On October 9, artists of all kinds will open their studios in Station North as part of the annual Open Studio Tour sponsored by the Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts. Join us on a tour of Open Works, a new maker-space in a historic Railway Express distribution warehouse, and a walking tour of historic places in Station North before you head out to buy great local art!

Our tour will take in 100 years of industry and innovation: the historic theaters, schools, markets, and factories that make the Station North Arts and Entertainment District a current hot spot of arts and culture. In the first few decades of the 20th century, the inventor of the modern bottle cap built his factory on Guilford Avenue, entrepreneurs on Charles Street pushed the theater business in new directions, and the stately Polytechnic High School on North Avenue trained thousands of young engineers, draftsmen and designers who helped to shape Baltimore’s industrial growth. Today, architects, entrepreneurs, and educators are adapting these old buildings to new uses and renovating others to their past function.

The tour will start at Open Works, a newly opened place that provides tools and equipment for creations of all kinds in plastic, paper, wood, and metal. The building is the former distribution warehouse for the Railway Express Agency. We’ll get a look at this new space and some of the work made by the creators that construct there before heading out on a short walking tour of the surrounding Station North neighborhood.