Category: Baltimore

I got two seats and two teller window bars from the Pimlico Race Course

Pimlico, home of the Preakness in Baltimore, is being torn down and rebuilt. I found out about the auction from this article:

Pimlico Race Course is full of artifacts. Where will they go when it is razed?

Here are the auction site photos of the items I won.

Teal seats (photos from govdeals.com

White teller window bars (photos from govdeals.com)

Photos I took at Pimlico on June 3, 2025:

The two seats and two teller window bars that I won at the auction. I am working on getting stands so I can put the seats upright. They don’t have feet because they were attached to concrete.

See this post for my memories about going to the Preakness:

I went to several Preakness races

“The City That Reads” and my conversation with Elmore Leonard

Under Mayor Kurt Schmoke, Baltimore used the slogan “The City That Reads”. This would have been in the late 1980s and/or 1990s. When Baltimore was #1 in teen pregnancy at some point during this time, cynics called it “The City That Breeds”.

I don’t recall the year this happened but I went to Washington, DC to see Elmore Leonard at a bookstore and get books signed by him. I rushed there after work in Baltimore, it was hot and I was sweaty and I got there just before the event was over.

I explained this to him and we had a conversation that went something like this.

Me: I am sorry to be late but I came here from Baltimore

Leonard: Baltimore? We needed you there earlier today (They had a poorly attended book signing in Baltimore at a store – I was not aware of it.)

Me: They call it “The City That Reads”

Leonard: That must be a new slogan.

I saw him again a year or two later and gave him a “The City That Reads” bookmark.

Instagram post on Bo Brooks (Baltimore crab restaurant)

The photo below is of the Bo Brooks location on Belair Road which is where it was in the 1970s when I moved here. It was a great place to get crabs.

In the 1990s, it moved to a much more upscale location in Canton. Somehow the old place seemed more authentic. Don’t get me wrong – I would have done what they did and make the new place more upscale. It reminded me of the difference between old Memorial Stadium and Camden Yards,

I was shocked when it closed a few years ago. See the video below on the closing which you have to go to YouTube to see.

Holiday Inn in downtown Baltimore

The old Holiday Inn, now apartments, used to have a revolving restaurant on top. It’s now a gym.

Welcome to Vision on Lombard, a residential community nestled in the bustling city of Baltimore, Maryland, in the vibrant Baltimore Inner Harbor Area.