Town Hall Meeting #1 – Wednesday, June 26th from 6-7:30pm at Lexington Market
Join us for a Town Hall Meeting to discuss the redevelopment of Lexington Market. You will have the opportunity to hear from the redevelopment team, discuss your experiences at the market, and share your perspective on what you would like to see in the new market. Food will be provided and childcare will be available onsite. RSVP here
Town Hall Meeting #2 – Wednesday, October 9th, 2019 from 6-7:30pm at Lexington Market
Transform Lexington Survey
Hey, maybe you don’t want to join us in person, but you still have an opinion about the transformation of Lexington Market. That’s cool; we’d still love to hear from you.
If you explore the Baltimore School for the Arts on Cathedral Street you’ll find more than young talented artists. The school’s two main buildings—the former Alcazar Hotel and the Graham House—are full of fascinating Baltimore history. Please join us on Saturday, March 16 for a tour of the buildings (and a sneak peak at rehearsals with some of the school’s talented performing artists).
On Wednesday, March 20, we’re returning to G. Krug & Son Ironworks for a tour of the nation’s oldest iron-working shop. Our tour will be led by Mr. Peter Krug, part of the fifth generation of Krugs to operate the business, who will show off some of the fantastic decorative iron pieces made here in Baltimore over the past two hundred years.
I hope you can join us at some of these events in March, and stay tuned for an announcement shortly on our 2019 Baltimore By Foot neighborhood walking tours.
Did you know that Baltimore has the nation’s oldest iron working company? G. Krug & Son Ironworks has stood in the same building just a block from Lexington Market since 1810, and today produces fantastic iron pieces as it has for over two hundred years. On Wednesday, March 20, Peter Krug is sharing the history of the business on our Behind the Scenes tour. As a member of the fifth generation of the Krug family to run the business, Peter not only knows the history but will also demonstrate ironworking on machines that are nearly as old as the company itself!
On Sunday, March 24, we’re looking forward to a talk by author Antero Pietila on his new book The Ghosts of Johns Hopkins: The Life and Legacy that Shaped an American City. We are pleased to offer this event at the Engineers Club as part of our ongoing lecture series with the Garrett Jacobs Mansion Endowment Fund.
We also still have a few spots left for this Sunday’s Mount Vernon Love Stories tour with local historian Jamie Hunt. With a morning tour at 11:00 am and an afternoon tour at 1:00 pm, we hope you can join us to hear some great tales of jilted lovers and secret trysts spanning over two hundred years while learning about the history about this great historic neighborhood.
Finally, we are asking you to share your nominations for the city’s best preservation projects over the past year. Do you know somebody who has done a wonderful rehab on their house? Or who has organized volunteers to help restore a neighborhood landmark? We’d love to hear their story. Our online nomination process is simple, and I am always here try to help and answer questions. Please take a minute and help us recognize the people who are working to ensure our historic buildings and neighborhoods continue to be vibrant places.
Keep your hat and coat by the door, and I hope to see you on some the upcoming talks and tours.
Baltimore Heritage has advocated for preserving buildings in the Market Center historic district on the west side of downtown for almost twenty years. Six years ago, our campaign for the preservation of Read’s Drug Store (and the threatened five-and-dime stores along the 200 block of W. Lexington Street) helped to bring the history of the proposed Five and Dime historic district to broader public attention and won the stores a temporary reprieve from demolition.
Last week, we testified to support a proposal by the Baltimore Commission for Historical and Architectural Preservation to designate a new local historic district granting the stores, banks, and offices along Lexington, Howard, Liberty and Fayette Streets the lasting protection they deserve. Fortunately, the commission voted to approve the designation and the proposal will continue for a hearing before the City Council before it can be officially designated later this year. The Five and Dime district is one of two new historic districts coming to the area after CHAP approved the new Howard Street district at their hearing on July 11.
Photograph by Eli Pousson, 2017 May 9.
We believe that these local district designations will offer a clear, consistent, and predictable design review framework for existing property owners and potential investors. In a welcome change from their position six years ago, the Baltimore Development Corporation is actively supporting the preservation of the city-owned buildings in the Market Center area through stabilization work and new preservation requirements for developers responding to requests for proposals. The districts will also be a tool to protect privately owned buildings from demolition or inappropriate changes.
Courtesy Baltimore Commission for Historical and Architectural Preservation.
The buildings within the new districts are important not just for their architecture but also for the stories of the everyday people who worked and shopped in these buildings: from humble retail clerks to bank executives to student protestors. Preserving the stories of these people is important to the civic identity and memory of Baltimore’s residents, the success of heritage tourism in Baltimore City, and the continued development of the Market Center area.
