Local History

Baltimore County Executive James T. Smith Jr. is set to visit the exhibition of local black history expert Louis Diggs on Saturday at Eastpoint Mall in eastern Baltimore County, Smith's office announced today. Smith will visit Diggs' photographic display at 11 a.m. near the entrance to Value City at Eastpoint Mall. The exhibit, showing on Saturday and Sunday, highlights the histories of the eastern Baltimore County communities of Turners Station and Edgemere. Diggs, considered the first historian to research and document Baltimore County's African-American heritage, has penned seven books that detail the histories of African-American enclaves around the county.

Annapolis is ideal for exploring on foot. It is compact, with most of its notable sites within a small area. And its narrow Colonial-era streets can make touring by vehicle a challenge. Visitors can choose from a number of walking tours of Annapolis, each with its own focus. Guides wearing Colonial garb lead the walking tours for Three Centuries Tours of Annapolis. The two-hour and 15-minute public tours include the historic district and dock area, the interior of the State House, the campus of St. John's College and the U.S. Naval Academy's grounds and buildings.

At one time, Dan Wecker thought he wanted to be a history teacher. Instead, he became chef and owner of the Elkridge Furnace Inn, one of Howard County's top dining destinations. But history still fascinates Wecker. His lovingly restored inn, which dates to 1744, is a showcase for that passion. And so is his cooking. Wecker has created a lecture and lunch series that allows him to share his interest in local history, which he illustrates through food. The lectures attract between 20 and 45 people, many of them regulars.

One of the oldest surviving buildings in Ellicott City is passing into new hands. Academy Financial, a Towson-based financial planning firm, will soon move into the George Ellicott House, built in 1789 by a son of one of the founders of the town then known as Ellicott Mills. "It's such a beautiful historical building," said Michael Ward, a partner in the firm. "They're not making any more of them. They're one of a kind." The three-story stone house, one of many that once lined the banks of the Patapsco River in what is now Baltimore County, is remarkable in part because it exists at all. Another stone home built next door for George Ellicott's brother, Jonathan, was destroyed by flooding from Tropical Storm Agnes in 1972.

Twenty-one years after he conceived the idea of a sports museum for Baltimore, Mike Gibbons will watch that dream take a giant leap forward today when ground is broken to transform historic Camden Station into an expansion of the Babe Ruth Birthplace and Museum. The proposed $16 million project will celebrate Babe Ruth, but it also will showcase Johnny Unitas and stories about the Orioles, Colts and Ravens, along with local baseball and the Negro leagues. While preserving the historic 1856 building, the site will portray the tradition of Maryland sports through the Maryland Terrapins, Naval Academy, the Maryland Athletic Hall of Fame and other sports avenues.

When Mary Towers and Bart Bodt decided to move from their Bel Air townhouse into a more spacious home in the same area, they knew one thing: They did not want a cookie-cutter house. What they found was anything but that. The couple ended up purchasing a 1930s bungalow in Ingleside. Shortly after moving in last year, they applied for and received local historic designation for the house. Their home was the last of eight along the 300 block of East Broadway that had been surveyed and were eligible to be nominated for local historic status.

Usually a library is the place to go to research a project, but for the Harford Community College Future Interior Designers Organization, the library itself was the project. The student club transformed a former administrative office in the historic Hays-Heighe House in Churchville into a formal "gentleman's library" during last year's AMC Cancer Research Center Decorator Show House. The students were rewarded for their efforts on the Hays-Heighe House project when they were chosen in September for first place in the student division of the Interior Design Competition sponsored by the Maryland Chapter of the American Society of Interior Designers and Chesapeake Home Magazine.

John Smith's first exploration into Harford County was during the summer of 1608. Even before that time, the area around the Chesapeake was full of history and artifacts. Each museum in the county documents a small piece of that history whether it is about the geology of the land, the people who lived on the land or the art inspired by the land. Here are some of the museums found in Harford County: The Concord Point Lighthouse at Lafayette and Concord streets in Havre de Grace is the oldest continuously operated lighthouse in Maryland.

A RECENT West Coast trip with the Ravens brought me face to face with San Diego's sports history. The tribute to golfers Phil Mickelson and Mickey Wright, future Baseball Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn and NFL running back Marshall Faulk was merely a series of oversized photos hung on Delta terminal walls at Lindbergh Field airport. A nice touch, but not exactly a deeply moving experience - even with that picture of the most famous San Diegan, Ted Williams. Poor Splinter. The handsome face of the last man to hit .400 has been thoroughly compromised by the lurid details of Williams' head being detached, defaced by drilled holes and deep frozen, for cloning or future DNA sale purposes.