Unearthing Baltimore's Battle Monument A Tribute to Unsung Heroes
THE PURLOINED DISPATCH August 7–9, 2026 Baltimore’s weekend arrives with mental magic, ghost tours, Barry Manilow, two gaming festivals, a symphonic tribute to Journey, and enough downtown foot traffic to make every parking space feel privately owned by a minor aristocrat. BALTIMORE HISTORY THE MONUTHE PURLOINED DISPATCH
August 7–9, 2026
Baltimore’s weekend arrives with mental magic, ghost tours, Barry Manilow, two gaming festivals, a symphonic tribute to Journey, and enough downtown foot traffic to make every parking space feel privately owned by a minor aristocrat.
BALTIMORE HISTORY
THE MONUMENT BALTIMORE PUT ON ITS OWN SEAL
A few blocks from the Lord Baltimore Hotel stands the Battle Monument, one of those downtown landmarks people pass so often that it risks becoming part of the street furniture. It deserves better. Construction began on September 12, 1815, exactly one year after the Battle of North Point, and the monument commemorates the 39 Baltimoreans who died defending the city during the War of 1812.
The monument was designed by French architect Maximilian Godefroy, who gave it an unusual mixture of Egyptian and Classical forms. Its base resembles a sarcophagus. The column rises like a Roman fasces, a bundle of rods used as a symbol of unity. At the top stands Lady Baltimore, holding a victory wreath and looking down upon the city with the expression of someone who has seen every municipal budget meeting since 1815.
The names of the dead spiral around the monument without separating officers from ordinary soldiers. That choice mattered. American public monuments of the period generally favored generals, statesmen, and men who had commissioned flattering portraits of themselves. Baltimore’s memorial placed the common soldier in the same stone record as his commander.
The Battle Monument became the official emblem of Baltimore and was adopted for the city seal in 1827. It remains one of the earliest major war memorials built in the United States, standing within walking distance of the theatre, City Hall, courthouses, restaurants, office towers, and several intersections where drivers interpret red lights as broad philosophical suggestions.
Sources
POE’S MAGIC THEATRE THIS WEEKEND
FRIDAY, AUGUST 7, 8 PM
ALEXANDER THE PRETTY GOOD
Alexander The Pretty Good brings a full evening of mental magic to Poe’s Magic Theatre on Friday. The title is modest. Suspiciously modest, really. Audiences can expect mind reading, impossible predictions, psychological experiments, and the sort of demonstrations that leave people checking whether they signed anything before entering the room.
The show runs from 8 to 9:30 PM at Poe’s Magic Theatre inside the Lord Baltimore Hotel.
Tickets
SATURDAY, AUGUST 8, 8 PM
THE MAGIC SHOWCASE
Saturday’s Magic Showcase features performers from around the Mid-Atlantic presenting close-up magic, stage illusion, mentalism, comedy, and audience participation. The lineup changes, which keeps the show fresh and prevents anyone from becoming too comfortable about where the volunteer selection may land.
The performance runs from 8 to 9:30 PM.
Tickets
SATURDAY, AUGUST 8, 10 PM
LORD BALTIMORE HOTEL GHOST TOUR
Saturday night brings another tour through the hotel’s haunted history. The stories include the reported child spirit associated with the 19th floor, strange elevator journeys, ballroom apparitions, and the many smaller incidents that tend to sound harmless until they happen outside your room at 2:14 in the morning.
The tour runs from 10 to 11:10 PM.
Tickets
Sources
COMING SOON TO POE’S MAGIC THEATRE
Friday, August 14 brings The Magic Showcase at 8 PM, followed by the Lord Baltimore Hotel Ghost Tour at 10 PM.
Saturday, August 15 features Worlds Beyond Imagination with TEO, a nerdy adventure in magic, alongside another scheduled Magic Showcase. Haunted Murder Mystery Brunch follows on Sunday, August 16, with murder, mimosas, suspects, and the deeply unreliable testimony of the dead.
Paul Noffsinger brings The Mystery Collection to the theatre on August 21 and 22. Michael Dardant, the Cajun magician who fooled Penn and Teller, arrives August 28 and 29, with his lecture for magicians on Saturday afternoon.
Tickets and schedule
AROUND THE LORD BALTIMORE HOTEL
Maryland Vegan Eats Restaurant Week begins Friday, August 7 and runs through August 16. Participating restaurants across Maryland will offer plant-based dishes and special menu items. The Lord Baltimore Hotel lists the event on its calendar, making this a useful week to examine a menu without treating vegetables as decorative witnesses.
LB Tavern remains the practical stop before a Poe’s Magic Theatre performance. Arriving about an hour early leaves time for dinner. Thirty minutes is generally enough for drinks, assuming downtown traffic has not developed a personal interest in you.
The hotel is also offering a 25 percent room discount connected to select CFG Bank Arena events. Guests coming downtown for a show at the arena can check the hotel’s current offer before booking.
Sources
DOWNTOWN BALTIMORE THIS WEEKEND
SUPERNOVA GAMING FESTIVAL
The Baltimore Convention Center hosts the Supernova Gaming Festival from Thursday, August 6 through Sunday, August 9. The four-day festival includes competitive gaming, retro games, arcade play, vendors, music, basketball, face painting, and a national free-throw contest with $10,000 in prizes.
The Convention Center sits a short walk from the Lord Baltimore Hotel, so downtown will be busier than an ordinary August weekend. It will also contain a measurable increase in people arguing about controllers.
Source
HARBOR FEST BY FGG
Also at the Baltimore Convention Center, Harbor Fest runs August 7 through 9. The free, family-friendly Pokémon festival includes trading, free cards, art, gaming, giveaways, a food drive for the Maryland Food Bank, and adoptable animals through the PokePets initiative.
Admission is free. Events begin at noon on Friday.
Source
GIVE WITH: A CLLCTIVGIVE CELEBRATION
The Baltimore Museum of Industry hosts GIVE WITH on Friday, August 7 from 7 PM to midnight. The dandyism-inspired celebration centers Black joy, community investment, and support for Black-led social-impact organizations across Greater Baltimore. The evening includes live entertainment, fundraising announcements, and recognition of local organizations doing practical work in the city.
Source
FIRST FUN FRIDAY AT PORT DISCOVERY
Port Discovery Children’s Museum holds an extended-hours First Fun Friday on August 7 from 5 to 8 PM. Admission is discounted to $15, and families can use the museum’s exhibits during an evening session before downtown becomes entirely occupied by magicians, gamers, Manilow fans, and people who came in for one thing and are now trapped behind five blocks of brake lights.
Source
BALTIMORE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Windborne’s Music of Journey comes to the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall on Saturday, August 8 at 7:30 PM. Vocalist Juan Del Castillo joins a rock band and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra for a concert built around Journey’s catalogue.
This creates a scheduling problem for anyone who wants to hear “Don’t Stop Believin’” and also attend the Magic Showcase at 8 PM. Science has made tremendous progress, but it has yet to solve being in two Baltimore theatres at once.
Source
CFG BANK ARENA
Barry Manilow brings what is billed as his last Baltimore concert to CFG Bank Arena on Friday, August 7 at 7 PM. The arena is one block west of the Lord Baltimore Hotel, which means traffic and parking will be heavier before Alexander The Pretty Good begins at 8 PM.
Anyone attending Poe’s Magic Theatre Friday should arrive early. Dinner at LB Tavern before the show is a far better plan than circling downtown while thousands of people arrive to hear “Copacabana.”
Bryan Adams performs at CFG Bank Arena on Sunday, August 9, with Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo. That concert begins after the main Poe’s Magic Theatre weekend schedule, but hotel and downtown traffic may build during the afternoon and evening.
Sources
SPORTS
The Ravens remain in training camp this weekend. Their first preseason game is Saturday, August 15 at 7 PM against the Philadelphia Eagles at M&T Bank Stadium, so football traffic does not join this weekend’s existing collection of downtown complications.
The Orioles’ official schedule should be checked before traveling through the Camden Yards area. Game times and opponents can change, and Baltimore already has enough fictional predictions being made inside the theatre.
Sources
WEEKEND WEATHER
Current extended forecasts point to a hot Baltimore weekend. Friday is expected to reach about 90 degrees, Saturday about 89, and Sunday near 90, with overnight lows in the low to mid-70s. Summer has settled into its familiar Baltimore position, directly on top of everyone.
Forecasts several days out can shift, particularly with afternoon thunderstorms. Check the latest hourly forecast before leaving, especially for outdoor plans. Poe’s Magic Theatre, LB Tavern, and the hotel are indoors and air-conditioned, which is the closest thing August offers to mercy.
Sources
A FINAL NOTE FROM THE THEATRE
Friday offers mental magic followed by haunted history. Saturday brings the Magic Showcase and another late ghost tour. Downtown will be crowded, the arena will be busy, the Convention Center will contain two gaming festivals at once, and parking will reward the early.
Come for the show. Stay for dinner, a drink, a ghost story, or the quiet satisfaction of having arrived before everybody else started circling the block.
Poe’s Magic Theatre
The Lord Baltimore Hotel
20 W. Baltimore Street
Baltimore, Maryland