Celebration planned at site of park to honor blacks' role in maritime history

A "construction celebration" today for the Frederick Douglass-Isaac Myers Maritime Park in Fells Point - the first project on the harbor dedicated to recognizing the contributions of African-Americans in Baltimore's maritime history - will include a marching band, the thundering cannon of a tall ship, and a keynote address by Kweisi Mfume, president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

The event, sponsored by the Living Classrooms Foundation, will begin at 9:15 a.m. when the City College marching band heads down Thames Street to the construction site at Chase's Wharf. The hourlong ceremony will begin at 9:30 a.m. and will be marked by the return of the tall ship Pride of Baltimore II to its home port. A volley from the ship's cannon will officially close the ceremony.

The tall ship, which is returning from ports of call in the Great Lakes, Nova Scotia and along the Eastern seaboard, will make its way to the Inner Harbor at noon, and will be open for deck tours from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.

The morning ceremony will also serve as a groundbreaking event for the Weinberg Education Pavilion addition to the restored Sugar House, which was built about 1804 and is thought to be the oldest industrial building on the waterfront.

The maritime park is expected to be open by the end of next year.