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Baltimore City Heritage Area
 Goals
The goals of the Baltimore City Heritage Area are as follows:
Promotional Goal: Promote discovery of Baltimore City's tourist attractions beyond the Inner
Harbor
Preservation Goal: Create and foster the stewardship of Baltimore City's heritage resources by
residents and visitors alike
Development Goal: Create business and development opportunities and more jobs for City
residents through increased visitor activity
Neighborhood Goal: Clean-up revitalize neighborhoods to make them attractive to visitors and to improve the quality of life for residents
Management Goal: Provide a cost-effective management structure to establish a collaborative effort with existing initiatives to implement the vision for the Baltimore City Heritage Area.
Location
The Baltimore City Heritage Area is the only major urban Heritage Area in the State of Maryland. As the state's largest city this is fitting, and reflects the important role that the city has played in the state and the nation's industrial, architectural, and social history. The excellent harbor of the Patapsco River helped make Baltimore a world-class port. It supported the city's population of sailors, dock workers, and merchants, but it also served as the primary market and shipping point for agricultural products and manufactured goods from the Eastern Shore and the western counties. As such, Baltimore directly affected the livelihoods of Marylanders well beyond the city. The Patapsco River Greenway celebrates the historical link between Baltimore and neighboring regions, and is also seeking certification in the Maryland Heritage Preservation and Tourism Areas Program. The Baltimore region's market potential greatly expanded in the 19th century due to the city's advantageous position at the eastern end of the National Pike, which connected into the National Road at Cumberland, and later as the site of the nation's first main line railroad. These advances in transportation and the businesses and industries that grew up around the transportation network assured Baltimore a pivotal role in the prosperity of the Maryland economy and fostered major cultural and technological innovations.
One of Baltimore's many nicknames is “City of Firsts,” for its nearly one hundred instances of first events in the U.S. These "firsts" are testament to the innovation that Baltimoreans have shown throughout the city's history. Numerous advances and inventions in industry, transportation, science and education have pioneered in Baltimore. As one of the East Coast's fastest growing cities, Baltimore became a hub of creativity and capital in the 19th pot of cross-cultural ideas, and the city's prominence as a center of trade meant these ideas could be tested and exchanged with ease. Transportation innovations like the clipper ship and railroad enhanced commerce and mobility, which helped make Baltimore the third largest city in the U.S. and the second largest port of entry for immigrants. The resources of the Heritage Area are both vestiges of these innovations and monuments to them.
The phenomenal number of immigrants and migrants that arrived in the city in droves, particularly during the latter half of the nineteenth-century, brought new faces, ideas, and customs to Baltimore. The city rapidly expanded to accommodate them. Block after block of rowhouses, unique to Baltimore, grew out from the harbor. The ethnic groups, neighborhoods, and architecture that formed Baltimore's communities remain strong and visible in the food, art, literature, music, and theater that are celebrated today.
 Baltimore played an important role during the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Civil War, and both World Wars. At times, the city's military history, industrial history, and maritime history were interwoven. Clipper ships that were originally designed as merchant ships broke through the British blockade to deliver arms and munitions to U.S. troops during the War of 1812. Baltimore's steel works and shipyards supplied the U.S. with cargo and transport ships, called Liberty Ships, during World War II.
Natural resources were instrumental in shaping this industrial heritage. Baltimore has benefited from the power of streams that feed into the Patapsco river and its Middle and Northwest Branches. The harnessing of the Jones Falls and Gwynns Falls Rivers fueled the production of mills located along them and sped growth north and west of the city. Now these stream valleys are catalysts for rebirth as they are turned into recreational amenities and natural havens for the surrounding communities and the region at large. The successful conservation of these stream valleys and many other open spaces is due in large part to the early 20th century landscape-planning contributions of the Olmsteds and the Baltimore City Parks Board.
Baltimore's long history and its continual cycles of growth and rebirth have yielded countless historic sites and widely varying heritage resources. To discuss each one in detail is beyond the scope of this project, but many exemplify Baltimore's heritage and are discussed here.
Management
The Baltimore City Heritage Area is directed by a 40-member Board appointed by Mayor O'Malley, the Baltimore City Heritage Area Association. The Association is co-chaired by Camay Murphy, Executive Director of the Eubie Blake National Jazz Institute and Cultural Center, and James Piper Bond, President, Living Classrooms Foundation. Its Director is Bill Pencek, and its Administrator of Heritage Education and Outreach is Abbi Wicklein-Bayne.
Management Plan
Preparation of a management plan approved by the Maryland Heritage Areas Authority is a requirement for becoming a Maryland “Certified” Heritage Area. The approved Management Plan includes information on the boundaries of the Certified Heritage Area and “Target Investment Zones,” and presents the heritage area’s vision and goals and the strategies, projects, programs, actions, and partnerships that will be implemented to accomplish them.
Click to view the management plan:
Background (91 pages)
Recommendations (77 pages)
Appendices (102 pages)
Contact Information
Jeffrey P. Buchheit, Director
Baltimore Heritage Area
250 City Hall
100 Holliday Street
Baltimore, MD 21202
410-396-1954
410-396-5136 (fax)
E-mail: Jeffrey.Buchheit@baltimorecity.gov
Website: www.baltimorecity.gov/government/heritage
Last updated: December 10, 2007
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