Ghost Rivers lunchtime guided walking tour 5/3/2024, Wyman Park Dell, North Charles Street, Baltimore, MD, USA, 3 May 2024

$Ghost Rivers lunchtime guided walking tour 5\/3\/2024$

Join artist Bruce Willen and Blue Water Baltimore for a guided walk of the Ghost Rivers public art project along the path of a buried stream
About this Event

Ghost Rivers guided walking tour

Join artist Bruce Willen and Blue Water Baltimore on Friday, May 3 for a guided walking tour of the Ghost Rivers public art project.

The tour

The walk will follow the lost path of the buried creek Sumwalt Run, and pass nine current and future sites of Ghost Rivers installations. Along the way the artist and Blue Water Baltimore will discuss the story of Sumwalt Run, Baltimore history, and the past, present, and future of our buried waterways.

The tour will last approximately 50–60 minutes. Please wear comfortable walking shoes. If you are have accessibility needs, please let us know before or at the beginning of the walk so that we can plot the best route.

11:50AM/12:00PM — Meet at Wyman Park Dell (near the 31st St entrance)

12:00 noon — Guided tour begins at Ghost Rivers Site 1

1:00 — Complete tour at Ghost Rivers Site 9

Afterwards, explore Remington and grab a bite to eat at nearby restaurants such as Sweet 27 or R. House.

About Ghost Rivers & Sumwalt Run

Ghost Rivers is a neighborhood-spanning, multi-site public art installation and history walking tour by artist Bruce Willen that visualizes a lost stream buried below the streets of Baltimore.

The creek Sumwalt Run vanished from Baltimore’s landscape in the early 1900s. It now flows hidden and mostly forgotten through storm sewers. You can catch echoes of its waters whispering from certain storm drains. Ghost Rivers reveals the hidden history and path of Sumwalt Run, which now flows through underground culverts beneath the Remington and Charles Village neighborhoods. Through a series of installations, wayfinding markers, and writings Ghost Rivers brings lost landscapes and histories to the surface. Along the way the project draws connections between Baltimore’s watershed, its social history, and the evolving relationships between natural and human environments.

Before Sumwalt Run’s ignoble turn as concrete culvert, it witnessed eras of Baltimore’s urban history. Its frozen waters appeared in ice boxes across the city, cut from the city’s first commercial ice pond and a later artificial ice factory. Trolley tracks crossed its ravine, bringing workers home from downtown factories. The Olmsted Company attempted to preserve part of the stream as a greenway, but real estate developers filled its valley (using debris from the Great Baltimore Fire of 1905, according to local lore). When Baltimore built a new sewer system in the early 20th century, Sumwalt Run and dozens of other creeks across the city were turned into buried storm sewers and disappeared from memory. Ghost Rivers reveals these hidden histories and offers a glimpse into past and future city landscapes.

Credits

Ghost Rivers is supported by