Baltimore’s array of historic and modern cultural stops serves up a delicious smorgasbord of venues for groups, says Cynthia Lavery, associate director of sales for GEP Baltimore, a local DMC company.
You want elegant? Try The Engineers Club, which is housed in the historic Garrett-Jacobs Mansion at Mount Vernon Place just north of downtown.
“The mansion was used in the early 1900s for entertaining,” Lavery says, “and its library is a wonderful place for a small dinner, though it does require membership access.”
Nearby, the Peabody Library provides another gorgeous architectural venue for an intimate luncheon of 40, a formal banquet for 200 or a dance party for 300, she advises.
Groups who use the Peabody’s dramatic stack room, with its 61-foot interior that rises to a massive skylight, find themselves surrounded by stately cast-iron columns, decorative railings and classical embellishments tipped with gold leaf.
The Baltimore Museum of Industry is also a Lavery event favorite, with a location right below the city’s iconic Domino Sugar sign in the Federal Hill district.
“This is where guests can see all the firsts Baltimore contributed to the industrial world,” she says, “including canning, pharmaceuticals and transportation. It’s a really cool place, and its location is convenient to Inner Harbor hotels. Add to that a background of water and you have an unforgettable venue for lots of different occasions.”
Receptions and seated dinners are nice fits for the museum’s Decker Gallery, where painted murals of Baltimore industrial “firsts,” planes hanging from the ceiling and neon lights provide a readymade decor for your party, Lavery points out.
“There’s also an outdoor pavilion too,” she says, “so you can do a casual barbecue or crab feast with a band outside and give up to about 700 people the option of being indoors or out by using both buildings.”
Another local gem in Baltimore’s unique venues lineup is the Hippodrome Theater-France Merrick Performing Arts Center, which Lavery said has a wonderful platform for staging dinners when shows are not in house. And for large, casual events of up to 1,500 people, Lavery suggests re-creation of the city’s famed Eutaw Street Party at Camden Yards ballpark on non-game days. That scene includes beer and hot dog stands, along with bands and other action to put the group in a festive mood. If it is game day, Lavery says, engage the picnic area behind the pitcher’s dugout before the start of the game for your barbecue and F&B spread.
