Date/Time
Date(s) - 10/11/2026
11:00 am - 1:30 pm

Location
Baltimore Federal Courthouse

Categories No Categories

THE DOWNTOWN BALTIMORE YOU NEVER KNEW:
A WALKING TOUR

In this two-and-a-half hour walking tour, you will learn about Baltimore from its founding in 1729-1730, through the War of 1812, the Civil War, the labor unrest of the Gilded Age, the Great Fire of 1904, and the start of the Civil Rights movement.

The tour will strip away the city of today to reveal the original landscape features and now-vanished buildings that stood along its streets in centuries past.  You will see where Captain John Smith explored, the Continental Congress met, Francis Scott Key composed The Star-Spangled Banner, mobs rioted, Abraham Lincoln evaded assassins, German agents plotted acts of sabotage during the First World War, Thurgood Marshall practiced law, and George Washington, John Adams, the Marquis de Lafayette, Charles Dickens, and Woodrow Wilson slept!  The tour will also include notes on downtown architecture and will point out filming locations from various movies and television series.

The meeting point will be the colorful and abstract Jules Sugarman sculpture on the grounds of Baltimore’s Federal Courthouse at 101 W. Lombard Street, at the corner of Lombard and Hanover – one block north of the Convention Center.  Parking is available at many garages nearby, including that for the Baltimore Arena and the Down Under garage on Lombard Street, which is directly across from the meeting place.  The tour covers a rectangular section of downtown or rioughly 4 blocks by two blocks between Lombard Street on the south, Lexington Street on the north, Hopkins Place on the west, and South Street on the east.

Tour guide Jefferson Gray (1978, History) practiced law in downtown Baltimore for over 30 years and also serves as the President of the Board of Trustees of the U.S. District Court’s Historical Society.  He has designed exhibits and published articles and book reviews on various historical topics and was recently interviewed by both WYPR radio and the Baltimore Banner about Baltimore’s history during the American Revolution.

WHERE: Meet at the colorful and abstract Sugarman sculpture on the grounds of Baltimore’s Federal Courthouse at 101 W. Lombard Street, at the corner of Lombard and Hanover – one block north of the Convention Center.

WHEN: Sunday 10/11/26: 11 AM – 1:30 PM

RSVP:  PLEASE RSVP HERE

PARKING:  Available at many garages nearby, including that for the Baltimore Arena and the Down Under garage on Lombard Street, which is directly across from the meeting place.