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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Ghost Rivers: A Walking Tour of a Buried Waterways Public Art Project

3000 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21218 3000 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, MD, United States

Did you know there is a lost stream buried below the streets of Baltimore? The creek Sumwalt Run vanished from Baltimore’s landscape in the early 1900s. Before its disappearance, its frozen waters appeared in ice boxes across the city, cut from the city’s first commercial ice pond and a later artificial ice factory. Trolley tracks crossed its ravine, bringing workers home from downtown factories. The Olmsted Company attempted to preserve part of the stream as a greenway, but real estate developers filled its valley (using debris from the Great Baltimore Fire of 1905, according to local lore). When Baltimore built a new sewer system in the early 20th century, Sumwalt Run— along with dozens of other creeks across the city — were turned into buried storm sewers. They now flow hidden and mostly forgotten below our neighborhoods. You can catch echoes of their waters whispering from certain storm drains. On July 24, join us and artist Bruce Willen to discover his recent public art project, Ghost Rivers, which reveals the hidden history and path of Sumwalt Run beneath the Remington and Charles Village neighborhoods. Through a series of installations, wayfinding markers, and writings Ghost Rivers brings lost landscapes and histories to the surface for the first time in over 100 years.

$10 – $15

The Lillie Carroll Jackson Civil Rights Museum: A Behind-the-Scenes Tour

Lillie Carroll Jackson Museum 1320 Eutaw Place, Baltimore, MD, United States

From 1935 until her retirement in 1970, Lillie Carroll Jackson was president of the Baltimore chapter of the NAACP and for much of this time her home on Eutaw Place was a hub of Civil Rights organizing for Jackson and her daughter, Juanita Jackson Mitchell. On July 27, join Baltimore Heritage Executive Director Johns Hopkins for a short walk around Lillie Carroll Jackson’s neighborhood, which was also the home of many other Civil Rights luminaries including Thurgood Marshall and Clarence Mitchell. Then we will go inside the museum to tour where Jackson, called the  “Mother of the Civil Rights Movement,” lived and worked for the cause. 

$10 – $15

Mount Vernon Place: A Monumental City Tour

Washington Monument (South Entrance) 699 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, MD, 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.

$10 – $15

Historic Clifton Mansion

Clifton Mansion 2701 Saint Lo Drive, Baltimore, MD, 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.

$10 – $15