By Maria Asimopoulos
Baltimore Watchdog Staff Writer
The Baltimore National Heritage Area has begun the restoration of H.L. Mencken’s home in hopes of reopening it to the public as a museum later this year, according to a statement from the BNHA.
The BNHA entered into a lease agreement with the city of Baltimore in September to renovate the house, which was once part of the Baltimore City Life Museums but has sat vacant since the organization closed in 1997.
“We are thrilled to be part of this collaboration with our city agency partners to revitalize this local and national landmark,” said Jeff Buchheit, former executive director of the BNHA, in the press release. “We look forward to working with the volunteers from the Mencken Legacy Group on how to best interpret the life and work of Mencken, including the controversial aspects of his career.”
The restoration project will include repairs to the roof, flooring and interior to bring the building up to modern codes. Jason Vaughan, director of historic preservation and interpretation, said that once renovations are complete, the house will reopen with the BNHA using the upper floors as office space.
“It was a long process for the city that wanted to find a use for the building that had been vacant for 20 years,” Vaughan said. “We’re starting the construction process now.”
Mencken, who was a reporter for The Baltimore Sun, is best known for co-founding the magazine “American Mercury” and for being an authority on language through his work titled “The American Language.”
The three-story rowhouse is located at 1524 Hollins St. and is where he lived for most of his life, from 1883 until 1956, the year he died.
Mencken was fond of his home and once wrote, “It has changed… as I have – but somehow it still remains the same… It is as much a part of me as my two hands. If I had to leave it, I’d be as certainly crippled as if I lost a leg.”
Mencken enthusiast Max Hency bequeathed $3 million to the city to fund its restoration. The project will cost anywhere from $600,000 to $800,000 and will be covered completely by Hency’s bequest, Vaughan said.
“I am very happy and grateful that this historic landmark will now be receiving the care and attention it deserves,” Brigitte V. Fessenden, president of the Society to Preserve H.L. Mencken’s Legacy, said in a statement. “It’s a win-win situation for the house, H.L. Mencken’s Legacy, the Union Square neighborhood, and heritage tourism for Baltimore City.”
The collaboration between the BNHA and the Mencken Legacy Group to determine what exhibits will be in the museum is still to come.
“BNHA will not have any input into what the exhibits for the Mencken House will be,” said Shauntee Daniels, who is serving as the interim executive director. “The Legacy Group is doing all the work on that.”
The BNHA will be hiring an interpretive planner to work with the Mencken Legacy Group to decide what the exhibits will look like. Daniels said the exhibits will be of Mencken’s work in Baltimore and essay process.
“I think it will certainly have an impact in southwest Baltimore,” Vaughan said. “It will be nice to have new life into that space.”
They are hoping to have the project complete in time to reopen the museum on Sept. 12, on Mencken’s 139th birthday.
“We’re in the early phases of it. It’s very difficult to say what will happen by September,” Daniels said. But, she added, “Everybody is in place where they’re supposed to be.”