Baltimore

[Harold Tucker]

I will be in Baltimore for the first time in my life this coming weekend and would appreciate any tips for a music loving, book loving, food loving visitor. You can e-mail me at the address in my profile. Thank you in advance. I already have my ticket to Sunday afternoon's BSO farewell to Yuri.

[Corlyss_D]

The Walters Museum has the best museum south of NYC. It has a substantial collection of illuminated manuscripts and a standing exhibit on books.

[Ralph]

Take the tour of Fort Mc Henry and spend time at Harborplace. Touristy but fun.

[Haydnseek]

Are you looking for restaurant near the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall? Here are a couple of good ones:

The Brass Elephant (see the virtual tour on the website)
http://www.brasselephant.com/home.html

The Brewer’s Art
http://www.belgianbeer.com/

There is a restaurant in an inn across from the hall that used to be good. It is under new management and I don’t know what it’s like now but it is convenient.

http://www.abacrombie.net/

You mentioned books. Here is a good used and rare shop:

http://www.kelmscottbookshop.com/

Let us know more about what you are interested in and how long you will be in the city.

[Corlyss_D]

I forgot about Camden Yards! If you can snag a ticket to the Orioles, you'd get a treat seeing a team play at one of the finest ball parks in the universe.

[miranda]

Harold, I don't know if you and your friend would be interested in this, but it's one of my favorite museums in the whole world--the American Visionary Art Museum, or AVAM. It's dedicated specifically to the work of artists with little or no formal artistic training, and it's full of fascinating and beautiful work.

http://www.avam.org/

[jbuck919]

The Walters Museum has the best museum south of NYC. It has a substantial collection of illuminated manuscripts and a standing exhibit on books.

I think there are several people in the next major city to the south who would take issue with that, but the Walters is a highlight and its collection does not much overlap with anything in Washington. The Baltimore Museum of Art is notable mainly for the Cone collection of impressionists, which is very, er, impressive indeed and worth the trip.

Baltimore has the Citizen Kane of American churches, meaning it is often voted the most beautiful in the country by architects themselves, and that is the Cathedral of the Assumption, designed by Benjamin Latrobe, the architect of the US capitol. It is currently under restoration so I don't know how see-able it is.

If you're a railroad fan there is an outstanding railroad museum in an old roundhouse. And do report back how you found your trip.

[GK]

I forgot about Camden Yards! If you can snag a ticket to the Orioles, you'd get a treat seeing a team play at one of the finest ball parks in the universe.

If you do get to Camden Yards forget about all those other restaurants and feast on Boog Powell's barbeque sandwich and beer.

[Haydnseek]

The Orioles will be out of town this weekend. You can tour the stadium. Within walking distance from there are Babe Ruth's birthplace and Poe's grave.

Some communities good for eating, drinking and nightlife:

Fell's Point

http://www.fellspoint.us/

Canton - especially around O'Donnell Street and also at the waterfront

Federal Hill. The hill itself offers an outstanding view of the city.



The Visionary Art Museum is just below the Hill to and the entertainment area is just to the south-west of it.

http://tiger.towson.edu/users/lpool1/federal_hill.htm

Not far away is a fine little museum that will probably give you the truest picture of the city's past: The Baltimore Museum of Industry.

http://www.thebmi.org/

By the way, the National Aquarium in the Inner Harbor is one of those sites that doesn't make your heart pound when you hear about it but it is actually quite impressive and enjoyable.

[jbuck919]

I am going out my mind to the point of bursting about Baltimore negatives that all we experienced ones know about but have not wished to post for fear of putting our friend off (e.g. Fort McHenry is almost impossible to get to, for that reason almost deserted as a tourist site, and surrounded by the industrial side of the port of Baltimore; trust me, it is still worth it). So I'm going to let some steam out. The Visionary Arts Museum, which has been mentioned twice, is only interesting if you like looking at art by certifiably crazy people (that is what visionary art means). The dentistry museum on the city campus of the University of Maryland is far more interesting (the U of Md had the first dentistry school in the US but the museum goes way back into the roots, as it were, of dentistry).

[karlhenning]

. . . The Visionary Arts Museum, which has been mentioned twice, is only interesting if you like looking at art by certifiably crazy people (that is what visionary art means).

Hey, at a time and in a place where an "icon" of the Blessed Virgin "done" in elephant dung, and a shark chopped into six sections and encased in a plexiglas filled with formaldehyde, are called, simply, "art" -- why, visionary art must be something entirely special again . . . .

[Haydnseek]

Fort McHenry is almost impossible to get to, for that reason almost deserted as a tourist site

I don't have any problem getting there. In fact, I can be found at a bar on Fort Ave (guess where it goes to?) most Fridays after work. This area is becoming the next focus of gentrification since property values in Canton became high. There are several areas in the city that are undergoing makeovers from a flock of new residents and businesses although the overall population is still declining, I believe. The stretch from the Harborplace to Canton has been tranformed.

[jbuck919]

Fort McHenry is almost impossible to get to, for that reason almost deserted as a tourist site

I don't have any problem getting there. In fact, I can be found at a bar on Fort Ave (guess where it goes to?) most Fridays after work. This area is becoming the next focus of gentrification since property values in Canton became high. There are several areas in the city that are undergoing makeovers from a flock of new residents and businesses although the overall population is still declining, I believe. The stretch from the Harborplace to Canton has been tranformed.

I do remember the incredible transformation on the stretch along Boston Street and to some extent the "near" part of Little Italy that got you there. Also, even though all this was just a few years ago, there was no Mapquest to get you from here to there, or no computer in the next room to access it if there was. I do remember laughing at the time, relying on the Alexandria Drafting Company map, finding it ridiculous what I had to do to get to as crucial a location in American history as Fort McHenry.

I have to wonder whether it is not still the case that no one in the lower two thirds of Baltimore is not a very short walk from what used to in un-PC times be considered an undesirable neighborhood.

[Haydnseek]

I have to wonder whether it is not still the case that no one in the lower two thirds of Baltimore is not a very short walk from what used to in un-PC times be considered an undesirable neighborhood.

That may still be the case. I'd say the walks have gotten longer in some areas.

You mentioned another neighborhood for eating: Little Italy, not far from the Inner Harbor.

http://www.littleitalymd.com/

[Corlyss_D]

The Baltimore Museum of Art is notable mainly for the Cone collection of impressionists, which is very, er, impressive indeed and worth the trip.

I have completely forgotten about them. I just checked their site. They have some positively mouth-watering impressionist exhibits coming up next year. Not going to do Harold any good if he wants to see them on his visit. If he were going to nip down to DC, I'd most certainly suggest the Phillips Collection.

Also you mentioned Little Italy. That's one thing I really liked about Baltimore that DC lacks: genuinely ethnic sections of the city.

[jbuck919]

Also you mentioned Little Italy. That's one thing I really liked about Baltimore that DC lacks: genuinely ethnic sections of the city.

Depends on what you call ethnic and what you call a section. Fifth-generation Euro-Americans running a string of more or less glorified spaghetti houses, or having more Ethiopian restaurants than any city in the world outside Addis Ababa?

[Corlyss_D]

Also you mentioned Little Italy. That's one thing I really liked about Baltimore that DC lacks: genuinely ethnic sections of the city.

Depends on what you call ethnic and what you call a section. Fifth-generation Euro-Americans running a string of more or less glorified spaghetti houses, or having more Ethiopian restaurants than any city in the world outside Addis Ababa?

Places with large concentrations of ethnic Italians, no matter if they are serving macaroni with ketchup, would qualify. The Post did a story many many years ago about "Little Germany" in Baltimore which boasted some incredibly fine amateur singvereine with immigrants who still spoke only German despite having lived here for decades. That qualifies too.

[RebLem]

They also have a statue of Roger Taney there. He was the first Catholic on SCOTUS. He was also the puke who wrote the Dred Scott decision.

But any city that produced Barry Levenson and John Waters can't be all bad.

[jbuck919]

They also have a statue of Roger Taney there. He was the first Catholic on SCOTUS. He was also the puke who wrote the Dred Scott decision.

But any city that produced Barry Levenson and John Waters can't be all bad.

Roger Taney actually has a town in Maryland, a county seat in fact, named after him (Taneytown). But if you're going to blame Maryland for Taney and for only not seceding because Lincoln arrested the legislators (at least they don't have statues to Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee), you also have to "blame" it for Frederick Douglas and Benjamin Banneker.

Roger Taney was also the Chief Justice who presided over the Amistad case, if I am not mistaken.