Bolton Hill – May 7, 10 am to noon
Blue Plaques Come to Victorian Baltimore
Blue Plaques: London’s got them, and now Bolton Hill has too. The Bolton Hill neighborhood recently unveiled its Blue Plaque Program, where historical blue markers honor the houses where famous past residents once lived. Some notable blue plaque honorees include F. Scott Fitzgerald, President Woodrow Wilson, and the Cone Sisters, to name a few. Come explore this lovely historic Victorian neighborhood and its highest profile denizens with Frank Shivers, author on Bolton Hill history and creator of the Blue Plaque Program.
Meet at Memorial Episcopal Church, 1407 Bolton Street, at the corner of Bolton Street and West Lafayette Avenue. Park on the street.
Jonestown – May 14, 10 am to noon
Heritage Walk: Over 400 Years of History
Be one of the first to experience Baltimore’s “Heritage Walk,” a guided walking trail that connects some of the city’s oldest and most important historic sites and neighborhoods. This tour will focus on historic Jonestown, a new local historic neighborhood just north of Little Italy that was first established in 1732. Jonestown includes eight Baltimore City Landmark buildings, as well as the Flag House, the Carroll Mansion, the Jewish Museum of Maryland, the Shot Tower and the new Reginald Lewis Museum. Jonestown is using its old-world charm of 400 years in the making to help an ongoing revival. The tour will be led by a trained guide from the Heritage Walk team.
Meet outside the Inner Harbor Visitors Center, 401 Light Street, between the Maryland Science Center and the Light Street Pavilion. Take the Convention Center Light Rail stop or the Charles Center Metro stop. Parking garages and pay lots are located in the immediate vicinity.
Mayfield – May 21, 10 am to noon
Suburbs A Century Old
At one time, the Garretts, Ridgelys, Erdmans and other blue-blooded Baltimoreans had estates in what is now Mayfield, named after the Richmond Family estate. The neighborhood evolved from a mid-nineteenth century rural settlement along an early turnpike route and contains an eclectic mix of Victorian homes, brick row houses and early 20th century suburban villas. Explore one of Baltimore’s most recent National Register Historic Districts with Eric Holcomb, Baltimore city planner and author of a recent book on Mayfield and other northeast Baltimore communities, and Dorothy Dobbyn, a Mayfield resident who facilitated the neighborhood’s National Register nomination.
Meet at the Cathedral Church of St. Matthew, 3400 Norman Avenue, one block east of Harford Road between Mayfield and Lake Avenues. Ample parking is available on the street.
Dickeyville – June 4, 10 am to noon
English Charm in West Baltimore
What is a rural English village doing in West Baltimore, complete with sylvan forest and babbling stream? Centered on an early 1800’s factory complex on the banks of the Gwynn’s Falls River, this National Register and local historic neighborhood totals 138 buildings and a surviving mill. In the early 1930s, a development company bought the entire village and worked to restore its historic buildings, and the neighborhood successfully fought off an attempt to route Interstate 70 through its middle during the 1970s. Long-time Dickeyville resident Bill Schultheis will lead a leisurely stroll through this most unusual and charming of neighborhoods.
Meet at the Presbyterian Church, 5123 Wetheredsville Road. Park across the street from the church on the grass lot or on the adjoining streets.