Join us for an upcoming heritage tour! We ride bikes, climb scaffolding, and walk up and down hilly streets on our tours of Baltimore’s historic buildings and neighborhoods all across the city. Have a question? Look through our FAQ page. Check out our calendar of events below!

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A Walking Tour of East Baltimore’s Historic American Indian “Reservation”

South Broadway Baptist Church 211 South Broadway, Baltimore, 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. On September 4, 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.

$10 – $15

Heart of Local Government: City Hall

Baltimore City Hall 100 N. Holiday Street, Baltimore, MD, United States

Housing the offices of the Mayor and other officials, Baltimore City Hall is the heart of local government. Designed in a French Second Empire style, local leaders dedicated the new City Hall in October 1875. Architect George Frederick was only 21 when he won the design competition organized for project. The Baltimore City Hall may be Frederick’s claim to fame but he also designed Maryland’s Pavilion for Philadelphia Exposition, Baltimore City College, Hutzler’s Palace Building, and many more landmarks across the city. In an appropriate move for a bustling industrial city, the structure employed a good deal of cast iron, including the 227-foot tall dome designed by Wendel Bollman and cast by Bartlett, Robbins, and Company.

Our tour will cover architectural history, as well as Baltimore and city government history. In addition to the rotunda, we’ll venture into the building’s ceremonial room, the original mayor’s office, and the council chambers (as long as they are not in use). We’ll also witness close-up the prize-winning renovations that happened in the 1970s and saved City Hall from demolition. Peer behind the curtain and get an up close look at the architecture and renovations where our city’s leaders make some of their biggest decisions.

$10 – $15

Historic Green Mount Cemetery

Green Mount Cemetery 1501 Greenmount Ave, Baltimore, MD, 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.

$20

“Life Goes On:” The Legacy of Henrietta Lacks and Turner Station

Sollers Point Multi-Purpose Center 323 Sollers Point Road, Dundalk, MD, United States

Don’t know who Henrietta Lacks was? Most of the world didn’t until about ten years ago. Mrs. Lacks is best recognized for her immortal cells, which scientists and doctors still use today to study the effects of toxins, drugs, hormones and viruses on people without experimenting on humans. Her cells helped create the HPV and polio vaccines. Yet it took some twenty-five years before the Lacks family received any knowledge of the important contribution of their beloved wife and mother. Please join us and the Henrietta Lacks Legacy Group for a walking tour of Turner Station in Dundalk, the last home of Henrietta Lacks, to hear about Henrietta, her family, and her life in Turner Station.

$15