington slept here and Babe Ruth was born here! Join us to walk the preserved, picturesque streets of one of the earliest neighborhoods in Baltimore while we look back at the stories of both its famous visitors and the ordinary Baltimoreans who worked and raised their families here.
Our Monumental City tours are guided walks exploring iconic Baltimore landmarks in Federal Hill, Downtown, and Ridgely’s Delight on the first three Sundays of each month from May through November, except holiday weekends.

The Irish Railroad Workers Museum: A Behind The Scenes Tour
2023-08-17 17:30 - 18:30 | Irish Railroad Workers Museum, 918-920 Lemmon St, Baltimore, MD, 21223, United States
Join Baltimore Heritage on a special behind-the-scenes tour of the Irish Railroad Workers Museum with its managing director, Megan “Sammie” Samuels! This unique museum shares the lives of Irish immigrants, their communities, and legacy in America. Learn about the Great Hunger, also known as the Potato Famine, and walk through the restored home of 19th century Irish immigrants, James and Sarah Feeley. You’ll hear about their treacherous journey across the Atlantic and how they developed a new way of life in this vibrant, thriving city. After the tour, we will have time for light refreshments, questions and great conversation! We hope to see you there!

Federal Hill Beyond the Views: A Monumental City Tour
2023-08-20 09:30 - 10:30, 2023-09-17 09:30 - 10:30, 2023-10-15 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 tunnelled 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.
Our Monumental City tours are guided walks exploring iconic Baltimore landmarks in Federal Hill, Downtown, Mount Vernon and Ridgely’s Delight on the first four Sundays of each month from April through November, except holiday weekends.

The New Lexington Market & Exploring the Neighborhood Around It
2023-09-09 10:30 - 11:30 | Faidley’s Seafood (Entrance), 203 N. Paca Street, Baltimore, MD, 21201, United States
For over 200 years, Lexington Market’s wooden sheds and concrete stalls have been a gathering place for Baltimoreans. And the market is still evolving! In October 2022, the new Lexington Market opened in a brand new building. On this tour we’ll first explore the surrounding neighborhood to discover how Baltimore emerged as a leading industrial and economic city in the 19th century. Immigration, slavery, commerce and major changes in transportation were all part of the mix here in Baltimore and the country as a whole. We’ll end at the new market to see its wonderful public art and, of course, its merchants (new and old). Be sure to bring your canvas bags to do some quintessential Baltimore shopping after the tour!

Historic Green Mount Cemetery
2023-09-16 09:30 - 11:30, 2023-09-23 09:30 - 11:30, 2023-09-30 09:30 - 11:30, 2023-10-21 09:30 - 11:30 | Green Mount Cemetery, 1501 Greenmount Ave, Baltimore, MD, 21202, United States
Baltimore Heritage has inherited the Green Mount Cemetery tour from the great Baltimore historian Wayne Schaumburg and we invite you to join us. 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! Join us to tour Baltimore’s historic Green Mount Cemetery.

Bmore Historic 2023
2023-09-22 08:30 - 15:30 | Baltimore Museum of Industry, 1415 Key Hwy, Baltimore, MD, 21230, United States
Baltimore’s annual unconference on people, places, and the past will be at the Baltimore Museum of Industry on Friday, September 22, 2023! Students are free this year.
What is Bmore Historic?
Bmore Historic is a participant-led unconference for people who care about public history and historic preservation in and around Baltimore. Learn more about Bmore Historic or read our introduction to unconferences.
What do we do at Bmore Historic?
Past, in-person unconferences have been structured around four session blocks: two in the morning and two in the afternoon. We usually have between four to six sessions in each of the time blocks for a total of twenty sessions throughout the day.

Jonestown & the Shot Tower: A Walking Tour
2023-09-23 10:00 - 11:00 | Carroll Mansion, 800 Lombard Street, Baltimore, MD, 21202, United States
Jonestown is one of Baltimore’s oldest and most historic neighborhoods. Both groundbreaking industry and vibrant communities have thrived here. On this tour, we will see the vestiges of its Eastern European Jewish residents as we pass Corned Beef Row. We hope you’ll join Baltimore Heritage and tour guide Bev Rosen as we stroll past a series of firsts: the McKim Free School, the city’s oldest education building from 1833, the Lloyd Street Synagogue, the first synagogue in Maryland and the third oldest in the country, and the 1808 home of Charles Carroll, the longest living signer of the Declaration of Independence. And of course, what is a visit to Jonestown without a stop at the iconic Phoenix Shot Tower, which until 1846 was the tallest building in the country!

The Catacombs Under Westminster: Two Hundred Years of Tombs and Edgar Allan Poe’s Gravesite
2023-09-24 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!”

Historic Clifton Mansion Tour & Reception
2023-09-27 17:30 - 19:00 | 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.
This special mid-week evening tour will include a light reception and question time after the tour!

Herring Run Archaeology & Heritage: A Behind The Scenes Tour
2023-09-30 10:00 - 12:00 | Herring Run Park, 3900 Belair Rd, Baltimore, MD, 21213, United States
On September 30, join Baltimore Heritage and the Friends of Herring Run Parks to experience this urban oasis like you never have before! The co-founders of the Herring Run Archaeology Project, Lisa Kraus and Jason Shellenhamer, will share with us discoveries from years of archaeological and historical exploration here. As we walk around the park, they will guide us through the new Herring Run Park Heritage Trail, which starts 11,000 years ago with the discovery of a pre-European contact Native American campsite, and goes all the way to 20th century Romani caravan bases. Herring Run Park was once the heart of the Eutaw Farm plantation and enslaved African Americans lived and worked on this land. We’ll learn about extraordinary people like Emeline Jones, who after emancipation, became a world-renowned chef in Washington, DC. Centuries later, Black Baltimoreans fought here for equal access to the park. You’ll be amazed by all of the history packed into this one park. We hope to see you on this fascinating tour!

Feisty Females of Fells Point
2023-10-01 11:00 - 12:00 | Median on Broadway, 301 S. Broadway, Baltimore, MD, 21231, United States
On October 1, join us for a walking tour of the Feisty Females of Fells 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.

Doors Open Baltimore Kickoff Lecture: Jessica Henkin
2023-10-05 18:00 - 20:30 | Central Branch – Enoch Pratt Free Library, 400 Cathedral Street, Baltimore, MD, 21201, United States
Join the Baltimore Architecture Foundation and Baltimore Heritage for the Doors Open Baltimore 10th Anniversary kick-off with guest Jessica Henkin, Co-Founder, Producer, and Host of “Stoop Story Telling.” The Stoop’s motto is “Everyone has a story. What’s yours?”

The Baltimore Architecture Foundation believes that, not only does everyone have a story, but every building has a story too and that, by opening doors and connecting people, we can inspire creativity, foster inclusivity, and contribute to the continued growth and success of Baltimore’s artistic and cultural landscape.

Doors Open Baltimore is an annual event that celebrates Baltimore’s diverse cultural tapestry by highlighting its vibrant neighborhoods, captivating architecture, and distinctive spaces, both grand and intimate, that contribute to the city’s exceptional charm. In this 10th anniversary year, Doors Open Baltimore invites you to be a tourist in your own backyard, exploring new areas, meeting different people, and finding out what goes on inside some of Baltimore’s most interesting buildings.

About the Speaker
Jessica Henkin co-created the Stoop Storytelling Series with her friend Laura Wexler in 2006. The Stoop is a Baltimore-based live show and podcast that has featured the tales of more than 3000 people onstage. It’s featured weekly on WYPR, 88.1.
She is a first-generation college student and has a Masters in Education from Johns Hopkins University, allowing for a robust career in special education that has ultimately allowed her to become the Coordinator for Baltimore City Public School’s Office of Early Learning Program.
Jessica moved to Baltimore in 2004 and became a founding member of the Baltimore Improv Group. She’s passionate about her family (husband Aaron Henkin and children Charlie and Abby), special education, Baltimore City, storytelling, keeping her house clean, rescuing strays (both animal and human), and finding most things funny.

Lecture Schedule:
Doors Open at 5:30pm, Wheeler Auditorium – Enoch Pratt Free Library – Central Library – 400 Cathedral Street, Baltimore, MD, 21201
6:00, Guest speaker, Jessica Henkin
7:30pm, Reception at Pratt Hall, First Unitarian Church, 12 W. Franklin Street

The New Lexington Market & Exploring the Neighborhood Around It
2023-10-07 10:30 - 11:30 | Food Play Sculpture at Lexington Market, W. Lexington St and N. Paca St, Baltimore, MD, 21201, United States
For over 200 years, Lexington Market’s wooden sheds and concrete stalls have been a gathering place for Baltimoreans. And the market is still evolving! In October 2022, the new Lexington Market opened in a brand new building. On this tour we’ll first explore the surrounding neighborhood to discover how Baltimore emerged as a leading industrial and economic city in the 19th century. Immigration, slavery, commerce and major changes in transportation were all part of the mix here in Baltimore and the country as a whole. We’ll end at the new market to see its wonderful public art and, of course, its merchants (new and old). We hope you’ll join Johns Hopkins, Executive Director of Baltimore Heritage, for this tour beginning at 10:30 am. And if you can make it, come early for the dedication of the new History Walk in the market plaza at 10 am!

Preservation Celebration 2023
2023-10-19 17:30 - 19:30 | Open Works, 1400 Greenmount Ave, Baltimore, MD, 21202
Join us for our Preservation Celebration 2023 at Open Works. On October 19, we’ll honor our 2023 Preservation Award winners and, with your help, give out six micro-grants 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. This gathering also acts as Baltimore Heritage’s annual meeting where we elect new board members. With food and drinks from Baltimore vendors, we hope you will join us for what promises to be a wonderful evening. There is a suggested donation of $25.
We’re in our 8th year of giving away micro-grants to help fund preservation work in the city. We received some amazing applications over the past month. We picked the most promising ideas and they will have a chance to win one of three $1000 grants and three $500 grants. Each finalist will get three minutes to pitch their idea and at the end, all of us present will cast ballots to decide which ideas receive the micro-grants. Everyone will receive the funds that evening.
2023 Microgrant Finalists:
Maryland Women’s Heritage Center
Friends of Herring Run Park
Govans Presbyterian Church
Racial Justice Ministry
St. Luke’s Youth Center
Baltimore Lab School
Baltimore Crime Museum

The Unexpected Past of Spring Grove Hospital Center: A Behind-The-Scenes Walking Tour
2023-10-22 14:00 - 16:00 | Spring Grove Hospital Center (Turf Field), Walnut Circle, Catonsville, MD, 21228, United States
Join us for a walk around the Spring Grove Hospital Center campus to see this partially abandoned historic facility where, among other things, the first and longest government-run psychedelic drug research took place in the 1960s. Founded in 1797, it is the second oldest continuously operating psychiatric hospital in the country. On our tour led by Paul Lubell, we’ll see the remnants of the oldest building on campus and industrial structures from the 1930s, plus a barely noticeable cemetery. We’ll end the tour at the Spring Grove Alumni Museum to see artifacts and memorabilia from the institution’s over 200-year history. We hope you’ll join us on October 22!

Maryland Public Television: A Behind-The-Scenes Tour
2023-10-25 16:00 - 17:00 | Maryland Public Television, 11767 Owings Mills Blvd, Owings Mill, MD, 21117, United States
On October 25, join us for a walk around the Maryland Public Television station in Owings Mills! We will learn all about MPT’s history and view displays of its achievements as Maryland’s only statewide broadcaster. You will get an inside look at current TV technology and visit all three of its studios, including the Irene and Edward H. Kaplan Studio. You can also view the station’s more intimate studios that you may recognize from live pledge events and programming such as State Circle. After the guided tour, the Senior Managing Director of Programming, Kate Pearson, will talk about MPT’s city-centric programs and answer our questions. We hope to see you on October 25!
