Timothy Leary’s got nothing on Baltimore! Join us for a walk around the Spring Grove Hospital Center campus to see this partially abandoned historic facility where, among other things, the first and longest government-run psychedelic drug research program took place. Founded in 1797, it is the second oldest continuously operating psychiatric hospital in the country. On our tour we’ll see the remnants of the oldest building on campus and industrial structures from the 1930s, plus a barely noticeable cemetery. Walk through three centuries of history that weaves together tales of yellow fever epidemic, Confederate traitors, and psychedelic scandal. Groovy.
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As we enter into the 2016 holiday season in earnest, we hope you can squeeze in one last heritage tour with us into your December: a peek inside the U.S. Custom House on Lombard Street. On Dec. 28, we’ll tour this fantastic building with its Beaux Arts architecture, fabulous call room, and elaborate nautical murals by noted artist Francis David Millet.
If you are looking for more ways to celebrate the holidays with historic sites in Baltimore, don’t miss the 31st Annual Union Square Christmas Cookie Tour on December 11 and the Snowflake Tour of Charles Village Homes on December 18. Each of these tours gives you the chance to get to know a historic Baltimore neighborhood while enjoying sweet treats!
We’ll take up our 2017 heritage tour season in January. Stay tuned and have a happy holiday.
This weekend the 2011 ROOTS Festival comes to the Highway to Nowhere in West Baltimore, and we are leading neighborhood walking tours as part of it. Please join us if you can. The festival is a series of music, arts and community events, some outdoor and some indoor, starting at Franklin and North Gilmor Streets (just west of Martin Luther King Boulevard). As part of our continuing work with the Friends of West Baltimore Squares partnership, we’ll be at the festival both Saturday & Sunday, June 25-26, sharing information on upcoming programs and offering a series of West Baltimore Walks through the historic parks and innovative new gardens to the north and south of the Highway to Nowhere.
Baltimore Heritage at the Alternate ROOTS Festival
Saturday & Sunday, June 25-26
West Baltimore Walks at 11:00 am, 1:00 pm, & 3:00 pm
FREE!
RSVP today!
Meet at the corner of Franklin and Carey Streets at the festival.
The one-hour walking tours, led by Baltimore Heritage’s Eli Pousson, start from the “Community Bridge” at the corner of Franklin & Carey Streets. They will go through Harlem Park & Lafayette Square exploring schoolyard gardens and soaring historic churches, and through Franklin Square & Union Square stopping by the H.L. Mencken House and innovative vacant lot projects on Brice and Carey Streets.
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