BALTIMORE GHOST TOURS
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Cosplay as a 19th-century soldier or privateer Choose your fighter: soldier or sailor? Luckily, you can be both while visiting Charm City. First, visit Fort McHenry and pay the small fee to walk through the fortress that defended our nation and inspired“ The Star-Spangled Banner.” During peak hours, you’ re likely to encounter a reenactor who can offer more insight into military and civilian life in the 1800s. For the seafaring type, there’ s Urban Pirates. On these interactive cruises, available in both kid-friendly and BYOB formats, you’ ll play pirate games, blast enemies with water cannons and navigate treacherous waters to search for treasure. You can also board the Historic Ships docked in Baltimore’ s Inner Harbor to learn more about the city’ s contributions to maritime history.
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Get
to know our( mostly) friendly ghosts Wish you had the chance to talk to some of the rebels and rabblerousers that once called Charm City home? You may get a chance on a Baltimore Ghost Tour of Fell’ s Point or Mount Vernon. Hear tales of the raucous sailors, cunning ladies of the night and missing hotel guests who still haunt our most historical
neighborhoods on tours led by Baltimore Ghost Tours as well as US Ghost Adventures. For an even more“ spirited” adventure, book the haunted pub crawl.
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Soak up our speakeasy scene Though drinking has remained legal in America for more than 100 years, several Baltimore bars still offer a speakeasy experience. In addition to The Owl Bar, there’ s the moody W. C. Harlan, the literary-themed Bluebird Cocktail Room and The Elk Room, named one of the best bars in the country by Esquire. You can also get a taste of our bootlegging past at distilleries like Baltimore Spirits Company, Old Line Spirits and Sagamore Spirit.
THE BALTIMORE MUSEUM OF INDUSTRY
LEAH HEWITT JUSTIN TSUCALAS
4.
Pay homage to the Pope of Trash John Waters has never been afraid to break the rules. His hometown of Baltimore served as the inspiration for and backdrop to many of his witty and transgressive films, from Pink Flamingos to Hairspray. Some of his favorite locales include the American Visionary Art Museum, where you’ ll find a statue of the drag queen Divine( who starred in several Waters films), as well as Peter’ s Inn, Club Charles and Metro Baltimore. For a souvenir, pop into Atomic Books in Hampden— Waters receives his fan mail there!
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Meet more African American trailblazers Baltimore has four museums that are solely dedicated to amplifying Black history and culture: The Frederick Douglass- Isaac Myers Maritime Park Museum, National Great Blacks In Wax Museum, Lillie Carroll Jackson Museum and Reginald F. Lewis Museum. Others focus on Black contributions to specific industries and causes. The Baltimore Museum of Industry highlights Black entrepreneurs such as Henry G. Parks of the Parks Sausage Company, the first publicly traded Black-owned business in America, and AFRO American Newspapers founder John Henry Murphy. The B & O Railroad Museum introduces visitors to eight freedom seekers who passed through Baltimore on their journey along the Underground Railroad. And the Maryland Center for History and Culture features dozens of interviews with past and present civil rights activists. VB
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