BALTIMORE — The late 1800s and early 1900s were the heyday of the corner bar and brewery in Baltimore. Now that distinctive history is being celebrated at the inaugural Baltimore Brewing Day.
It's happening at the Peabody Heights Brewery off of Greenmount Avenue, from noon to 6, and in partnership with Enoch Pratt Free Library and Baltimore Museum of Industry, which will soon launch an exhibit on the corner bar. The event will feature a pop-up exhibit on local brewing history, run by the urban exploration and history project Salvage Arc.
Evan Woodard is the man behindSalvage Arc, created in 2020.
He said:
Baltimore had so many breweries here. At one point, we were at well over 130, so basically every corner had a brewery on it, and it was everything from small breweries to big massive ones that still have some of the buildings around town that you can see today, like the American Brewery [on North Gay Street] or the Eigenbrot Brewery in West Baltimore.
The museum's corner bar exhibit will transport visitors back to the late 1800s and early 1900s, "where every corner did have a bar and sometimes multiple on one block," Woodard said.
The bar was a place to socialize and a place of business, and "so many people came through there," Woodard said.
The artifacts he donated to BMI will be able to tell that story. Besides the exhibit, Baltimore Brewing Day marks the debut of the Salvaged Lager Beer by Peabody Heights Brewery.
The Salvaged Lager will update and reimagine brewing techniques from the late 1800s, which had a heavy German brewing influence in Baltimore.
Eddie O'Keefe, of Peabody Heights, noted the brewery is an appropriate spot for the partnership, given the building's own background as the home of historic Oriole Park.
O'Keefe said:
I think the corner bar historically in Baltimore has been more than just a drinking space. I think it's a community center, I think it's where people get together.
Baltimore Brewing Day will also include a hands-on art history workshop by Enoch Pratt Free Library, a chance to scan your historic images of bars with the museum's archivist, and a discussion with photojournalist J.M. Giordano on Baltimore bars and nightlife between 1 p.m. and 2:30 p.m.
