The Best Places to Visit (Baltimore, Towson: insurance, travel, hospital)

[smiln32]

What are some of the best places to visit in Baltimore. Maybe some places with some history to them. Your ideas?

[Tom Lennox 70]

1. If you want history, definitely go to Fort McHenry. Take the water taxi from the Inner Harbor which stops in Fells Point where you transfer to the fort. The fort is definitely my favorite place in Baltimore City. On a clear day you can see far out into the bay and the Key Bridge.

2. Aquarium

3. Camden Yards and M&T Bank Stadium

4. If you like nightlife Federal Hill is very good

5. If you like shopping go to Harborplace and the pavilions or go to Towson and Arundel Mills

6. Canton is a nice area, so is Little Italy

On the not so flashy side....I'm currently watching the Wire show and wonder where it was filmed. Where is that high-rise housing project that Avon and D'Angelo Barksdale base their drug operation out of in Season 1? Is the actual location really that bad (maybe they filmed it in a safer area to stand in for the ghetto) because they did take a whole film crew there. There was a scene with "New York Fried Chicken" in episode 1....I've seen such a restaurant on Greenmount Avenue, does it have multiple locations?

Also not so glamorous but there's something impressive about the Sparrows Point steel mill. Its ugly and gray but there's something interesting to it in a weird way. Same thing with the Dominos factory, its not pretty in the least but there's just something to it.

[Tom Lennox 70]

You also get a decent view from the top of the World Trade Center which is about 30 floors high.

I always wonder why the much taller Legg Mason building doesn't have an observation deck.

[barante]

The reason: The World Trade Center was built with taxpayers' money. The Legg Mason building was constructed for the insurance company USF&G.

[Tom Lennox 70]

The Sears Tower was built by a private company and still has an observation deck same with the John Hancock Center and the Stratosphere Tower.

And where is that housing project where they made the Wire?

[jonjj]

Tom-Not sure where it is. If it was from Season 1, many of them have been torn down since then.
For history in Baltimore, take a walk through any number of neighborhoods. Fort McHenry is definitely a plus for that but make sure you watch the film in the welcome center. The Maryland Historical Society in Mt. Vernon near Howard has some great information.

Baltimore, Maryland: A National Register of Historic Places Travel Itinerary

[rudy_d]

Originally Posted by Tom Lennox 70

On the not so flashy side....I'm currently watching the Wire show and wonder where it was filmed. Where is that high-rise housing project that Avon and D'Angelo Barksdale base their drug operation out of in Season 1? Is the actual location really that bad (maybe they filmed it in a safer area to stand in for the ghetto) because they did take a whole film crew there. There was a scene with "New York Fried Chicken" in episode 1....I've seen such a restaurant on Greenmount Avenue, does it have multiple locations?

New York Fried Chicken does have multiple of locations. The store on the corner of Charles and North Ave. may be the one you're referring to. I recognized it in at least one episode. The high-rise towers are long gone (in one of the later seasons they show real news footage of them being detonated), so that was obviously a set, but they did film all over the city. I think a lot of scenes set on the west side of town were actually filmed on the east side.

This article has a map of some of the locations:

Baltimore City Paper | Wish You Weren't Here: A Guided Tour Of The Wire's East Baltimore | Feature

[Tom Lennox 70]

Rudy thanks for the link it was really interesting. I'm up to episode 3 in Season 1. It was interested how they mentioned familiar streets like Lombard and Saragota. They even mentioned the University of MD hospital (I live 2 blocks from there and go to the food court there sometimes)....they had a scene there with that junkie who was beaten for using counterfeit bills to buy drugs. The site mentioned Greenmount which I drove on once to connect with York Road to Towson.

The website thing about ghetto tourism is very interesting. I woudlnt' go into the ghetto, but I know two guys I go to school with who took a drive west of MLK to see the ghetto. One was from Brooklyn and the other from LA so they thought they were tough....they said they turned around quickly after going somewhere on Winchester avenue.