Baltimore Building of the Week: Upton Mansion

The two Greek Revival mansions featured in this Baltimore Building of the Week feature both have rich histories. Upton was home to the WCAO radio station from 1929 through 1947 and then served as the Baltimore Institute of Musical Arts, an accredited music school open to African American students, through 1955. However, while the Dumbarton House is now occupied by the Baltimore Actors’ Theatre, Upton remains on the Baltimore Heritage Watchlist threatened by vacancy and neglect.

Upton, courtesy Jack Breihan

The environs of Baltimore also boast Greek Revival country houses. Dunbarton, just over the county line in Rodgers Forge, is a grand example. Upton is a particularly fine medium-sized Greek Revival mansion which has given its name to the Baltimore neighborhood that grew up around it (Upton). Long used by the City school administration, Upton is now vacant and in constant threat of “demolition by neglect.”

Join us for our 50th Anniversary!

Please join us for the Baltimore Heritage 50th Anniversary Gala on June 11, 2010! We asked Karen Lewand, Chair of our 50th Anniversary Committee and a Baltimore Heritage member for many years, to share a personal invitation for everyone in Baltimore to join us at our Gala or for any of our tours or programs throughout the year.

We hope that you will join us at our many programs and events throughout 2010 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the founding of Baltimore Heritage by people who recognized our rich architectural heritage and the need to protect, reuse, and celebrate it. As I look back over the many years that I have been involved, it’s clear that working through Baltimore Heritage, many individuals have helped our citizenry understand how that unique heritage belongs to all of us. Landmark buildings, neighborhoods, and modest places from the past can be reused and enjoyed far into the future. What could be more enriching and sustainable?

Find more information on our 50th Anniversary Celebration or contact Johns Hopkins at 410-332-9992 for more information. Baltimore Heritage depends on member support and members at $100 level receive one free ticket to our 50th Anniversary Celebration on June 11, 2010. Please become a member of Baltimore Heritage today!

Baltimore Building of the Week: Family and Children’s Services

This week’s Baltimore Building of the Week from Dr. John Breihan is a Gothic cottage used by Family and Children’s Services of Central Maryland.

Image courtesy Jack Breihan

The early Gothic Revival style did not lend itself to rowhouse design, but steep-gabled cottages, sometimes with bargeboarding or “gingerbread” moldings often appear along older road and turnpike routes out of Baltimore. A particularly pretty example, on Lanvale Street in Bolton Hill, has long been used and maintained by the Family and Children’s Services of Central Maryland. Originally designed by Robert Cary Long, Jr., in 1848, it also features bay windows added by Edmund G. Lind in 1862 and a side porch by Lawrence Hall Fowler in 1915.

Behind the Scenes Tour of the Town Theater

The only theater in Baltimore (perhaps the entire country) to go from a theater to a parking garage and then back to a theater, the historic Town Theater has a long and colorful history with burlesque, vaudeville, and cinema. Work has just begun for its newest life as the future home of the Everyman Theatre, which is moving from its location on Charles Street. Please join us and Everyman director Vincent Lancisi for a tour of the historic Town Theater midway through its transformation.

Image courtesy Baltimore Sun/Amy Davis, 2009

Tour Information

Date: Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Time: 5:30 to 6:30 p.m.
Place: 315 West Fayette Street
(Between Howard and Eutaw, one block from the Hippodrome)
Parking is available in nearby lots, or better yet, take the Light Rail!
Cost: $10
Registration: Click Here to Register

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