Urban Discoveries Baltimore

Now is not the time to run out of good ideas. That’s true whether you’re a CEO, a cop, or just somebody’s boyfriend. And if you fancy yourself the creative type, then you truly can’t have your afflatus deflating. Stop chewing your pencils down to the lead. Try this list of five places in Baltimore to find inspiration:

1. Druid Hill Park. It’s huge, it’s landscaped, and it’s 150 years old. Walk through Druid Hill Park and you may bump into the Zoo (1876 Mansion House Drive) or the Conservatory (3100 Swann Drive) with its strange and lovely Palm House. But I’d recommend just taking Mr. Whitman’s advice to loaf and invite your soul.

2. The Canton Branch of the Enoch Pratt Free Library (1030 S. Ellwood Avenue). With sparse hours, stern gables, and a big shadow cast by the Central Branch, the Canton Branch tends to avoid celebration, but then that’s not what you’re after, is it? The building, constructed in 1886, was one of the original four libraries donated by Pratt to the city. Of those four, this is the only one that’s still a library. Walk around. Admire the architecture. You might even want to borrow a book.

3. The Baltimore Museum of Art in Charles Village (10 Art Museum Drive). Oh boy, we’ve already told you this place is free, but money says you still haven’t gone yet. It’s not the biggest museum in Baltimore, but it may be the best for aimless meditation. Sculpture garden included.

4. Broadway Pier in Fells Point Pier. Take a short walk down a long pier. Savor the grace and squalor of the conquered water––the tugboats, the clippers, the soda bottles bobbing on the froth. If you stare into the harbor long enough, the harbor stares back at you.

5. Club Charles in Station North (1724 N. Charles Street). Men and women of genius have been greasing their thinking caps for millennia. The important thing is to find a dive with the right ambience. One drink in, and you’ll be absorbing the red glow of the fleshy red leather furniture in the Club Charles. Three and you’ll fully surrender to the Byronic jukebox, the black-hearted decor, and the easy hauteur of this Freudian slip of a bar.

Where were you when you had your last great idea?

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