Maritime Museum

The tiny Fells Point Maritime Museum opens its doors to the public tomorrow, and officials hope it - and other small attractions like it - will have a large effect on Baltimore tourism. The $1.5 million museum, eight years in the making, sits amid the boutiques and pubs of Thames Street, directly across a cobblestone street from the pier where hundreds of thousands of people come and go by water taxi each year. Showcasing the ships, sea captains, merchants and shipbuilders that made Fells Point a bustling 19th-century port, the maritime museum will add another dimension to the city's tourism offerings.

Like mourners at a funeral, friends and neighbors gathered at the Robert Long House Museum in Fells Point yesterday to share hugs and regrets after a morning fire tore through the second floor of the historic building.The one-alarm fire charred the second-floor offices of the house, built in 1765, and the oldest existing residence in Baltimore. The first-floor museum sustained water damage but, for the most part, was in good shape.The Society for the Preservation of Federal Hill and Fells Point, which purchased the house in the early 1970s, was in the midst of a project that would have linked the house with a new visitors center next door and a maritime museum.

St. Mary's City festival Be a sailor for the day and visit the Maritime Heritage Festival Saturday at the Historic St. Mary's City Museum. Meet boat builders and sailors and tour a Coast Guard patrol boat. A regatta of radio-controlled minisailboats and re-enactments of Colonial sailing life are scheduled. Children can learn maritime history and how to tie sailors' knots and build model ships. Folk musicians Charlie Zahm and Tad Marks will give a free concert after the festival on the State House lawn.

Skate and bike contest The lowdown -- Ever watched Tony Hawk do a flip in midair and thought, "Eh, I could do that"? Now's your chance to prove it. The Baltimore City Department of Recreation and Parks is holding the Turkey Trot Skate and Bike Contest this Sunday at Carroll Park. Choose between a skateboard competition or bike competition; each contestant gets two one-minute runs to show their skills to the judges. Winners receive medals and trophies. If you go -- Carroll Park is on Bayard Street, off Washington Boulevard.

The Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum's 16th annual OysterFest is Saturday in St. Michaels. Children will find their niche in Kidstown, a tent filled with educational and entertaining activities designed to introduce them to the humble oyster. Other features include oystering demonstrations, blacksmithing, seam caulking, decoy carving and the continuing Skipjack Restoration Project. The museum will display its collection of 600 vintage oyster cans. Whitey Schmidt will be signing copies of his new Chesapeake Bay Oyster Cookbook.

Harvest daysTo get a sense of the customs, traditions and rich history of the Pennsylvania German heritage, you only have to travel to the Landis Valley Museum in Lancaster, Pa., this weekend. Go back in time at the museum's 37th annual Harvest Days celebration to discover the way it used to be.Appreciate Lancaster's farming traditions and Pennsylvania German harvest time, partake in an old-fashioned auction of handmade wares, enjoy a horse-drawn wagon ride, watch the craft demonstrations and satisfy your palate with traditional country fare and homemade goodies.

Ground-rent owners file suits Ground-rent owners rushed to beat the deadline for cases as a new state law ending ground rents takes effect. Baltimore residents still face the prospect of having their homes seized as cases wind through the courts. Two city museums to close The Maryland Historical Society will close two satellite museums -- the Maritime Museum in Fells Point and the Baltimore Civil War Museum -- to reduce costs. Death penalty lawyer dies Fred Warren Bennett, 65, a criminal defense attorney whose capital litigation changed the course of the death penalty in Maryland and the nation, died in a car crash in Pasadena.

When Theodore R. Brown awoke at 4 a.m. yesterday, he had no idea he would be returning to a home he hadn't seen for 54 years.But seven hours later the 90-year-old Baltimorean looked around the Coast Guard Cutter Roger B. Taney and said, "She's just as beautiful as I remembered her."Mr. Brown, who lives in the 1000 block of Ashburton St., served for three years on the Taney, starting when it was commissioned in October 1936.He returned to the historic cutter, now a museum piece moored at Pier 4 in the Inner Harbor, to take part in ceremonies honoring the 203rd year of the U.S. Coast Guard.

The Maryland Historical Society - which laid off 20 percent of its staff last year and saw a new director leave within four months of arriving - will close two satellite museums in Baltimore to reduce costs. The Maritime Museum in Fells Point and the Baltimore Civil War Museum in Harbor East will close Sept 1. The closures will save about $50,000 a year and allow the 163-year- old historical society to eliminate its deficit by mid-2008, said society Director Rob Rogers. "It's a small change but one that is necessary because both museums operate at a loss, and we need to ensure the future of the Maryland Historical Society," Rogers said.