Baltimore Immigration Memorial

Project History

The Baltimore Immigration Memorial was founded in 1992 by local businessman Ronald Zimmerman, Sr. to address the need to explore, document and preserve this rich heritage, and to make it available to the public through a range of community and educational initiatives. Originally called "The Baltimore Immigration Project," the foundation undertook
a range of programs including:

Launching public immigration history walking tours of the Fell's Point neighborhood;

Designing a series of traveling exhibitions that have been displayed in the former Baltimore City Museum, World Trade Center, and Preservation Society of Fell's Point and Federal Hill;

Creating a series of audio and video tours to enhance existing cultural heritage initiatives at Fort McHenry and the Water Taxi's jitney service;

Supporting research on the history of Baltimore immigration by scholars at a range of educational and cultural institutions;

Fostering linkages among the many museums and cultural societies devoted to Baltimore's full range of ethnic and immigrant communities.

In 2005, the project was reincorporated as "The Baltimore Immigration Memorial" with a full Board of Directors and Officers in order to better support the scope of its efforts and serve the needs of the local community.

Among the foundation's most prominent efforts is the creation of the Liberty Garden and Immigration Memorial on the site of Baltimore's historic immigration piers at Locust Point.

Thanks to a generous donation from Struever Bros., Eccles and Rouse, the foundation broke ground for the memorial in March 2006.