Preservation Maryland, in partnership with the Maryland Historical Trust, Baltimore Heritage, and the Baltimore City Commission for Historical and Architectural Preservation, are proud announce the first round of grant awards from the Baltimore City Historic Preservation Fund.
The goal of the Baltimore Preservation Fund, supported by the Baltimore Community Foundation, is to provide direct assistance for capital and non-capital activities that advance efforts to preserve historically significant properties in Baltimore City. The projects selected represent a wide variety of building types and uses. In addition to looking at historic significance, reviewers also sought projects that are important to neighborhood identity and contribute to the revitalization of communities.
In this first round, nine projects totaling $70,000 in grant awards were selected from a highly competitive field of nearly forty applicants.
Preservation Maryland Executive Director Nicholas Redding explained, “We are proud to administer and support this important new program. The grants funded this round each underscore the real power of preservation to be a positive force for community revitalization.”
Awarded Projects 2019
Historic Theatre Restored to Serve the Community
Organization: CASA de Maryland, Inc.
Type: Bricks and Mortar
Project Name: Baltimore Regional Education and Training Center
CASA of Maryland, which works to improve the quality of life in working-class and immigrant communities, has outgrown their current Baltimore location. The organization’s new headquarters will be in the historic ca. 1921 Belnord Theatre located in the East Monument National Register Historic District. The renovated facility will provide on-site vocational training, workforce development programs, and afterschool programs, legal services, and ESOL programming. The $10,000 grant from the Baltimore City Historic Preservation Fund will go toward the restoration of the building’s historic façade to its iconic 1929 appearance.
Bringing a New Historic District to East Baltimore
Organization: Jubilee Baltimore
Type: Education and Research
Project Name: East Baltimore Midway National Register Historic District Nomination
Jubilee Baltimore seeks to secure National Register Status for the East Baltimore Midway neighborhood, bordered by Greenmount Avenue to the west, North Avenue to the south, Harford Road to the east and 25th Avenue to the north. The approximately 1,800 historic structures located in the area include churches, homes, and commercial buildings. The $8,000 award will be used to prepare the nomination and open the door to greater incentives for investment and preservation in the community.
Window Restoration in Neighborhood Landmark
Organization: Leadenhall Baptist Church
Type: Bricks and Mortar
Project Name: Stained Glass Window Restoration
Leadenhall Baptist Church, dedicated in 1873, houses one of the City’s oldest congregations continually housed in the same building. The church’s neighborhood has a rich African-American history and Leadenhall Baptist Church is one of the earliest buildings still standing that captures that history. The $7,000 Baltimore City Historic Preservation Fund grant will go towards the restoration of the stained glass windows, many of which are original to its construction.
Restoration of Historic Storefronts for Neighborhood Revitalization
Organization: Le Mondo, Inc.
Type: Bricks and Mortar
Project Name: Stabilization and Storefront Rehabilitation
Le Mondo is a project to rehabilitate three buildings in the Market Center Historic District into a multi-use space incorporating presentation, education, studio, and office space among other uses. The $5,000 grant awarded to LeMondo will go towards the restoration of windows on two of the buildings for this project. The buildings impacted are early 20th Century storefronts, one of which was home to H.L. Menken’s “Saturday Night Club” and hosted Henry Fonda and Margaret Sullivan’s wedding reception.
Nominating a Neighborhood Rich in Arts and Entertainment Heritage
Organization: Neighborhood Housing Services of Baltimore
Type: Education and Research
Project Name: Penn North National Register Historic District Nomination
The Penn North Neighborhood was a vital part of Baltimore’s African American arts history. Pennsylvania Avenue was recently named an Arts and Entertainment District, the first in Maryland designated for its role in black arts and entertainment. Beyond its role in the arts, the neighborhood is also home to a rich residential building stock that played a part in Baltimore’s Jewish and African-American communities. The $8,000 Baltimore City Historic Preservation Fund grant will fund the research needed to submit a National Register Nomination for the district.
Restoration Work for the Oldest Museum Building in the United States
Organization: The Peale Center for Baltimore History and Architecture
Type: Bricks and Mortar
Project Name: Peale Center Picture Gallery
Both the first purpose-built museum building in the United States and the first place in Baltimore to use gas light, the Peale Center is undertaking a multi-year restoration effort. The building sat vacant for many years until 2017 when restoration and programming began. The $7,000 grant will support restoration work to the main congregation space, the Picture Gallery. The Peale Center for Baltimore History and Architecture continues to develop relationships in their neighborhood to help present a diverse and inclusive history of Baltimore and work to revitalize the area for residents and tourists.
Bringing a Piece of Industrial History Back to Life
Organization: Society for the Preservation of Federal Hill and Fell’s Point
Type: Bricks and Mortar
Project Name: Caulkers’ Houses Rehabilitation
Description: The Caulkers’ houses stand as a rare example of wood frame vernacular housing in Baltimore. These houses once housed the city’s working class, both free and enslaved and once represented the majority of the housing stock in the neighborhood. Among the caulkers in Fell’s Point was Frederick Douglass. The houses are long vacant and in need of both rehabilitation and new use. The $10,000 grant will go towards efforts to restore the Caulkers’ houses to their 1840s appearance and use them to highlight this chapter in Baltimore’s history.
STABILIZING Malachi Mills HOUSE
Organization: Southwest Partnership
Type: Bricks and Mortar
Project Name: Malachi Mills House Stabilization
The 1843 Malachi Mills House is a wood frame house in Baltimore. While much is still left to learn about Malachi Mills and his family, he was a carpenter and cabinet maker making the house an example of workers housing in mid-19th Century Southwest Baltimore. After standing so long-vacant the building is in deep disrepair and in urgent need of stabilization. The $10,000 grant to Southwest Partnership will provide funds to stabilize the building against further deterioration and to ensure the building’s survival among the revitalization efforts in the neighborhood.
Restoring THE SELLERS MANSION
Organization: St. James Terrace Apartments, Inc.
Type: Bricks and Mortar
Project Name: Sellers Mansion
The National Register-listed Sellers Mansion, named for Northern Central Railway director Matthew Bacon Sellers, has been long vacant. It sits prominently on the corner of Lafayette Square Park in the Old West Baltimore Historic District. Efforts are underway now to restore the 1868 home and the $5,000 grant from the Baltimore City Historic Preservation Fund will help stabilize the building from further deterioration.