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Photo: Deb Kiley, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
The Lyric Baltimore is a music venue in Baltimore, Maryland, United States, located close to the University of Baltimore law school. The building was modeled after the Concertgebouw concert hall in Amsterdam, and it was inaugurated on October 31, 1894, with a performance by the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Australian opera singer Nellie Melba as the featured soloist. Beginning in 1904, it was also used for touring performances by the Metropolitan Opera, and from 1950, it was the home of the Baltimore Opera Company until that company's liquidation in 2009.
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Bolton Hill is a beautiful neighborhood, but probably the single most impressionable and beautiful section is the square immediately around this huge memorial of the composer of the U.S. National Anthem. Key, cast in bronze, stands in a boat returning from captivity on an English ship along with a soldier, presenting a manuscript of what would become the Star Spangled Banner to a figure of "Columbia," who stands tall atop a marble temple, raising the flag to the sky. The enormous domed church on the square is a Masonic building, home to the "Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Maryland," and is not open to the public.
The city's home for swing/blues/lindy hop dancing. Come single or in pairs, and expect to be dancing. Lessons are offered at all levels, and are usual followed by social dancing. Music is often live.
At the turn of the 19th century, Baltimorians lobbied for a monument dedicated to the United States' first president, and in 1829 Washington's first monument finished construction. It was designed by architect Robert Mills who later designed that other Washington Monument in D.C. It is now the focal point of the Mt. Vernon neighborhood. Visitors can climb to the top (more than 160 feet high) with admission to see a panoramic view of the city.
An elegant late-classical-era home built in 1850, it was donated to the city of Baltimore by its last owners, Willard and Lillian Hackerman, in 1984. The city renamed the house in their honor and took advantage of its location to expand the adjacent Walters Art Museum. It now hosts the Walters' collection of Asian Art, but is open only on the weekend, and can only be accessed from within the museum. From the front rooms on the third floors you can sneak a bird's-eye view of the monument plaza.