Baltimore’s Cylburn Arboretum is a precious and almost unworldly sanctuary. It’s easy to have the rolling hills and forest hiking paths to yourself, yet still be in the middle of Northwest Baltimore.
But don’t think you are alone.
This is a not-so-secret rendezvous for those who love a chance to spread out, in a green and leafy woodland preserve, just around the corner from Sinai Hospital.
This city-owned park, once the private preserve of industrialist Jesse Tyson and his wife Edyth (a debutante known for her beauty and equestrian skill) is about to embark upon a new venture. In the next few weeks, work will begin to remake Cylburn’s venerable stone carriage house as the Nature Education Center.
Students from the nearby Pimlico Middle/Elementary School and Park Heights Academy, among other schools, will experience nature close-up when the educational facility opens.
“Our hope for our students is for them to discover the joy of discovery,” said Patricia Foster, director of Cylburn Arboretum Friends, the nonprofit group that supports the Baltimore City in the care and maintenance of the 200-acre garden and mansion surrounded by woodland and trails. “This is a place for them to become naturally curious about the world around them.”
“There were children, first graders, many of them had never, never been in the woods,” she said of recent school visits to Cylburn. “The children were hugely exuberant and excited. Some were terrified. Each time they come back, and visited Cylburn, they want to come back for more.”
Perhaps calling this substantial stone building a carriage house is inaccurate. It has a history, like everything in old Baltimore. Yes, it once housed his horses for transportation and carriages for the Tysons, who started building Cylburn Mansion in 1863. Jesse Tyson also had his own railroad station, aptly named Cylburn, on what is now the light rail line a bit above the present day Cold Spring Lane stop.
Tyson’s architect was George Aloysius Frederick, who is best known for designing City Hall and scores of public park buildings. But falling trees and fires took a toll, and by 1912 the carriage house was reconstructed as a garage.
The mistress of Cylburn was Tyson’s much younger wife Edyth Johns, who remarried in 1910 after his death. Her likeness was painted at the Johns Hopkins University’s Shriver Hall.
“She was forward thinking. The mansion house was electrified and the plumbing brought inside. She was a progressive and by 1912 she owned a car,” Foster said. “She and her new husband, Bruce Cotten, liked to travel and on one of her visits to Europe, they brought the four marble lions that adorn the home’s east porch and formal gardens.