Visitors Center

Future visitors to Baltimore's Fort McHenry will learn about its role in American history by taking part in an "immersive experience" that will enable them to witness a pivotal battle in the War of 1812 as if through the eyes of Francis Scott Key, the attorney who wrote the poem that became the national anthem. Efforts to build a new visitor center for the fort in South Baltimore cleared a key hurdle yesterday when architects unveiled a final design for the project, which has been in the planning stages for more than a decade.

Harriet Tubman, the abolitionist and leader of the underground railroad, might finally be getting long-awaited recognition. The state approved yesterday a $208,000 purchase of 20 acres on the Eastern Shore to create a visitors center and educational complex devoted to the woman who led many slaves to freedom. The Tubman center, which could cost more than $12 million, will be on Route 335 near Key Wallace Drive in Dorchester County, near where Tubman was a slave before escaping. Gov. Martin O'Malley led the Board of Public Works in approving the project.

Annapolis' hub for wayfarers is moving its operations down the road for the next eight to 10 months while it undergoes a $1.3 million expansion and renovation. Starting today, the Annapolis and Anne Arundel County Conference and Visitors Bureau is taking temporary residence in the Arundel Center at 44 Calvert St., said Connie Del Signore, president and chief executive officer. Work on the bureau, which welcomed about 190,000 visitors last year, is expected to begin Jan. 8. "The whole purpose for our doing this is because of our growth," Del Signore said.

At Historic London Town and Gardens in Edgewater, office staffers, volunteers and custodial workers scurried yesterday to set up a party after the ribbon cutting for the $5.1 million visitor center. That doesn't mean it's open yet. The eight-year-long project, delayed by construction slowdowns and last-minute code compliance glitches, is not expected to be completed until later in the fall. But for the former Colonial-era settlement known as "a lost town on the Chesapeake Bay," the lateness is just a blink of an eye in time.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's National Wildlife Visitor Center will offer bird walks for youths ages 16 and older and adults from 7:30 a.m. to 10 a.m. Sept. 6; 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. Sept. 14; and 7:30 a.m. to 10 a.m. Sept. 20. Participants will have an opportunity to search for birds in several refuge habitats on the guided hikes. Field guide and binoculars are recommended. A bird walk for all ages is scheduled from 8:15 a.m. to 10 a.m. Sept. 24. "The Basics of Birding" will be taught from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. Sept.

Construction is expected to be completed this month on the conversion of an abandoned sewage treatment plant into a $5.1 million visitor center-museum-classroom-archaeology lab at Historic London Town and Gardens, the faded Colonial tobacco port that is now a historic site. "We're down to final inspections," said Richard H. Ormsby of James F. Knott Construction Co. of Timonium, the general contractor. The new center, mostly underground, is designed to explain the significance of the 23-acre, county-owned park, making a cohesive story out of what remains, what has been re-created, what's gone and what's being dug up. Aboveground, visitors will see two single-story buildings of faded wood and glass.

Baltimore's Fort McHenry should have a new visitors center in time for the bicentennial anniversary of the War of 1812, with the help of an $11 million federal grant, officials announced yesterday. The money -- included in a recently approved transportation bill -- is expected to help complete decades of planning to replace a building that National Park Service officials believed was too small and limited from the time it opened in 1964. "This is really a very exciting day. We've been working for this for a long time," said Sen. Paul S. Sarbanes, who helped secure the funding.

With a plan to transform a public bathroom into a visitor center, would the city be flushing potential revenue down the toilet or helping a neighborhood clean up? Federal Hill Main Street Inc., a nonprofit organization with a mission of revitalizing historic business districts, wants to renovate a city-owned vintage comfort station into a Federal Hill welcome center. The group wants the prime East Cross Street site for $1 a year with an option to buy, which is no bargain for the city, Baltimore's Planning Commission ruled last week.

She's a charmer. To visitors, Baltimore certainly lives up to the name Charm City. With all her attractions, arts venues, restaurants, shops and, of course, quaint neighborhoods and rich history, Baltimore is indeed an enchanting place to explore. And many do. Nearly 15 million people visit Baltimore each year, according to D.K. Shifflett and Associates, a travel research firm. And aiding those many visitors has been the Baltimore Area Convention and Visitors Association's Baltimore Visitor Center.

The Grand Canyon IMAX Theater, which has wowed crowds for 20 years with 70-foot pan-oramic images of the landscape as it appeared throughout the centuries, has reopened as a new visitor center outside the park's South Rim entrance. The owner of the IMAX theaters, which runs big-screen movies at tourist spots throughout North America, teamed with National Geographic to immerse arriving visitors in the sights, history and secrets of this geological wonder. The center uses interpretive displays, photo galleries, satellite images and a terrain model of the Grand Canyon created with satellite technology.