he phrase “the new normal” has been thrown around since the COVID-19 pandemic began, and as America struggles to define—and design—what that is exactly, colleges are paving the way for what it might look like.

After the chaos and uncertainty of 2020, colleges and universities throughout the Baltimore region began to find their groove as they moved into the 2021-2022 school year. Coronavirus safety committees had been erected, new mandates put in place, safety protocols implemented—everything from vaccine requirements to temperature checks to quarantine procedures and wastewater testing that can pinpoint a COVID infection before anyone is symptomatic.

By some counts, colleges may very well be the safest places to live and work.

“Just following simple rules of wearing face masks and social distancing, using wastewater management and testing when we need to, we have, in many ways, been able to return to normal life,” says Goucher College President Kent Devereaux. “Full athletics, student clubs, dining in the dining hall, use of the library—everything that you’d normally have, we’ve been able to return to.”

Despite the challenges and anxieties faced by students, staff, and faculty alike, some unexpected silver linings have emerged.

“It’s just incredible to watch how it’s grown into the vision that we, as a group of students, had.”

The widespread adoption of technology across college campuses has proven to provide more flexibility, efficiency, and innovation—and even accessibility, in some cases. Counseling sessions, for example, began to be conducted remotely during the pandemic and many students found that they preferred it to in-person sessions. Students who cannot, for whatever reason, make it to an in-person class can now study from anywhere.

Challenging times, combined with advances in technology and the general acceptance of it, have also brought more cooperation and collaboration among schools. It’s becoming more common, for example, for schools that offer complementary programs to partner with one another to offer students an educational pathway to continue studies in their chosen areas. That may mean a discounted tuition rate, a transfer of class credits, or an internship through a partner school.

Maybe most importantly though, schools, at their best, foster an environment where students are supported, expand who they are, and connect with like-minded people. At a time when gathering together is not always safe, being in a community has become even more precious, and students have found new ways to connect.

OCA Mocha, a coffeehouse in Arbutus founded by University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) students, is one example of how effective a gathering place can be at a time when people are craving human connection. What started as a class assignment—to design a community center of some sort—has become a gathering place not just for UMBC students and alumni, but the Arbutus community at large.

“We’ve heard a lot of stories from people who are extremely grateful to have this space,” says Michael Berardi, UMBC class of 2019 and co-founder and general manager of OCA Mocha, which stands for Opportunities for Community Alliances. The coffee shop includes a stage, a community room, and an art gallery, employs UMBC students and alumni, and provides internship opportunities for current UMBC students.

“We have local groups and organizations that meet regularly in our community space and are grateful to not have to meet in someone’s living room or church basement,” says Berardi. “We see a lot of connections being made. It’s just incredible to watch how it’s grown into the vision that we, as a group of students, had.”

We checked in with colleges and universities throughout the region to find out what’s new and what campus life and classes look like, two years into the pandemic.

COPPIN STATE UNIVERSITY
A historically Black institution founded in 1900, Coppin State University is situated in the heart of Baltimore City in the Mondawmin neighborhood. Part of the University System of Maryland in Baltimore, the school offers 32 undergraduate and 11 graduate degrees, along with nine certificate programs and one doctorate degree. It’s been rated No. 4 Best HBCU in the Nation (College Consensus), the Top 5 Best Value Online Program (Online School Center), and No. 17 Best Value in the Nation (College Consensus).

In the summer of 2021, CSU announced its Student Debt Relief Initiative, which clears roughly $1 million in student balances and provided a $1,200 credit to every student enrolled in the fall 2021 semester. CSU also created the Freddie Gray Student Success Scholarship, which is available to graduates of Carver Vocational-Technical High School, where Gray was a student.

Coppin also takes esports (competitive video gaming) seriously. In the fall of 2021, Coppin became the first HBCU to open a building on campus exclusively devoted to esports. The Premier Esports Lab opened in September with a guest appearance from Grammy-nominated artist Cordae.

• SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 2,383 undergraduates, 341 graduates
• STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 13:1
• ANNUAL TUITION: $6,809 in-state, $13,334 out-of-state
• ACCEPTANCE RATE: 40%
• POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Nursing, Business, Biology, Education, and Criminal Justice, Rehabilitation Counseling

DICKINSON COLLEGE
Founded in 1783, Dickinson College is a liberal arts college in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, with a suburban campus that spans 144 acres. The school offers 41 undergraduate degrees within 17 fields of study.

It’s been rated as one of the best schools in the country for its sustainability efforts, which include an 80-acre, USDA-certified organic farm. Princeton Review rated it No. 2 in the Top 50 Green Colleges, and it was rated No. 2 in Overall Top Performers among baccalaureate institutions in the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education’s “Sustainable Campus Index” in 2019 and 2020.

• SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 2,345
• STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 9:1
• ANNUAL TUITION: $58,708
• ACCEPTANCE RATE: 52%
• POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: International Business, Economics, Political Science & Government, International Relations & National Security, General Psychology

GETTYSBURG COLLEGE
Gettysburg College, a private, liberal arts school, sits on 225 acres adjacent to the historical Gettysburg Battlefield in Pennsylvania. Many of the buildings on campus are historically significant, so it’s no wonder that it draws students interested in studying history.

The school offers 65 academic programs, more than 120 campus clubs and organizations, and 800 events on campus each year, plus more than 100 study-abroad opportunities open to students.

Its Majestic Theater serves as a venue for the greater Gettysburg community, hosting national acts as well as performances by the school’s Sunderman Conservatory of Music students.

It’s ranked No. 12 for “students who study the most” by the Princeton Review, which also ranked Gettysburg College’s dining hall No. 9 in the country for best campus food.

• SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 2,600
• STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 10:1
• ANNUAL TUITION: $59,960
• ACCEPTANCE RATE: 56%
• POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Political Science, Economics, Health Sciences, Organization and Management Studies, History, Psychology

GOUCHER COLLEGE
A private, liberal arts college in Towson, Goucher College prides itself on its close-knit community.

Goucher was extremely proactive when it came to COVID-19 precautions, being the first in the state to implement wastewater testing, which is able to isolate COVID infections by dorm.

Also of note: The college recently opened two new residence halls as part of the school’s First-Year Village. One hundred percent of Goucher students study abroad, and the school is committed to sustainability.

Most recently, Goucher has begun exciting partnerships with other schools, such as Johns Hopkins University, Loyola University, and more to come, to provide a pathway for students to continue their education beyond Goucher. For instance, their 4+1 MBA Program allows students to earn an advanced business degree through Loyola via a “Fast Track” admission process, and at a 15% discount on tuition.

SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 1,100
STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 9:1
ANNUAL TUITION: $48,000
ACCEPTANCE RATE: 79%
POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Psychology, International Relations, Economics, Political Science, Business Administration

JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
Johns Hopkins University (JHU) offers nine academic divisions and hundreds of courses of study, with campuses spread throughout Baltimore, including the Peabody Institute, a music and dance conservatory in Mount Vernon. Its main Homewood campus is located on North Charles Street.

The prestigious, world-renowned university has a strong reputation for its public health and medical studies and has been compared to Ivy League schools.

One of its points of pride is its financial aid program, which covers 100% of calculated need for every admitted student, without loans. This means JHU works with families to calculate what they can afford to contribute toward the total cost of attendance—including meals, books, travel, and other expenses—and JHU covers the rest with grants that don’t need to be repaid.

This school year, JHU added two new minors: Latin American Studies and Writing Seminars.

It also announced new efforts this year to move toward a broader, more flexible undergraduate educational experience that will include a required first-year seminar and the streamlining of major requirements to allow for greater intellectual exploration.

• SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 6,333 undergraduates, 22,559 graduates
• STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 6:1
• ANNUAL TUITION: $56,313 for Peabody Institute, $58,720 for the School of Engineering and the School of Arts and Sciences
• ACCEPTANCE RATE: 9%
• POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Computer Science, Molecular and Cellular Biology, Neuroscience, Economics, Public Health Studies, International Studies

LOYOLA UNIVERSITY
This private, Jesuit institution offers undergraduate and graduate programs on a beautiful urban campus in northern Baltimore City. Education at Loyola is based in the Jesuit tradition of scholarship cura personalis, or care for the whole person. Loyola is known for its academic rigor while helping students lead purposeful lives. Seventy percent of students study abroad. It currently ranks fourth in best universities in the North region according to U.S. News & World Report.

• SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 3,787 undergraduates, 1,353 graduates
• STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 12:1
• ANNUAL TUITION: $53,430
• ACCEPTANCE RATE: 80%
• POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Business, Management, Marketing, Journalism, Social Sciences, Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Psychology, English Language and Literature, Engineering and Education.

McDANIEL COLLEGE
McDaniel College sits in a bucolic setting near Westminster in Carroll County. The private, four-year liberal arts college offers more than 70 undergraduate programs of study and more than 20 graduate programs. McDaniel’s most recent addition to its curriculum is a National Security Fellows Program that provides students with knowledge, skills, and experience in national security as well as the ability to specialize in an area of interest, such as interstate conflict, intrastate political violence, cybersecurity, ethics, and human rights.

Also new this year, McDaniel appointed an inaugural associate provost for equity and belonging who provides vision and leadership to the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and works in collaboration with the provost to co-lead the college’s diversity, equity, and inclusion administrative committee, and guides the Bias Education Response Support Team.

The school also launched a new STEM Center to serve as a physical hub to support students studying the sciences. It hosts workshops and other events while also supplying online and hybrid support.

• SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 1,757 undergraduates, 1,324 graduates
• STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 13:1
• ANNUAL TUITION: $46,336
• ACCEPTANCE RATE: 81%
• POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Kinesiology, Business Administration, Psychology, Biology, Political Science, International Studies

MORGAN STATE UNIVERSITY
The largest of Maryland’s HBCU’s (Historically Black Colleges and Universities), Morgan is a public institution founded in 1867. It is situated in northeast Baltimore. As a Carnegie-classified high research (R2) institution, Morgan provides instruction to a multiethnic, multiracial, multinational student body and offers more than 140 academic programs at undergraduate and graduate levels. As Maryland’s Preeminent Public Urban Research University, Morgan fulfills its mission to address the needs and challenges of the modern urban environment through intense community level study and pioneering solutions.

• SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 6,270 undergraduates, 1,364 graduates
• STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 15:1
• ANNUAL TUITION: $8,008 for in-state and $18,480 for out-of-state
• ACCEPTANCE RATE: 73%
• POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Civil Engineering, Communications Engineering, Business Administration and Management, Social Work, Biology/Biological Sciences, Architecture, Finance, Psychology, Sociology

NOTRE DAME OF MARYLAND UNIVERSITY
A private, Catholic liberal arts university in northern Baltimore, Notre Dame of Maryland University offers programs from undergraduate through PhD, as well as Maryland’s only women’s college. It recently launched the first master’s of art degree in Art Therapy program in the state.
The beautiful, wooded campus is just steps from the bustling downtown Baltimore culture. With values rooted in Catholicism, the school focuses on service to others and social responsibility.

• SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 783
• STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 7:1
• ANNUAL TUITION: $39,675
• ACCEPTANCE RATE: 88%
• POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Nursing, Education, Biology, Art Therapy, Pharmacy

TOWSON UNIVERSITY
One of the largest public universities in the state, Towson University offers more than 60 undergraduate majors and continues to draw students from other states, though it remains part of the University System of Maryland.

Its campus continues to expand, with a huge new dining hall, a 23,000-foot recreation and fitness facility with an indoor swimming pool, and its 5,200-seat arena for sporting events and concerts. In 2021, it opened its new Science Complex, the largest academic building on campus at 320,000 square feet.

In September, Towson opened its StarTUp at the Armory, a space for startups and new businesses to engage with the broader community and larger businesses. It serves as a home to Towson’s entrepreneurship programs, as well as student competitions and events.

While Towson remains the largest supplier of medical professionals and educators in the state, the university has also built a strong reputation for its College of Fine Arts and Communication, as well as its Asian Arts & Culture Center, both of which bring students into the wider community and the Baltimore community to Towson for enriching performing arts, music, and visual art programs.

• SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 17,907 undergraduates, 2,949 graduates
• STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 16:1
• ANNUAL TUITION: $7,100 in-state, $22,152 out-of-state
• POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Business Administration, Education, Nursing, Exercise Science, Psychology, Sociology and Anthropology, Biology, Computer Science, Information Technology

UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND, BALTIMORE
University of Maryland, Baltimore is Maryland’s only public health, law, and human services university. Located in downtown Baltimore, it offers 86 degree and certificate programs through its six nationally ranked professional schools—dentistry, law, medicine, nursing, pharmacy, and social work—and an interdisciplinary graduate school.

The school’s 14-acre BioPark is Baltimore’s biggest biotechnology cluster, employing 1,000 people, and remains on the cutting edge of new drugs, treatments, and medical devices.

• SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 7,244
• ANNUAL TUITION: Varies by school
• POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Medicine, Law, Dentistry, Pharmacy, Nursing, Social Work

UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND, BALTIMORE COUNTY
University of Maryland, Baltimore County educates a campus of more than 10,000 students in programs spanning the arts, engineering, information technology, humanities, sciences, preprofessional studies, and social sciences. Located on the edge of Baltimore County, it allows easy access into the city and all the conveniences of suburban life and housing. It also offers plenty of opportunities for study abroad.

In the fall of 2021, UMBC opened the Center for Well-Being, a new two-story complex that houses Retriever Integrated Health, Student Conduct and Community Standards, and i3b’s Gathering Space for Spiritual Well-Being. UMBC’s already significant NASA partnerships have continued to grow. In October, NASA announced a major award of $72 million over three years for the new Goddard Earth Sciences Technology and Research II center. UMBC is leading the national consortium and will receive over $38 million. The GESTAR II consortium will support over 120 researchers, creating extensive opportunities for breakthroughs in Earth and atmospheric science research, and providing major opportunities for students to conduct research and be mentored by NASA scientists and engineers.

• SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 13,638
• STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 17:1
• ANNUAL TUITION: $12,280 in-state, $28,470 out-of-state
• ACCEPTANCE RATE: 81%
• POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Computer and Information Sciences and Support Services, Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Social Sciences, Psychology, Visual and Performing Arts

Cited tuition costs exclude room and board and books.

HISTORICAL MUSINGS: The architecture [in Bolton Hill] is what first drew me in—I love these houses. The crazy thing is that this is the first block I ever walked in this neighborhood. I would kill for the blueprints of some of these houses because they’ve been changed so much.

EYE FOR DESIGN: I got into interior design when I was 10 or 12. I think it comes from my grandmother—she had stacks of interior-design magazines. My taste has changed over time, but my home growing up was so far from what I wanted that [dreaming of what my aesthetic could do] built up over time. Typically, for me, I work with whatever I’m interested in. I don’t try to fit into a taste.

CUT AND PASTE: I made the collage above the fireplace. For a long time, I was looking for a large piece to put there. Collages, for me, are like puzzles. I like art forms that require arranging: interior design, floral design. It takes the pressure off, I think, because I’m a perfectionist, so I like things I can move around. Even decorating my home, I go back and forth.

ONE FOR THE BOOKS: I had the bookcases custom-built for my first apartment from a guy on Etsy. I’ve been a reader all my life. Books were a luxury growing up. It was a dream to have a ton of books, and it’s been a lot of fun as an adult to see that come true. A lot have come from The Book Thing. I haven’t read all of them, especially the older books. Some aren’t well-written, but I’ve saved them for the art and design. That’s the fun, though. It’s like owning your own library. You can grab something you’ve never read. There’s no such thing as too many books.

LASTING COMFORTS: This blanket from the pre-Civil War era is actually the oldest thing in my place. It was a popular style and was actually used in the war. I started looking for them after I saw one in an interior-design magazine. I like the juxtaposition of something old and modern. They’re typically blue and white or red and white—occasionally they’ll be rainbow colors.

People can’t believe I use something this old. There’s something beautiful about something ser ving a purpose for that long, from the 1840s until now. I think people have more of this awareness now: to go back to well-made things versus mass-produced.

ART FOR ART’S SAKE: I’ll hang anything on the walls. I’m bad at planning in advance, so behind these pictures are about 10 holes. Some of these are family photos, two are vintage panoramas from a girls’ summer camp that I liked, and some are photos from my friends who do photography. There’s a calendar I bought in Nepal—it’s been 2013 for a lot of years now.

In 92 square miles, Baltimore has more than 250 distinct neighborhoods, each incorporating its own unique architecture, characters, and cultures into our city’s sense of self. “We really are a neighborhood-based city,” says Johns Hopkins, director of Baltimore Heritage, citing Chicago’s 77 neighborhoods in a metropolis more than twice our size. “Having these dense, historic, rowhouse neighborhoods has helped create a sense of community.”

But what if these close-knit communities also have some intrinsic flaws? “There are really good things about having tight-knit neighborhoods,” says Hopkins, such as inciting enough civic pride in local residents to save Fells Point from death by a trifecta of highways, “but there can be some downsides, too.”

In the early 1800s, Baltimore’s neighborhoods were far more fluid—diverse in race, ethnicity, and even economic status, largely due to density in a smaller city. Ethnic concentrations did exist, but many wouldn’t take root until transportation advances such as streetcars allowed them to segregate.

By the mid-20th century, Baltimoreans “were definitely sticking to their own neighborhoods,” says University of Baltimore historian Betsy Nix, “not really mixing with people who weren’t their nationality, religion, or race,” which was further entrenched, of course, by the racist practices of redlining and blockbusting in the previous decades.

Some neighborhoods are now reckoning with this history head-on, like Bolton Hill—whose community association renamed itself in April to both acknowledge its exclusionary past and embrace its surrounding diversity—and Central West Baltimore—where for the past decade, the No Boundaries Coalition has been working to unify across race, class, and neighborhood. But “the legacy is still there today,” says Hopkins, “in how [some] neighborhoods look, in their demographic composition, and how much investment they have been able to attract over the last 50 or 60 years.”

“We’re no longer looking at just the four walls of the community we’re in,” says Thibault Manekin of Seawall Development, who is hoping to connect the company’s redevelopment success in Remington across I-83 to Reservoir Hill. “How can we open up our arms to the communities around us that haven’t had as much investment? How do we bring them in, so they feel that same sense of pride and ownership? Real estate, maybe more than anything on the planet, has the ability to unite.”

In other words, our neighborhoods should always remain a source of pride. But not too much pride. There’s a big city out there worth connecting with.

FORMSTONE

Once fashionable, this déclassé faux fieldstone remains an iconic symbol of blue-collar Baltimore, with the “polyester of brick,” as Waters once put it, still gracing façades like a badge of honor.

MARBLE STEPS

Born in a Baltimore County quarry in the 1800s, marble stoops long elicited a deep sense of pride, with residents making a ritual out of hand-scrubbing their steps on Saturday mornings.

PAINTED SCREENS

Pioneered here in the 1910s, this once-prolific urban folk art has become harder to come by, but keep your eyes peeled: it can still be found around Highlandtown, Little Italy, and Fells Point.

One of the bricks used in the early 1800s to build Ami Howard’s house has a dog’s paw print on it.

Just how Fido’s signature got there is part of the building’s bloodline, telling, in this case, the story of early 19th-century Redemptionist indentured servants, brought from the British Isles, who made bricks on site and laid them in the sun to dry. And before that brick could dry, Fido apparently made his mark.

It was a handy clue for Howard, but for an owner of an older home who wants to know the full history of the place, discovering the property’s pedigree is a bit more complicated than buying a home DNA kit and sending a swab to be analyzed. There are usually plenty of telltale signs, however, that can reveal much about not only its architecture, but also about the people who built it, those who lived there before, and what life in the home was like over generations.

When Howard went to compile the house’s history, she was fortunate: She had plenty of oral history and papers scattered about the house, including ledgers detailing a previous owner’s elaborate purchases. Harford County historian Christopher Weeks also helped by providing more research and expertise, particularly on historic construction details. But there was more homework to do.

Her home, Olney Farm, sits on 135 acres in Harford County and has been in her husband’s family since 1855. It was built about 1810 for a Quaker family. They sold it to a family from Philadelphia to use as a summer home. And when that owner died, his widow sold it to the Howards (née Shrivers).

“They bought it as an investment after the Civil War,” Howard explains. “Then the son of the buyer, J. Alexis Shriver, either was deeded the house or bought it from his father. He moved in, had a family, and undertook many projects on the farm. He was also a unique salvager.”

“Unique” is an overused word, but it certainly applies in the case of the Shriver son: He collected marble fireplaces, ornate bookcases, and even an entire mirrored and paneled room from a home on Thames Street. He had a vault (most likely a Prohibition-era closet) hidden behind a secret bookcase in his bedroom. And, most famously, he hauled four massive columns from a house in Mt. Vernon by train and ox cart and erected them at the back of the house.

And then there are those clues: It’s apparent from the different brick patterns on the building’s exterior, for example, that the parlor was a later addition. That matches with family lore that the addition was built about 1850 to host a wedding.

“The internet, and this was years ago, really helped a lot,” says Howard. “Because I had a lot of information to start with, I was able to go to the National Trust for Historic Preservation and look up references. But you can do a search for just ‘old house’ and you’d be amazed what resources come up.”

Where to begin doing the same sort of detective work on your own home? Eli Pousson, director of preservation and outreach at the nonprofit historical group Baltimore Heritage, offers a few pointers.

“We live in a golden era of historical research, whether you’re doing a family genealogy using DNA testing or you’re researching your neighborhood,” says Pousson. “The mass digitization of records has placed many resources you need for free online.”

Like Howard’s home, with its readily apparent addition, researching a home can start with an examination of the building itself. What is its architectural style? Can you see the outline of an old structure that was once attached? Is there evidence that windows have been bricked in? What materials are used? If you break through a wall and find newspaper used for insulation, what’s the date on them?

“There’s history in the structure itself,” says historian and author Jean Russo, PhD, who holds workshops on home research for the nonprofit Historic Annapolis. “You can go to the public records and track that information and relate it to the families who lived there.”

Researching architectural history isn’t a guarantee that anything interesting will turn up, though. Julie Saylor, a library associate with the Maryland Department of the Enoch Pratt Free Library, researched her own home in Moravia-Walther, which was built around 1904.

“One fellow had lived in the house for a very long time and, using the library’s criss-cross directories, I found a symbol that is used to indicate the owner is low-income,” she says. “Which didn’t shock me, because there was a lot in the house that looked to have not been maintained for a long time.” Beyond that, though, her hopes of uncovering anything juicy were dashed.

The experts will tell you that uncovering home history is a process and history isn’t always stuff to be proud about. Old newspapers may reveal society-page stories of weddings hosted in a home—or violent deaths. Homes tell the stories of history, good and bad, including things like neighborhood segregation and fires.

“Home research is a winding road full of wrong turns, cul-de-sacs, and dead ends,” says Pousson. “I recommend people approach it less with the idea that they’re going to find certain specific facts and more with the idea that this is something they’re going to dip into and see what can be learned.”

Ami Howard made her own mark on her home’s history when she enclosed an existing Victorian folly—an ornamental structure—and added a patio to create her own secret garden. Generations from now, some future owner of the property may be able to figure out when that was done and by whom. But, ironically, she admits that if she were to build her own house, it would be nothing like the gracious old home she’s in now. She’d prefer something very modern and European, with lots of glass and very little clutter.

“But I love this house because of the history,” she explains. “I wonder about them, how things looked over the history, how they lived. Knowing the history makes it more of a home.”

The best place to start record-searching is the home’s deed. The nonprofit Baltimore Heritage has an extensive tutorial online that explains how to trace the history of the title using the Maryland State Department of Assessments and Taxation real property search. Those results provide a book number and a page number (sometimes known as a “liber” and “folio”) that can be searched in the open land records.

Deeds provide information such as the dates the property changed hands and surveyors’ “metes and bounds” descriptions. If you’re lucky, it will also have the name of the previous owner and the book and page number of their deed that will allow you to hop back through time.

“If you have owners’ names, you can go to the census records and see what you can find out about them,” says Jean Russo, PhD, who leads workshops on home research for the nonprofit Historic Annapolis.

In Annapolis and Baltimore City, in addition to census records, there are city directories that often provide information by address. Julie Saylor, a library associate with the Maryland Department of the Enoch Pratt Free Library, says the library has “criss-cross” directories back to the 1930s and city directories back to the 1790s.

And if you have the surnames of previous owners, The Baltimore Sun archives at the Pratt can also be useful.

“You can often find newsworthy events associated with the house by using The Baltimore Sun index,” says Saylor. “Sun articles are a very good source of information and could cover all sorts of interesting information, such as crimes associated with the house, classified ads for the sale or rent of the house, deaths associated with it, and so on.”

Maps, too, can help fill in some blanks, says Eli Pousson, director of preservation and outreach at Baltimore Heritage. “You learn different things from different sources,” he says. “Deeds tell you the names of who owned a property and details like when it changed hands, but it won’t tell you if your house was a boarding house or who the household members were beyond Mr. and Mrs. Smith.”

The U.S. Geological Survey has maps back to 1884, and both E. Sachse Bird’s Eye View of The City of Baltimore (1869) and Bromley Atlases for Baltimore City and County (covering the 1880s through 1915) are available through the Pratt.

A treasure trove of information can also often be found in an unlikely place: the Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps. From 1879 to about 1960, the map company, which allowed insurance firms to use their products, issued maps that were a record of everything in the city, particularly anything that could start a fire. The maps often note if a rowhouse had a business on the first floor, such as a blacksmith or shoemaker, and a residence above.

When it comes to being your own home’s genealogist, you just need to know where to look.

Baltimore has no shortage of buildings with unique designs and histories. The Baltimore Fire Museum is one of these distinct buildings, standing apart from the cityscape with its gothic tower and arched entryway. The East Baltimore firehouse-turned-museum is also striking because of the clock and large church-style bell placed in the top of the tower.

The Baltimore Fire Museum is one of 60 sites featured in the fifth annual Doors Open Baltimore event returning the weekend of October 6. The citywide, architectural exploration will open up unique buildings and neighborhoods to the public free of charge and this year there will be a number of open houses held on Sunday.

“Any site we find that would be of interest to the public, and maybe the public doesn’t get to see is something we’d love to have as part of the event,” explained Victoria Kraushar-Plantholt, chair for Doors Open Baltimore. “Baltimore has some great architecture.”

The two-day experience features walking tours of areas like the Howard Street Corridor, and tours by bus. Kraushar-Plantholt explained that, although there are sites to see all over Baltimore, organizers made an effort to cluster locations together—making it easier for people to walk, bike, bus, or drive themselves to see everything.

The weekend includes both self-guided tours and outings with experts. Tour guides for sites like the Hippodrome Theatre are people who have extensive knowledge of the building. At other locations tours will be conducted by historic preservationists or architects.

Doors Open Baltimore grows each year and a new feature this year is a partnership with Yelp. The crowdsourced review platform helped with volunteer recruitment over the summer and will highlight restaurants near sites, so that guests can visit a couple the buildings that interest them and grab a bite to eat along the way. Along with the partnership with Yelp, restaurants like B&O American Brasserie downtown, and SoBo Cafe in Federal Hill will be offering discounts during the event.

“The great thing about this is that even if people aren’t into architecture per se, there’s something for everyone,” said Kraushar-Plantholt. As in previous years, Doors Open Baltimore will feature a number of family-friendly activities, including rides for kids and parents alike at the Baltimore Streetcar Museum on Falls Road.

Once again this year, the Doors Open Baltimore event is sponsored by the Baltimore Architecture Association (BAF) and the American Institute for Architects.

“Doors Open is important because it helps people engage with their community,” said Kraushar-Planthold. “And [it] presents aspects of Baltimore City that visitors might drive by every day but never stop to see what’s behind the building.”

Here’s a perfect tableau: a charming century-old bungalow perched on the Severn River in an upscale Annapolis community. That picture, however, needed to be just a little more perfect for John and Po Martin, who—despite stringent regulations on new waterfront construction—also wanted a great property for entertaining, complete with a striking and contemporary pool.

A party on a recent spring afternoon was proof the couple achieved their goal: They effortlessly hosted more than 100 guests, mostly past and present members of the sailing team at the University of Maryland, where their daughter, Jaimie, graduated in May.

“My mother went there in the early ’50s, and she was on the sailing team, so there were multiple generations of kids who grew up on the water and appreciate it,” says John Martin.

Hosting these types of gatherings has become something of a habit for the family, whose house is nestled in the historic Bay Ridge community, once home to a Victorian-era vacation destination known as “The Queen Resort of the Chesapeake.”

Born and raised in Annapolis, Martin, an insurance broker, was attracted to the property not just because it was on the water, but because of its acreage. “It was a big piece of land for the neighborhood, so we just decided to make the most of it,” he says. “The lot is an acre and a quarter, and half the lot we weren’t using at all.”

So a little more than 10 years ago, the big—and ongoing—re-do got underway: The Martins, who bought the property in 1995, called on Cathy Purple Cherry, of the eponymous Annapolis-based design firm, to customize both the interior and exterior living spaces, and Jones Contracting to do the work. “They chose to maintain the one-story bungalow character and not to build up,” Cherry recalls. “So the main house was renovated and expanded to a 3,000-square-foot footprint, with another living space below.”

The outdoor area, which includes a 14-foot-by-40-foot pool, a 650-square-foot deck, and a screened porch off of the main house with views of the Chesapeake Bay, presented its own special challenges because of the Chesapeake Bay Critical Area Protection Program. “It’s a state law to minimize the amount of hard surface that you put on your property in order to reduce the erosion and runoff into the waterways that lead to the Chesapeake Bay,” Cherry explains.

The pool’s placement adjacent to the house was dictated by the bungalow. “The house was expanded for maximizing its water view, and there’s no place for the pool to have gone between the house and the water—the pool could only go in the side yard.”

Because pools count as hard surfaces, the redesign of the surrounding area, which features grass and additional landscaping, had to be careful not to violate the Critical Area Protection rules. “The Martins have an amazing landscaper,” says Cherry of local firm Campion Hruby Landscape Architects (Martin also credits Estrada Landscaping, which did the actual plant installation). “They created this wonderful vegetative surround that is so successful on this property.”

Despite living in the home for 23 years, Martin says it’s still a work in progress. A recent project included tearing down and rebuilding the small guest house to offer better views of the pool and bay. “We wanted to have a place for my kids to do art and for me to do different projects,” says Martin. Today the new three-bedroom, two-bath guest house, with its large screened porch and expansive deck and open lawn, is perfect for playing games such as croquet and bocce. “It’s just set up to be the playhouse,” he adds with a laugh.

“I love to play with the landscape, and the outcome is going to be phenomenal,” Martin says. “I think we planted over 100 hydrangeas and another 50 trees. When all that matures, it’s going to be like a little Alice in Wonderland.”

I grew up basically in one house. My four kids have lived in five houses, all in Baltimore, and the oldest is only 11. Some were upgrades due to space; others were due to money/school/life. It’s because of all these moves that I’ve been thinking a lot about what a home means. As a writer my first instinct is to always put thought to paper.

But as much as I’ve written about my family before, I haven’t really written about our houses. I think because for me, mostly, our house has brought me joy by what I’ve filled it with. Not the location (we’ve had some really great locations) and not by it’s size (we tend to be on top of each other regardless of how many bedrooms we have) but the other stuff. Obviously, there are a million “first” memories: first garden, first laundry room on the top floor (man I miss that), first birds nest, first mouse, first rat, first parking spot, first neighbor to entrust with a key, first car broken into, first baby brought home, first snowstorm, and on and on.

For me, it’s also about the other stuff. The family photos that literally infest our home, the plants I’ve kept alive for more than a year, all my books, and my husband’s cookbooks, the dishes that belonged to my great-grandma, the pieces of art we’ve collected in Israel, Ireland, Jamaica, and Greece. And I’m not talking expensive pieces, but the ones that take us back to an exact moment of a memory. The piece of pottery we found on our honeymoon 14 years ago that (luckily) fit into the “seat trunk” of our Vespa as we zipped around Santorini. We have tons of local art pieces that line our walls, bought at farmers’ markets and local craft shows. People think I’m crazy, but I usually have all my art up on my walls within the first week of a move. Only then does our house feel like a home.

Here are some of my favorite places in my house:

Now, as the new features editor for Baltimore Home—tasked with expanding our digital presence, creating a social media buzz, and rethinking our Home quarterly, I intend to define what home really means. To me it’s not just about the zip code, but the actual neighborhood and neighbors. That a house can be an itty-bitty row house (been there!) or a sprawling estate. We want our editorial content to be relevant, innovative, useful, and enjoyable. We want to cover everything that it means to live in a house, from renovations to raising families in small spaces, to interviews with local creative designers, to trends our city is embracing, and what it means to be a neighbor.

Everyone defines home differently and our goal is to convey that. We’ll be introducing some Home bloggers over the next few weeks, from a recovering architect turned photographer (who, along with her husband, has used her skills to renovate two of their own homes) to someone taking the steps of co-habitation, to easy DIY projects (and for real we mean easy) to folks living through their own home renovations to my occasional blog “Kid vs. House.” We’d love to hear from you. What stuff do you have in our house that makes you happy? What makes your neighborhood amazing? What topics would you like to see our Home section cover?

I’m writing this on my (well-loved Crate & Barrel) couch, the sunlight streaming through my windows, a new piece of art ready to be hung, my kids playing upstairs (ohh, summer) and really, wherever that is, I’m home.

Janelle Diamond is the managing editor of Baltimore Weddings and new features editor of Baltimore Home. Email her with your ideas and pitches about your favorite local spaces, places, and faces that make the city home.

It is hard to picture East Baltimore as rural, Italian-like countryside, but you can get a sense of the rolling hills and long-gone trees from Clifton Mansion, the former summer home of Johns Hopkins. Built atop 266 acres, its panoramic views of the Inner Harbor, downtown, and TV Hill make the busy thoroughfares of Harford and Belair roads below disappear. The undulating natural topography—buried beneath dense, century-old rowhouse-laden streets—suddenly becomes visible.

“It is one of the highest peaks in the city,” says John Ciekot, special projects director for the Clifton Mansion rehabilitation project, as he leads a mini-tour of the home, which includes an ongoing restoration of an 1851 Bay of Naples mural. “Horses and carriages would’ve rolled up the toll roads here to the private entrance.”

Hopkins acquired the property, originally owned by Captain Henry Thompson, in 1841, several years after the War of 1812 horse artillery and militia commander passed away. Baltimore’s most famous benefactor soon transformed the Captain’s stately Georgian mansion into an Italianate villa, complete with a new porte cochère (a covered entrance large enough for carriages to discharge their passengers) and an 80-foot tower. The entrance hall features richly stained arch window frames, a marble floor, ornate hand-painted walls and ceilings, a black walnut staircase—and the centerpiece, a mural of Naples, its great bay, the nearby countryside, and Mount Vesuvius.

The painting was discovered in 1993 when Civic Works, the nonprofit job training and community-service organization, began leasing the long-neglected property. ‘The mural was painted over probably a dozen times,” says Ciekot “Whatever bureaucratic beige, yellow, brown, or green was in that year.”

Gillian Quinn, who is leading the restoration of the mural, says period artists often painted the scene after a Vesuvius eruption, which made the bay sky glow.
The artist who did the mural remains unknown. However, a signature is beginning to be uncovered. This very afternoon, conservators Ewa Pohl and Sue Crawford are literally scraping back the layers of paint with scalpels, further revealing the blue-green bay hues and pink-rose sky. It’s tedious work that likely will take a year to complete, but not necessarily unpleasant. “It’s meditative,” Pohl says. “We’re like monks.”

The mural faces a large window whose golden light would have—and will again soon—made the painting look different in the morning, at noon, and at dusk. The work itself has been one of small discoveries. What Crawford thought was decades-old spackling turned out to be sailboats on the bay. Generally, the conservators work with knives in one hand and cloths in the other—dampened not by some high-tech chemical solution, but something readily available when the painting was made.

“Spit,” Pohl says, dabbing the mural wall. “It still works best.”

Additional questions about Clifton Mansion and tours can be sent to cliftonmansion@civicworks.com or 2701 St. Lo Drive, Baltimore, MD 21213

When architects Megan Elcrat and Phillip Jones opened Co_Lab co-working space in the spring of 2016, they envisioned the front portion of the building would one day become a bookstore with a focus on architecture and design.

That time has come.

Co_Lab Books opened in Old Goucher with a soft launch this month and will hold its grand opening in January.

It’s obvious that it was created by people who have made careers out of having a good eye. The look is clean and minimalistic, modern with wooden shelves, paintings by local artists on the walls, and a large, well-lit wooden table at its center, ideal for browsing some of the large art books. Subject matter runs the gamut: architecture theory and criticism, how-to guides, typography, crafts and DIY, city living and urban planning, and a Baltimore section that will expand in 2018.

“We were hungry for a design bookstore in Baltimore. We just thought there was a hole there,” Elcrat says, speaking for herself and on behalf of her husband, Jones. “We’re trying to be more holistically about design,” she adds, leafing through the book Hybrid Modernism and eyeing its large, gorgeous photographs of movie theaters in South India—one of many titles chosen for its showcase of architectural styles.

Behind the bookstore is the workspace of several freelancers (writers, app developers, a lawyer), people who work remotely for larger companies, and nonprofit groups, such as Bikemore, Maryland Consumer Rights Coalition, and Child Justice. Though not all the tenants work in art and design fields, many do, and several of them recommended books to add to the store inventory. With two small children of her own, Elcrat stocked several picture books, too, with artwork as beautiful as their messages.

To engage more with the community, Elcrat, who also teaches architecture at Maryland Institute College of Art, plans to hold author talks and other events in 2018.

“Having a storefront presence is kind of an excuse to hang out with people,” she says.

Nestled on Wolfe Street are two houses built in 1797 that were once part of a quadplex—a structure of four living spaces. Built with common materials of wood and brick, these homes were occupied by African-American families in the mid-1800s who worked as ship caulkers less than two blocks away at the port.

These two buildings are some of the last Caulkers’ Houses to remain and have seen more than 200 years in Fells Point history. 

“It’s something you might walk past and not notice,” said Victoria Kraushar-Planholt, the chair for Doors Open Baltimore event. “There’s a lot of rich tradition with our city and its architecture.” 

Stories and structures like these are just one reason why Doors Open Baltimore is back again for the fourth year. Beginning October 28, the multi-day event allows visitors to tour more than 50 of Baltimore’s historical sites for free. The event was extended from one day to a full weekend to allow for lectures, more guided tours, and additional offerings.

The next day, visitors will have an opportunity to experience walking neighborhood heritage tours, bus tours with the Baltimore Heritage—a nonprofit historical preservation organization—and bicycle tours through several sites guided by architects and neighborhood experts. This year, since the dates are so close to Halloween, there will even be a few cemetery tours where you can learn about famous Baltimoreans and where they are buried.

“We’ve had people come up to us because they were upset they could only see so many of the sites if they were also going to do a guided tour,” she said. “The full weekend gives people more opportunities to see more of the buildings they want to see and participate in the events—they won’t have to choose.” 

Doors Open, which was inspired by a Denver event of the same name, is sponsored by the local chapter of the American Institute for Architects (AIA) and the Baltimore Architecture Foundation (BAF), and aims highlight the architectural designs around the city, introducing even longtime residents to something new. 

Among the sites are some familiar names like the Rawlings Conservatory and the Peabody Library. But the event also features hidden gems like The Arch Social Club, which is the second oldest black social club in the country, or Old Otterbein Church, which is the oldest, continuously used church in Baltimore.

“The hardest question is when people ask me my favorite site,” Kraushar-Planholt said. “But the Peabody Library is amazing to revisit. I’m a huge book fan and to see their 60-foot tall atrium with over 300,000 books is breathtaking in real life.”

We can all relate to the scene in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation where Clark Griswold gazes out his home’s frosted window, daydreaming about his family splashing and playing in the backyard pool that he plans to build with his generous end-of-year cash bonus—of course, he instead gets a one-year membership to the Jelly of the Month Club. But, in reality, our similar watery daydreams are too often interrupted with cost worries, fear of maintenance headaches, and imagined safety concerns that come along with a new pool.

But fear not. The standard backyard pool is undergoing a rebirth. Thanks in part to smart technology, energy-efficient products, and innovative design trends, pools are easier to maintain than ever, and the functionality of an outdoor entertainment area can stretch far beyond the warm summer months.

“We use a ton of technology that makes our pools easy to take care of,” says Michael Shaffery, president of Baltimore-based Elite Pools. For example, a built-in cleaning system “that looks a lot like the irrigation system for a yard” systematically pushes dirt to the main drain. Plus, remote pool-management technology allows Shaffery to diagnose and fix any problems from afar—and allows you to switch on your hot tub from an app on your phone so it’s hot and bubbling when you arrive home.

Spending a bit more upfront can pay off in energy savings later, says Matthew Thompson of Phoenix-based Lothorian Pools. Energy-efficient equipment is increasingly popular with his clients, Thompson says, like incorporating “LED underwater lights, variable-speed pumps, and high-efficiency heaters or heat pumps.” A variable-speed pump can help reduce the energy costs of running a pool by up to 90 percent.

Combine these product advancements with fun new trends, like sun shelves (shallow areas for relaxing on the patio or playing with the children), built-in lounge chairs, and spillover or integrated spas (where an underwater dam separates the hot tub from the rest of the pool for a seamless look, with some slight mixing of the water), and it’s a better time than ever to create the backyard oasis you’ve been dreaming of while gazing out that frosted window.

The “Wow” Factor

The pool at Christopher and Deborah Englert’s newly constructed home in Lutherville-Timonium is more than a place to swim. Chris says the pool and patio space is mainly used for entertaining and offers a great place for guests in search of “a relaxing area with plenty of room to sit and sip a cool drink.” Completed in July 2016, the 10-week project features lush landscaping, a trickling water feature, and mood lighting to create the perfect environment for chilling out.

On cool fall nights, the Englerts and their guests gather around the sleek, stainless-steel gas fire pit (which doubles as a table when not in use) or soak in the 36-square-foot spa. Custom lighting around the pool and landscaping give the area an extra “wow” factor after dusk. The built-in bench seat running the length of the 750-square-foot pool offers relief to cocktail-sippers on a humid summer evening, while covered patio areas with ceiling fans shield the midday sun.

“We wanted the pool to be a progression of the house, another room to use,” says Matthew Thompson, CEO of Lothorian Pools, which designed and built the pool.

A dramatic, 20-foot grade drop across the backyard created an extra challenge during the design process, as rainwater rushed through the proposed pool location. “We solved the problem by incorporating the stone retaining wall,” Thompson explains. “This afforded us two big-ticket items: water collection and a powerful visual element that helped to create an intimate ‘courtyard.’”

The pool was raised 16 inches above the patio floor to further reconcile the grading issue, allowing storm water to be directed around the back of the pool. And to create the transitional feel of an additional living space, building materials were chosen that best complement the Englert home’s design. Ocean Blue Pebble Sheen, a plaster coating manufactured by Pebble Tec that incorporates tiny, vibrant blue and earth-toned stones, creates a natural, deep-blue water color in the pool and spa. Premium bluestone coping tiles cap the pool shell wall, while the spillway from the hot tub to the main pool is made from a custom designed and fabricated piece of bluestone. Technology is at work, too: At the press of a button, the Englerts can control—and even change the color—of their pool’s energy-efficient underwater LED lights.

A Pool With a View

The McReady family residence offers 180-degree views of Duvall Creek, a bay off the South River in Annapolis, from its connected kitchen, dining, and living room. “For that reason, it was a very intentional decision to put the pool off to the side, so as not to block the water view,” says Cathy Purple Cherry, principal of Purple Cherry Architects, who designed the home and its outdoor entertainment area with an assist from Campion Hruby Landscape Architects.

For Suzanne McReady, her husband, and three school-age children, the goal was to extend their living space into the outdoors in a 2,000-square-foot waterside entertainment area that includes a pool, covered cooking and dining pavilion, and patio.

The McReadys opted to build the covered pavilion behind the pool, with recessed lights, a ceiling fan, and two brick islands topped with bluestone slabs—one for eating and another with a built-in gas grill and refrigerator for cooking and serving food. “In the summer months, we can enjoy family dinners without having to leave the pool area,” says McReady.

A concern regarding offside pools that aren’t in view of the main living space is the safety of young children. In the McReadys’ case, windows off the side of the kitchen provide a direct line of sight.

Unlike some Annapolis residents who pack up for warmer weather in the winter, the McReadys reside here year-round, and wanted a patio space that didn’t lose its beauty or functionality in colder weather. “We designed our outdoor space with this in mind, and we are able to enjoy the space for many months of the year,” McReady says.

Feeling Blue

When Elite Pools works with a potential new client, they ask a variety of questions to get to know the client’s needs: Have you had a pool in the past? Where do you like to vacation? Are you attracted to warm earth tones, or do you want your backyard to transport you to the Caribbean?

“The color of the water is going to invoke some kind of emotional response,” Michael Shaffery, Elite Pools president, says. “If you’re the type of person who hikes the Colorado Rockies and likes the land upon a mountain lake, that’s a completely different color than Hawaii water or Caribbean water.” Once Shaffery’s team gets a feel for the customer’s aesthetic, they choose the appropriate color coating from pool finisher Pebble Tec.

The rest comes naturally, Shaffery says: “The color of the water dictates the color of the tile and the color of the patio.”

Over the summer of 2016, Elite Pools worked on an extra special project—Shaffery’s family pool. For the project, which Shaffery values at around $500,000, Elite pulled out all the stops. A natural feel pervades the space, from the water’s cool blue tone reminiscent of a clear lake, to the rugged boulders and landscaping that are incorporated into the pool’s surroundings.

The spillover spa, set above the pool, cascades down a rocky waterfall element before landing in the main body of water. Across from the spa, a curving infinity-edge element creates the illusion from the perspective of a swimmer that the water vanishes into the property’s rolling hills, while built-in ledges and a sun shelf provide plenty of options for rest and relaxation. And a 32-foot-long slide dumps adventuresome swimmers into the pool’s deepest end.

“I built it as a showroom,” Shaffery says, “making sure that my clients can see what the possibilities are.”

Female Form

January 9, 2016
Cathedral Street

“A labor of love,” says Jillian Storms, leading a tour through the detailed exhibit she has curated, “Early Women of Architecture in Maryland,” at the Enoch Pratt Free Library. Shedding light on a dozen pioneering women whose groundbreaking careers spanned from the 1920s through the 1960s, the exhibit includes portraits, biographies chronicling the steadfastness of their ambitions, and notable accomplishments—such as interior design at the National Academy of Sciences in D.C.—as well as copies of their original drawings and renderings.

Among those profiled: German-born Poldi Hirsch, whose family fled the Holocaust before she went on to study architecture in Switzerland. She later emigrated with her husband, settling in Havre de Grace where she designed a still-standing midcentury office building in which her husband began his medical practice.

Also included are Katherine Cutler Ficken and Rose Isabel Greely, the first licensed female architects in Maryland and Washington, and a reproduction of a Maryland Society of Registered Architects letter to Ficken. Dated May 2, 1938, the note advises that while she was “certainly eligible” to attend the organization’s annual dinner and meeting, as the only women in the society, she should check with her “good father” regarding the propriety of her attendance.

“We had a lot of trouble tracking her down,” Storms says. “She’d adopted a 4-month-old son when she was 45, but she died in 1968 of cancer when he was 11. Our college research assistant was ready to give up when we finally found him. It turned out he’d kept a photo album of her work, including that letter, all these years.”

Day Dream

January 18, 2016
East Pratt Street

“Mom, it feels like we’ve been here all day,” a girl with braids and glasses says, tugging her mother’s arm, not so much in protest, but in amazement at the full slate of MLK Day activities at the Reginald F. Lewis Museum.

At the moment, they’re heading into the museum’s first-floor community space for a reading of The Meeting, a play about a fictional get-together between Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, with local photographer Devin Allen’s wall-sized photos of last year’s Baltimore Uprising serving as backdrop. Other events offered today include screenings of the documentary films, Citizen King, The March, and MLK: The Assassination Tapes, as well as access to the current feature exhibition, “Ruth Starr Rose (1887-1965): Revelations of African American Life in Maryland and the World,” and the museum’s 8th Annual High School Juried Art Show. There’s also drop-in, MLK Day-themed arts and crafts for kids.

Depicting the civil rights leaders’ differing philosophies but shared sense of urgency and mutual respect, The Meeting draws a standing-room crowd—and this is the play’s second presentation this afternoon. Afterward, Larkis Webber, who portrays Malcolm X, and Doug Goldman, who plays King, join Morgan State University professor David Terry for an audience discussion, much of it centering on the influence of the two leaders’ childhood, religious, and regional influences. “I’ve been living this [stuff] for 51 years,” Goldman says at one point. “In the 1970s, I was bused to Hampstead Hill Junior High in Canton. If you missed the bus after school, you ran through Patterson Park until you got to a safe neighborhood.”

“As a Christian, I’m with Rev. King,” adds a woman at the end. “But as a mother, if someone hurt one of my children, then I’m with Malcolm. I’ll ask for forgiveness later.”

The Flock

January 2, 2016
Conkling Street

“I grew up in Fells Point when this neighborhood was called ‘Little Poland’,” says Anthony Monczewski, 70, the grandson of a Polish immigrant butcher, as he steps inside Holy Rosary Church. “They still celebrate Mass here in Polish.”

Dedicated in 1928, the massive Romanesque shrine includes two-story stained-glass windows, marble altars weighing a collective 49 tons, and a 3,000-pipe, mahogany-encased organ. Monczewski’s visit to his childhood church this Saturday is part of the second East Baltimore Christmas Church Tour and one of seven stops celebrating historic parishes while their holiday decorations remain in full swing.

The morning begins with pastries and coffee at the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which celebrated its first Mass in Highlandtown in 1873. Also included: Our Lady of Pompei in “little” Little Italy, St. Leo the Great in Little Italy, St. Casimir and St. Brigid in Canton, and St. Elizabeth of Hungary at Patterson Park.

Inside Our Lady of Pompei, a gorgeous 1923 church built for Italian immigrants and known for its illuminated statue of Mary, pastor Luigi Esposito smiles as he recalls an early sermon. “Father Lou” recently celebrated 50 years of service to the parish, although the Naples native admits to the group that he occasionally stumbled in his Sunday homilies as a young priest. “I was trying to express the idea of the shepherd helping a lost sheep back into the sheepfold—a very common Christian metaphor.

“Well, the Italian word for sheepfold is ovile, so I figured the English word was the one that sounded closest,” he says, laughing, “and told the congregation that we must each help the lost sheep into the oven.”