Featured Stories
Baltimore Bargain House
One of the largest businesses on the West Side in the early twentieth century the Baltimore Bargain House—a mail-order wholesale business that employed over a thousand people and earned profits in the millions that grew to become the fourth largest…
Interstate 395 and Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard
The little-known history of Baltimore's Interstate 395 (I-395) and Martin Luther King Boulevard, Jr. Boulevard offers a reminder of the years of contentious planning efforts that ended with the construction of these roadways in the early 1980s.…
Baltimore Design School
A survivor that has endured decades of abandonment, the 1914 Lebow Building is an impressive example of early twentieth century industrial architecture that is just starting a new future as the Baltimore Design School. While it takes its popular…
Recent Stories
Vince’s Bar
Vince’s Bar was owned by Vincent Staico. His wife, Matilda, “Ms. Til,” often ran the bar. Former patrons describe it as a quiet neighborhood bar, where there was seldom, if ever, fighting. Vince’s had pool tables and American Indian community…
Fairmount Avenue Missionary Baptist Church
In 1956, the oldest congregation in Baltimore City founded by Lumbee Indians (presently known as South Broadway Baptist Church) rented the storefront at 1918 E. Fairmount Avenue and adopted the name “Fairmount Avenue Missionary Baptist Church” under…
Volcano Bar & Restaurant
The Volcano Bar is easily the most infamous Indian bar of Baltimore’s “reservation” era, but it was in existence long before the clientele was mostly Indian. It first appears in a Sun ad as the “Volcano Restaurant” in 1944. In the 1960s through…
Gordon Cleaners
East Baltimore Church of God, the second oldest congregation established by Lumbee Indians in the City of Baltimore, was in 1955 known as the “Upper Room” Church because services were held above Gordon Cleaners at the corner of Baltimore and Wolfe…
Revel's Grocery Store
Jesse B. Revels Jr. (Lumbee) and his wife, Lucy May Revels, bought the property at 1819 E. Baltimore Street in 1962 and opened a grocery store. They and their children ran the store until 1968, when they moved to Baltimore County. They sold the…
Sid’s Ranch House Tavern
Sid’s Ranch House Tavern occupied a building that had been converted into a movie theater during the first part of the twentieth century. It had been the Teddy Bear Parlor ca. 1908 – 1919, and the Mickey until 1920 or ‘21. Sidney Silverman, a…
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Explore Baltimore Heritage
A project by Baltimore HeritageExplore Baltimore Heritage helps historians, students, and residents tell the stories behind Baltimore's buildings and neighborhoods. Read on to learn more about historic parks, theaters, rowhouses and more! Do you have an idea for a story? An old photograph you'd like to share? Please get in touch.
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