Baltimore Attractions

The Maryland Zoo in Baltimore (formerly The Baltimore Zoo) is a zoo located in Druid Hill Park in Baltimore, Maryland. It is accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA). Home to over 2,000 animals, the zoo is generally considered to be the third oldest zoological park in the United States, having opened in 1876. In 2004, the zoo was struck by financial problems and was forced to reduce its collection size by closing parts of the zoo. The Main Valley was closed due to its age, being incapable of holding animals comfortably, and the Reptile House was closed. The reptiles, as well as gibbons and snow leopards were sent on loan to other zoos and aquariums. In 2008, the zoo was featured in America's Best Zoos 2008. Maryland Zoo in Baltimore is active in many conservation programs, notably the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Program and Project Golden Frog; it is the zoo t...

The Maryland Science Center, located in Baltimore's Inner Harbor, opened to the public in 1976. It includes three levels of exhibits, a planetarium, and an observatory. It was one of the original structures that drove the revitalization of the Baltimore Inner Harbor from its industrial roots to a thriving downtown destination. In 1987, an IMAX theater was added, but the museum continued to show its age as the end of the 20th century approached. In 2004, a large addition to the property was opened, and the modernized hands-on exhibits now include more than two dozen dinosaur skeletons. Subjects that the center displays include physical science, space, Earth science, the human body, and blue crabs that are native to the Chesapeake Bay. Maryland Science Center won a 2006 Best of Baltimore award for "Best Place to Take Kids."In 2008 the Maryland Science Center was named ...

The National Aquarium in Baltimore is a public aquarium located at 501 E Pratt St. in the Inner Harbor area of Baltimore, Maryland, USA. It was opened in 1981 and was constructed during Baltimore's urban renewal period. The aquarium has an annual attendance of 1.5 million (2009) to see its collection of 16,500 specimens representing 660 species. Particular attractions include the dolphin display, rooftop rainforest, and central ray pool, and multiple-story shark tank. Coastal Living named it the #1 aquarium in the U.S. in 2006. The National Aquarium in Baltimore is not to be confused with the National Aquarium in Washington, D.C.; however, the National Aquarium in Washington D.C. has been operated by the National Aquarium in Baltimore since 2003. In 2005, the National Aquarium was the largest tourist attraction in the state of Maryland. In November 2006, the National Aquarium...

The American Visionary Art Museum (AVAM) is an art museum located in the Federal Hill neighborhood at 800 Key Highway in Baltimore, Maryland. The city agreed to give the museum a piece of land on the south shore of the Inner Harbor under the condition that its organizers would clean up residual pollution from a copper paint factory and a whiskey warehouse that formerly occupied the site. It has been designated by Congress as America's national museum for self-taught art. AVAM has 55,000 square feet (5,100 m2) of exhibit space and a permanent collection of approximately 4,000 pieces. The collection includes works by visionary artists Ho Baron, Nek Chand, Ted Gordon, Clyde Jones, Leo Sewell, Vollis Simpson and Ben Wilson as well as over 40 pieces from the Cabaret Mechanical Theatre of London. Some of this work is displayed in a gallery on the first floor of the Main Buildin...

Fort McHenry, in Baltimore, Maryland, is a star shaped fort best known for its role in the War of 1812 when it successfully defended Baltimore Harbor from an attack by the British navy in the Chesapeake Bay. It was during this bombardment of the fort that Francis Scott Key was inspired to write "The Star-Spangled Banner", the poem that would eventually be set to the tune of the "To Anacreon in Heaven", to become the national anthem of the United States.

The Westminster Hall and Burying Ground is a graveyard and former church located at 519 West Fayette Street in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Occupying the southeast corner of Fayette and Greene Street on the west side of downtown Baltimore, the site is probably most famous as the burial site of Edgar Allan Poe. The complex was declared a national historic district in 1974.

The Washington Monument in the elegant Mount Vernon neighborhood of Baltimore (Maryland), was the first architectural monument planned to honor George Washington. Completed in 1829, the 178 foot doric column holds a ground-floor museum offering information about Washington as well as construction of the monument. Climbing the 228 steps to the top provides an excellent view of the city from the historic neighborhood where it is located.

The Walters Art Museum, located in Baltimore, Maryland's Mount Vernon neighborhood, is a public art museum founded in 1934. The museum's collection was amassed substantially by two men, William Thompson Walters (1819-1894), who began serious collecting when he moved to Paris at the outbreak of the American Civil War, and his son Henry Walters (1848–1931), who refined the collection and rehoused it in a palazzo building on Charles Street which opened in 1909. Upon his death, Henry Walters bequeathed the collection of over 22,000 works and the original Charles Street palazzo building to the city of Baltimore, “for the benefit of the public.” The collection touches masterworks of ancient Egypt, Greek sculpture and Roman sarcophagi, medieval ivories, illuminated manuscripts, Renaissance bronzes, Old Master and 19th-century paintings, Chinese ceramics and bronz...

The Baltimore Museum of Art in Baltimore, Maryland, was founded in 1914. Built in the Roman Temple style, the Museum is home to an internationally renowned collection of 19th-century, modern, and contemporary art. Founded in 1914 with a single painting, the BMA today has 90,000 works of art—including the largest holding of works by Henri Matisse in the world. It is located between the Charles Village and Remington neighborhoods, immediately adjacent to the Homewood campus of Johns Hopkins University, though the museum is an independent institution not affiliated with the University. The highlight of the museum is the Cone Collection, works by Matisse, Picasso, Cézanne, Manet, Degas, Gauguin, van Gogh, and Renoir, brought together by Baltimore sisters Claribel and Etta Cone.