Tag: Behind the Scenes Tours

A red brick church overlaid with blue text reading "Thank you!"

Tours, food, micro-grants, and a big thank-you at the historic Orchard Street Church

We’re throwing a party on Tuesday, October 2, 2018 and you are the reason for the celebration. This is our third year hosting a heartfelt thank you event for the many people who volunteer, participate in our heritage tours, and support Baltimore Heritage as members and sponsors. Our friends at the Greater Baltimore Urban League are opening up their historic Orchard Street Church for this free event that will include tours of the church (among the oldest structures built by a local Black congregation), food, drinks, and a chance for you to help us give away four preservation micro-grants.

This event is also our annual meeting where members elect new board members and officers. Please join us!

Also check out our jam-packed schedule of tours and talks over the next few weeks. On the afternoon of Sunday, September 23, local historian Jack Burkert will kick off our history lecture series at the Garrett Jacobs Mansion with a talk entitled: The Port of Baltimore: Shaping the City Over the Ages. On Wednesday, September 26, we are touring the Sheppard Pratt Hospital complex. And on the morning of Tuesday, October 2, we are repeating our tour of Fashions Unlimited garment factory.

Finally, we are teaming up with Doors Open Baltimore again for a unique bus tour: Masons, Jazzmen, Doctors and More. Join us and CHAP director Eric Holcomb on this narrated trip that includes five fantastic sites: the Prince Hall Masonic lodge, Eubie Blake National Jazz Center, Davidge Hall, Rachael’s Dowry Bed and Breakfast, and the Ambassador Marburg Mansion on Mount Vernon Place.

Thank you again to everybody who volunteers with us and supports our work as members and contributors. Without you, we could not do what we do. I hope you can join us on October 2 and on some of our upcoming events.

Print showing a parade of Black men in uniform past Mount Vernon Place. The central image is surrounded by portraits and vignettes of Black life, illustrating rights granted by the 15th Amendment.

Enjoy the fall weather with our September talks & tours

Fall is just around the corner, and we’re looking forward to walking tour weather! We hope you can join us on Saturday, September 8 with a tour by our own Eli Pousson sharing stories of slavery and emancipation in Mount Vernon together with a guided tour of the recently updated Civil War exhibit at the Maryland Historical Society.

The following weekend on Saturday, September 15, historian and radio personality Lisa Simeone will walk us around Charles Village showing off the neighborhood’s fascinating history and eclectic architecture. And, on Wednesday, September 26, our hosts at Sheppard Pratt are leading a tour of their historic campus that has been the home of pioneering health care for over a century.

A gouache and pen and ink painting of a large stone Gothic building with a complex roof set in a pastoral landscape.
Sheppard Asylum. Illustration by Calvert Vaux, c. 1860. National Library of Medicine.

Next month, we are kicking off our Baltimore history lecture series in partnership with the Garrett Jacobs Mansion Endowment Fund. On Sunday, September 23, local historian Jack Burkert is delivering an afternoon talk entitled: The Port of Baltimore: Shaping the City Over the Ages. Monthly through the fall and winter, we’ll offer talks by Wayne Schaumburg, Ric Cottam, and Antero Pietila. Find the full list of upcoming talks on our calendar.

Enjoy the start of fall as you learn a little more about Baltimore on a tour or talk next month!

Members of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Philadelphia District and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Marine Design Center assist the crew of the commercial cargo vessel Merwedegracht offload the Philadelphia District’s new hydrographic survey vessel HR Spies at the Port of Baltimore in Baltimore.
Port of Baltimore, April 20, 2017. Photo by Alfred Barraza. ACE-IT NAB.
An old mechanical artifacts with a complicated set of gears and wheels.

Join us for a tour of the System Source Computer Museum on July 25

Do you ever wonder about the history of the computer or smartphone you’re using to read our tour announcements? Please join us on Wednesday, July 25 for a tour exploring the long history of computing from ancient adding machines to mid-century punch cards and mainframes and more.

The System Source Computer Museum in Hunt Valley features a remarkable collection of artifacts including the Altair 8800, on which a young Bill Gates learned to code; an accurate replica of an Enigma cypher machine used by the German navy in 1942; and even an original iPhone which turned eleven years old last month. You can check out the museum’s collection on their website but, even in our digital age, the screen is no substitute for exploring history in person.

You can also find us leading a walking tour around Federal Hill on Sunday, July 22 for our ongoing Monumental City tours. We hope you are staying cool this summer and can stay tuned as we line up our fall tours, talks, and events.

Sunlit cutting table with measuring table, scissors, weights, and a large stapler.

Tour a working garment factory, take a trip to Middle River, and more!

If you thought garment manufacturing in Baltimore was a thing of the past, think again! Fashions Unlimited has been making sportswear for companies like Fila, Nike, and Champion in its South Baltimore factory since 1976 and is still going strong today. We hope you can join us on the morning of June 26 for a tour of their factory with owner Phil Spector. We also hope you’ll join us this Saturday, June 9, as we head out the old Eastern Avenue Trolley line to take a tour of the Heritage Society of Essex and Middle River Museum and its rich collection of information on this part of Baltimore County.

Tomorrow night, June 7, we are pleased to partner with the Greater Hampden Heritage Alliance and the Mid-Atlantic Regional Moving Image Archive as they host a special showing of WJZ-TV archives capturing 50 years of Baltimore on film. Tomorrow’s event is at the Picker House at Mill No. 1 on Falls Road.

And if you haven’t made it out for a Sunday morning Monumental City tour, please come by for an hour on Sunday June 10 as we take a tour of the Phoenix Shot Tower and nearby Jonestown. Or join us later in the month! On Sunday, June 17 we’ll tour the Washington Monument and Mount Vernon Place and, on Sunday, June 24, we’ll take a tour Federal Hill.

Discover food history and a Centennial Business

Trying not to let spring get away from us, we are eager to share on latest tours to get you outside this spring. On Monday, April 30, we’re sampling Italian food and taking a short walk around Little Italy with Kit Chiapparelli, co-owner of Chiapparelli’s restaurant: A Glass of Wine, an Appetizer, and a Stroll: Food and History at Chiapparelli’s and Little Italy.

On Thursday, May 17, we’ve lined up another outdoor tour, this time to see first hand how architectural stone products are made at the 150-year-old Hilgartner Natural Stone Company, one of Baltimore’s Centennial businesses: Oh Those Marble Steps: 150 Years of Stone Work at the Hilgartner Stone Company. We’re planning at other Baltimore businesses with roots going back a century or more throughout the year. Stay tuned for details!

And, as always, if you haven’t made it to a Monumental City walking tour yet, please come along! On Sunday mornings through November, we’re offering one-hour guided tours of downtown statuary, the Shot Tower and Jonestown, the Washington Monument, and Federal Hill. Come outside with us and explore Baltimore.