Baltimore Heritage

When an organization promotes the preservation of Baltimore's historical architecture, you can bet its annual meeting and awards dinner will be held in one of the city's architectural treasures. This year the site for the Baltimore Heritage Inc. confab was the gem of 10 Light Street, Baltimore's only art deco skyscraper. "Isn't this a great room?" Bill Pencek exclaimed, as the group's past president surveyed the majestic main banking floor of the building now owned by Bank of America. Elegantly carved columns, wall murals and ornate metalwork circled the room.

Despite what you may have heard, the "house museum" is not dead in Baltimore City. The H.L. Mencken House (officially closed since 1997 by the bankruptcy of the City Life Museums) has had more than 100 visitors during two recent weekends. The Johns Hopkins University's Odyssey program arranged three tours of the house led by Marion Rodgers, the Mencken scholar and biographer. There was such pent-up demand to see the "empty" house that an additional tour was added, with another waiting list group that was unable to be accommodated.

Baltimore City Hall. The Hippodrome Theatre. Lloyd Street Synagogue. The Scottish Rite Temple. The Garrett-Jacobs Mansion. Those are just a few of the landmarks that might not be part of Maryland's landscape if it weren't for Baltimore Heritage, an advocacy group that works to protect and promote Baltimore's historically and architecturally significant buildings, places and neighborhoods. This spring the organization is marking the 50th anniversary of its founding with an awards gala at the Garrett-Jacobs Mansion on June 11, tours of local landmarks, citations to "centennial" families that have lived in the same house for more than 100 years, and other events designed to appeal to the "inner preservationist" in everyone.

Lady Baltimore has withstood much in 189 years perched overlooking Courthouse Square. She has lost both of her arms over the decades — one of them, holding high a wreath that signifies service to the republic, was sheared off by a gust of wind in January 1938, shattering on the pavement. And though it may be hard to tell from the street 52 feet below, wind, rain, snow, hail and pollution have dissolved much of the marble statue's eyes, nose and ears. But a new effort will finally give Lady Baltimore a new home — for her own good.

Baltimore Heritage dropped yesterday its fierce two-month battle to save a row of historic downtown houses, clearing the way for Mercy Medical Center's $292 million expansion and exposing divisions among preservation advocates. Officials with the preservation group lamented losing the 1820s-era homes - particularly so soon after their fight to save the 100-year-old Rochambeau apartment building ended badly. However, they said they had to pull the plug on what was becoming a costly, time-consuming and, perhaps, ultimately pointless exercise.

The handsome brick building at 607 Pennsylvania Ave. in West Baltimore has a proud history: It was the first integrated seminary in America, home of the religious order known as St. Joseph's Society for the Sacred Heart, or the American Josephites. After a $4.9 million renovation, it also has a promising future. It recently reopened as Charles R. Uncles Senior Plaza, a 47-unit apartment complex for seniors. It's named after a Baltimore native who was the first African-American priest to get his ecclesiastical training in the United States.

WHEN NEW owners purchased the Samester Apartments in Northwest Baltimore in 1998, they could have wiped away many of the Art Deco touches that make the building so unusual. Instead, after consulting with their architects, the owners restored details that help distinguish the 1939 apartment complex from many others up and down Park Heights Avenue, such as bull-nose columns and glass-block windows. Today, it stands as the most fully developed (and restored) Art Deco-style garden apartment complex in Baltimore.

What is the future for Baltimore's city-owned historic properties? The Baltimore Sun has reported that Baltimore City is hiring an appraisal firm to determine the "market value" of 15 city-owned historic properties. Baltimore Heritage has asked MayorStephanie Rawlings-Blakeand the director of the Department of General Services to make this process open and participatory to ensure that there is a seat at the table for the many citizens and volunteers who for decades have protected and celebrated these important landmarks.

I closed my eyes, inhaled gently and imagined hard, but the Timonium traffic din quickly short-circuited the conceit that placed me at the Inner Harbor. How silly; maybe more than most, I knew the lovely nutmeg scent wafting downwind from the McCormick plant two miles north hadn't perfumed the downtown air for over two decades. On Dec. 8, 1988, the McCormick Spice Company announced it would abandon its landmark Inner Harbor building and the Rouse Company would tear it down. The lawsuit I filed and the "Demolition Makes No Scents" campaign I spearheaded for Baltimore Heritage quickly turned legions of citizens into historic preservationists.

In January 1955, Morgan State College students staged an impromptu sit-in at the lunch counter of the Read's drugstore at Howard and Lexington streets in Baltimore, demanding that African-Americans be served. Their protest, along with others at local Read's stores, worked: That month, the retail chain began serving all patrons, black and white, at all of its 37 Baltimore-area lunch counters. But the students' victory has been largely overlooked in the annals of U.S. civil rights history, in part because it was not photographed or widely reported by the mainstream news media.

Baltimore is one of the oldest cities in the United States, with a wealth of history and historical landmarks. It's amazing how the City Council thinks it owns those historic landmarks ("Ownership isn't the issue," April 4). How presumptuous of them to sell or lease the city's heritage to fill its coffers. A new low has been achieved in this city's politics with this idea. They seem to forget the people own the landmarks, not the City Council, not MayorStephanie Rawlings-Blake, Not the governor but the people.

What is the future for Baltimore's city-owned historic properties? The Baltimore Sun has reported that Baltimore City is hiring an appraisal firm to determine the "market value" of 15 city-owned historic properties. Baltimore Heritage has asked MayorStephanie Rawlings-Blakeand the director of the Department of General Services to make this process open and participatory to ensure that there is a seat at the table for the many citizens and volunteers who for decades have protected and celebrated these important landmarks.

We are nearing the 14th anniversary of the closing of the Peale Museum, when Baltimore became one of the few historic cities in the world without its own history center. Also lost to the public - although carefully preserved by the Maryland Historical Society - was the entire treasury of local history formerly displayed and accessible at the Peale, which was rightly regarded as "Baltimore's Smithsonian. " The good news is that MayorStephanie Rawlings-Blakerecently announced that her administration intends to give greater recognition to Baltimore history as a critical element of its economic development and cultural enrichment strategy.

I closed my eyes, inhaled gently and imagined hard, but the Timonium traffic din quickly short-circuited the conceit that placed me at the Inner Harbor. How silly; maybe more than most, I knew the lovely nutmeg scent wafting downwind from the McCormick plant two miles north hadn't perfumed the downtown air for over two decades. On Dec. 8, 1988, the McCormick Spice Company announced it would abandon its landmark Inner Harbor building and the Rouse Company would tear it down. The lawsuit I filed and the "Demolition Makes No Scents" campaign I spearheaded for Baltimore Heritage quickly turned legions of citizens into historic preservationists.

Volunteer archaeologists are descending on leafy Lafayette Square in West Baltimore this weekend in an effort to uncover relics from Camp Hoffman, a Union army encampment that stood there during the Civil War. Just hours into the project Friday, while dodging rain showers and swarms of June bugs, the diggers had already turned up fragments of mid-19th-century tableware and decorative wrought iron, nails, birdshot and even a piece of an old pocket...

Baltimore's preservation panel intends to recommend that Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake withhold approval of the $150 million Lexington Square redevelopment because it calls for the demolition of historic buildings previously targeted for preservation, including the former Read's drugstore, site of a 1955 civil rights sit-in. Members of Baltimore's Commission on Historical and Architectural Preservation also indicated Wednesday that they would start the process for adding the Read's building to the city's "special list" of historic landmarks, an action that would automatically protect it from demolition for at least six months.

Lady Baltimore has withstood much in 189 years perched overlooking Courthouse Square. She has lost both of her arms over the decades — one of them, holding high a wreath that signifies service to the republic, was sheared off by a gust of wind in January 1938, shattering on the pavement. And though it may be hard to tell from the street 52 feet below, wind, rain, snow, hail and pollution have dissolved much of the marble statue's eyes, nose and ears. But a new effort will finally give Lady Baltimore a new home — for her own good.

Encouraged by recent negotiations, Baltimore preservationists have agreed to postpone a challenge of Mercy Medical Center's permit to demolish a row of historic downtown rowhomes. Baltimore Heritage, after meeting with hospital representatives this week, decided yesterday to postpone a hearing set for Tuesday asking the city to reconsider Mercy's demolition permit. The hearing has been rescheduled for Feb. 6. "These meetings have been helpful," Mercy's attorney, David W. Kinkopf, wrote in a joint statement with Baltimore Heritage's attorney, John Denick.

Baltimore Heritage, a nonprofit preservation advocacy group, is asking that 17 city-owned buildings on Baltimore's west side be added to Baltimore's landmark list, a step intended to protect the structures — including the former Read's drugstore — from demolition. Members of the city's preservation commission would have to agree to the landmark designation. The structures are within the "Superblock" renewal area, where developer Lexington Square Partners wants to build a $150 million complex containing stores, apartments, a hotel and parking.

In January 1955, Morgan State College students staged an impromptu sit-in at the lunch counter of the Read's drugstore at Howard and Lexington streets in Baltimore, demanding that African-Americans be served. Their protest, along with others at local Read's stores, worked: That month, the retail chain began serving all patrons, black and white, at all of its 37 Baltimore-area lunch counters. But the students' victory has been largely overlooked in the annals of U.S. civil rights history, in part because it was not photographed or widely reported by the mainstream news media.