Baltimore Heritage

Federal Hill Beyond the Views: A Monumental City Tour
2023-10-15 09:30 - 10:30, 2023-11-19 09:30 - 10:30 (America/New_York) | 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.

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

Historic Green Mount Cemetery
2023-10-21 09:30 - 11:30, 2023-10-28 09:30 - 11:30, 2023-11-04 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.

Mount Vernon Place: A Monumental City Tour
2023-10-22 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.
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 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!

Historic Clifton Mansion
2023-10-28 10:00 - 11:00, 2023-11-11 10:00 - 11:00, 2024-01-27 10:00 - 11:00, 2024-02-24 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.

Patterson Park History Walking Tour
2023-10-29 10:00 - 11:30 | Friends of Patterson Park, 27 S. Patterson Park Avenue, Baltimore, MD, 21231, United States
Join Friends of Patterson Park Director Jennifer Robinson and Baltimore Heritage Executive Director Johns Hopkins to get an intro to the layers of history that lie beneath Baltimore’s best back yard! Who is the Patterson in our name, what’s the park’s connection to Frederick Douglass, what helped the park’s renaissance over the last 25 years, and why do we have cannons and an “observatory?” The park’s history is fascinating and will add to your appreciation for this jewel of a public space.

This project has been financed through funds from the National Park Service, U.S. Department of Interior and managed by the Baltimore National Heritage Area.

Neighborhood Corner Bar Walking Tour
2023-11-04 14:00 - 16:00, 2023-11-18 13:00 - 15:00 | Baltimore Museum of Industry, 1415 Key Hwy, Baltimore, MD, 21230, United States
Join Baltimore Heritage and BMI curator Rachel Donaldson for a walking tour of neighborhood corner bars, past and present, along Fort Avenue. Ticket includes parking and museum admission. The tour route is about one mile total.

Out of the Ashes: The Great Baltimore Fire of 1904
2023-11-05 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.

The Catacombs Under Westminster: Two Hundred Years of Tombs and Edgar Allan Poe’s Gravesite
2023-11-05 11:00 - 12:00, 2024-02-04 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!”

America’s Oldest Ironworks: A Tour at G. Krug & Son
2023-11-08 17:30 - 18:30 | G. Krug & Son Ironworks, 415 West Saratoga Street, Baltimore, MD, 21201, United States
As the nation’s oldest continuously operating ironworks company, G. Krug & Son literally has helped build Baltimore. For over 200 years, the firm has fabricated distinctive components of such notable landmarks as the Baltimore Basilica, the Washington Monument and the Baltimore Zoo. G. Krug began in 1810 by Augustas Schwatka, and by 1871, Gustav Krug became the sole proprietor of the “bell hanger and locksmith” company. G. Krug today is owned by Peter Krug, a fifth generation Krug ironworker, and continues to fabricate artistic ironwork in the same building where it was founded. Mr. Krug and his ironworking colleagues will lead our tour of the iron working shop and museum. We’ll be treated to archival blueprints, century-old rare pieces of ironwork that are no longer made anywhere, and their two hundred year old ironworks building where they produce wonderful pieces as they have for over two centuries. There will be a light wine and cheese reception.

Can Baltimore Save the Planet?: A Talk by Charlie Duff
2023-11-12 14:00 - 15:00 | Garrett-Jacobs Mansion, 11 W. Mount Vernon Place, Baltimore, MD, 21201, United States
Have you ever thought about how people like us in Baltimore can help to reverse climate change and species extinction? After decades of thinking and writing about how cities function, most recently with his book, The North Atlantic Cities, historian and author Charlie Duff will tackle these and other daunting questions. Charlie is optimistic about Baltimore:
We were a mid-sized city when we invented the railroad and the clipper ship, a mid-sized city when we created the first modern university and turned medicine into a science, a mid-sized city when we created America’s first great urban waterfront.
What will Baltimore do next to help our planet’s most pressing issues? In this one hour talk, Mr. Duff will share the insights he’s reached with a seriousness of global purpose as it relates to Baltimore.

About the Speaker
Charles Duff is a planner, teacher, developer, and historian. Since 1987, as President of Jubilee Baltimore, he has led the revival of several dozen Baltimore neighborhoods and built or rebuilt more than 300 buildings. Known as an expert in historic architecture and urban history, he has also pioneered in the development of residential and commercial buildings for artists and arts organizations.
A graduate of Amherst College and Harvard University, he studied at St. Andrews University in Scotland and has walked every city and neighborhood to which he refers. He is a past President of the Baltimore Architecture Foundation and has served on the boards of many community and professional organizations. He lectures widely and has taught at Johns Hopkins and Morgan State Universities.

Liberty Ship S.S. John W. Brown: A Behind The Scenes Tour
2023-11-15 13:00 - 15:00 | SS John W. Brown, Pier 13, 4601 Newgate Ave, Baltimore, MD, 21224, United States
Join Baltimore Heritage on a special behind-the-scenes tour of S.S. John W. Brown, one of only two remaining, fully operational Liberty ships that participated in World War II. One of 384 vessels built at Bethlehem-Fairfield Shipyard, S.S. John W. Brown could carry almost 9,000 tons of cargo, about the same as 300 railroad boxcars, and could transport every conceivable kind of cargo during the war – from beans to bullets. On November 15, join us to go below deck and explore this preserved piece of history!

Boughs of Holly: A Tour of Evergreen Museum & Library Decked Out for the Holidays
2023-12-05 17:30 - 18:30 | Evergreen House, 4545 North Charles Street, Baltimore, MD, 21210, United States
When a tremendous Gilded Age mansion gets fully-adorned with holiday decorations, there’s a lot to see. Please join us for a special winter tour of the Evergreen Museum and Library, which holds 48 rooms, a soaring portico, a Tiffany designed glass canopy, and loads holiday decorations. We’ll take in the seasonal surroundings while learning about the mansion’s rich history, including the 1878 purchase of the estate by John Work Garrett, president of the B&O Railroad, for his son T. Harrison Garrett.
Evergreen still has over 50,000 items from the Garrett family, including drawings by Degas and Picasso and one of the nation’s largest collections of Tiffany glass pieces. The building’s rare book library contains 8,000 volumes that include works by Shakespeare and Audubon, as well as the signatures of every signer of the Declaration of Independence. The mansion even has its own theater! There will be a light reception served. Please join us this holiday season for a tour of this wonderful Baltimore treasure!

The Baltimore Immigration Museum: A Behind-the-Scenes Tour
2023-12-19 17:30 - 18:30 | Baltimore Immigration Museum, 1308 Beason Streeet, Baltimore, MD, 21230
On Tuesday, December 19, join Baltimore Heritage at the Baltimore Immigration Museum to hear the stories of the various ethnic groups, including Germans, Irish, Jews, Poles, Lithuanians, Czechs, Italians, and Greeks, who started their American journey in Baltimore between 1830 and 1914. We also learn about more recent immigrant arrivals, including Asians and Latinos, and African Americans, traveling from the rural South to Baltimore between the 1920s and the 1960s. Finally, we’ll discover the history behind the building originally called Deutsches Emigranten Haus that was built in 1904 to provide temporary accommodations to individuals new to Baltimore. A light wine and cheese reception will be provided. We hope to see you on December 19!

Up into the Clockworks at the Bromo Seltzer Tower
2023-12-27 11:00 - 12:00 | Bromo Seltzer Tower, 21 S Eutaw St, Baltimore, MD, 21201, United States
Always one for flamboyance, Captain Isaac Emerson came back from a trip to Italy and decided he wanted to build a new factory in downtown Baltimore and that it should look like Florence’s fabulous town hall, the Palazzo Vecchio. Completed in 1911, the tower’s four clocks each measure 24 feet across, a foot more London’s Big Ben, and the tower itself was the tallest building in Baltimore at the time. Emerson, the man who became wealthy from his invention of Bromo Seltzer and gave us the slogan “if you keep late hours for society’s sake, Bromo Seltzer will cure that headache,” was quite proud.
Our tour through the building will include a trip up into the clockworks at the top to look at the tick-tock operation in process and peer out the translucent windows. We’ll also stop in at the museum room that holds the world’s largest collection ephemera from Captain Emerson, Bromo Seltzer, and Maryland Glass. And along the way, we’ll get a taste of the newest art that comes from the Tower’s artists: it is now home to dozens of local art studios. If you’ve wondered what goes on in the Bromo Seltzer Tower and how the imposing clocks actually work, now’s your chance!

The Schuler School of Fine Arts: Putting the Monuments in Monumental City
2024-01-11 16:30 - 17:30 | Schuler Schol of Fine Arts, 7 East Lafayette Avenue, Baltimore, MD, 21202, United States
Baltimore sculptor Hans Schuler was the first American to win the French Salon’s gold medal at the Academie des Beaux Arts in Paris in 1901. Luckily for us, this former president of the Maryland Institute College of Arts has monuments dotted throughout the city: Martin Luther at Lake Montebello, Johns Hopkins and Sidney Lanier at Hopkins University, Samuel Smith in Federal Hill Park, to name a few. Schuler’s legacy is carried on today at the Schuler School of Fine Arts and Gallery. Eight years after his death in 1951, his son Hans Schuler, Jr. formed the school, converting the family home on Lafayette Avenue into a studio and gallery. Since its opening in 1959, the school has trained students in techniques of the Old Masters in the home where Schuler once lived and worked. On January 11, please join us and our guide from the Schuler School for a tour of the house and the working studio.

The Baltimore Immigration Museum: A Behind-the-Scenes Tour
2024-01-17 17:30 - 18:30 | Baltimore Immigration Museum, 1308 Beason Streeet, Baltimore, MD, 21230
On Wednesday, January 17, join Baltimore Heritage at the Baltimore Immigration Museum to hear the stories of the various ethnic groups, including Germans, Irish, Jews, Poles, Lithuanians, Czechs, Italians, and Greeks, who started their American journey in Baltimore between 1830 and 1914. We also learn about more recent immigrant arrivals, including Asians and Latinos, and African Americans, traveling from the rural South to Baltimore between the 1920s and the 1960s. Finally, we’ll discover the history behind the building originally called Deutsches Emigranten Haus that was built in 1904 to provide temporary accommodations to individuals new to Baltimore. A light wine and cheese reception will be provided. We hope to see you on January 17!

Ashburton Filtration Plant: A Behind-the-Scenes Tour
2024-02-01 15:30 - 16:30 | Ashburton Filtration Plant, 3001 Druid Park Drive, Baltimore, MD, 21215, United States
Ever thought about where that water from your faucet comes from? On February 1, please join us to learn about the processing and distribution of Baltimore’s excellent drinking water! The City operates three water filtration plants to meet current and future demands of the metropolitan area’s 1.8 million consumers. The Ashburton Filtration Plant, located on the west side of the City, is supplied by Liberty Reservoir through a 10’ wide tunnel that is 13 miles long. This plant can treat up to 165 million gallons per day! We hope you’ll come along to see how Baltimore has stayed hydrated and clean at this plant that has been in continuous operation for over 60 years.

Historic Cylburn Mansion: A Behind-the-Scenes Tour
2024-02-03 10:00 - 11:30 | Cylburn Arboretum, 4915 Greenspring Avenue, Baltimore, MD, 21209, United States
Cylburn began as the private estate of Jesse Tyson, president of the Baltimore Chrome Works Company that became Allied Chemical and occupied the site of Exelon’s new headquarters on the Harbor today. At Cylburn, Tyson began building his mansion in 1863 as a summer home for himself and his mother. On Saturday, February 3, please join us and our hosts from Baltimore City Recreation and Parks to discover its Italianate design, stone from Tyson’s own Bare Hills quarry (in Baltimore County), and the interior of hardwood, grand fireplaces, and ornate plasterwork!

The Baltimore Basilica: A Behind-the-Scenes Tour
2024-02-10 11:00 - 12:00 | Baltimore Basilica, 409 Cathedral Street, Baltimore, MD, 21201, United States
On February 10, join us for a tour of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, also called the Baltimore Basilica. Built primarily between 1806 and 1821, the Baltimore Basilica was the first Cathedral built in the United States. Bishop John Carroll, America’s first Bishop and a cousin of Charles Carroll of Declaration of Independence signing fame, was lucky to connect with architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe, who volunteered his architectural services and was to later achieve the moniker “Father of American Architecture.” This internationally significant building that has played a central role in the history of Baltimore and the Catholic Church, and, incidentally, happens to have more than a few accolades of its own: Minor Basilica (designated 1937), National Historic Landmark (designated 1972), Baltimore City historic landmark (designated 1975), and a national shrine (designated 1993).
The Basilica is 100% ADA compliant. There are wheelchair ramps to gain entry from the street level into the church, and elevators inside, so that all areas of the church are accessible, however, the Basilica does not have wheelchairs available for use.
We hope to see you there!
