One of Baltimore’s premier artisan plaster studios, Hayles & Howe Ornamental Plasterwork and Scagliola, is currently working on a remarkable project: the restoration of ornate moldings and ceiling elements from Philadelphia’s historic Metropolitan theater. Please join us for a rare chance to see these craftspeople in action!
Metropolitan Theatre, Philadelphia in 2012. Photograph by Chandra Lampreich, 2012. Courtesy Hidden City Philadelphia.
Our late afternoon tour on Wednesday, March 14—Awards from the President to the Queen: Inside Hayles and Howe Ornate Plasterwork and Scagliola—isn’t in Philadelphia, of course, but at the company’s studio on Sisson Street in Remington. This 4:00 p.m. tour is a little earlier than most of our Behind the Scenes tours so you can meet the skilled people working on this project. Wear shoes that you don’t mind getting dusty and sign up soon—we expect tickets to sell out!
We are glad to start the new year, and our winter tour season, by taking you behind the scenes at the workshops of two wonderful local artisans. For our January 27 tour, we’ll visit Thomas Brown Woodwright, a Remington workshop that turns out the highest quality wood products while almost exclusively using machines built before the Great Depression. On February 10, we’re headed to Mount Vernon on a walk through the studio of McLain Wiesand. From their shop on Cathedral Street, McLain Wiseand create decorative arts pieces and furniture sold in glamorous showrooms from Los Angeles to New York following the tradition of Baltimore’s famed 19th century furniture makers.
Finally, we are back again with Baltimore historian Jamie Hunt for our annual Mt. Vernon Valentines Love Stories tour covering two hundred years of love, loss and betrayal in Baltimore’s high society. We’ll be doing two of these tours on February 13—the first at 11:00 am and the second at 1:00 pm.
We are looking forward to year packed with heritage tours and hope you can join us on our first two.
Thomas Brown, Woodwright custom mills architectural products for historic buildings all over Baltimore and beyond. Amazingly, Thomas Brown does all this mostly on machines that pre-date the Great Depression. The shop uses very few machines built after 1929 and keeps some machines that date as far back as the 1830s. Please join us for a Behind the Scenes Tour of this workshop located in a 1905 former icehouse building in the Remington neighborhood.
Behinds the Scenes at the Thomas Brown, Woodwright Workshop Wednesday, March 13, 5:30 pm – 7:00 pm
330 West 23rd Street, Baltimore, 21211 RSVP Today! $15 members | $25 non-members – wine & cheese will be served. Parking is available on the street. Enter on the Hampden Avenue Side.
You can see Thomas Brown’s handicraft in architectural millwork across the city at places like Hampton Mansion, Evergreen House, and the Garrett Jacobs Mansion. A little further afield, his shop has has helped to restore the Gracie Mansion in New York, the Harvard University Center in Boston, Winterthur Museum in Delaware, and the National Cathedral in Washington, DC. Thomas Brown’s workshop has fifteen wood working machines that have vanished from the planet everywhere else except their shop in Remington! What others consider antiquated or outdated, Thomas Brown considers essential to fabricating architectural woodwork for historic buildings. Please join Mr. Brown as he walks us through his shop sharing the stories of this rare historic wood-working equipment and the architectural woodwork that they produce.
Built at the turn of the 20th century, Miller’s Court began as the H.F. Miller and Son Tin Box and Can Manufacturing Plant. Today it is an excellent example of adaptive re-use as commercial and residential space. Much of the buildings original architectural elements remains, including massive wooden trusses, brick pilasters, and the original cupola. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2003. Our host will be Jon Constable of Seawall Development Company, the building’s owner and developer.
Tour Details
Miller’s Court | 2601 N. Howard St., 21218
Wednesday, April 27th | 5:30 PM – 7:00 PM
$15/members, $20/non-members. Wine and cheese will be served. RSVP for the tour today!
Parking will be available in the Miller’s Court lot at the corner of 26th Street and Maryland Avenue. Street parking is also available. Please enter the building on the Howard Street side.
Miller's Court before renovation, photo courtesy Tom TerranovaMiller's Court after renovations, photo courtesy Brigitte Manekin
Constructed in 1874, the former H. F. Miller and Son’s Tin Box and Can Manufacturing Company at 2601 N. Howard Street served as a manufacturing site for the American Can Company. Vacant for the past 20 years, this landmark building has experienced a renaissance as Miller’s Court–a mixed-use redevelopment offering affordable apartments for teachers and office space for nonprofit organizations that work with the city’s school system. To boot, the rehabilitation work combined the highest preservation standards with the gold standards for green and sustainable design. The end product is already breathing life into Howard Street and the surrounding community. The Adaptive Reuse and Compatible Design Award went to owner Seawall Development, architect Marks Thomas, and contractor Hamel Builders.
