Distance: Less than half a mile
Walking Time: 4 minutes
This quaint suburb north of Motown is best known for its strong sense of community. Back in the day, New Baltimore was known for the manufacturing of items such as barrels, bricks, corsets, creamery, brooms, and even coffins – essentially, lumber products and building materials. It was once a hamlet for the city-weary folks to the south and featured an opera house, hotels, salt baths, saloons, and multiple establishments of other sorts to be utilized as recreational diversions.
Nowadays, New Baltimore, which is on Anchor Bay (part of Lake St. Clair, the “sixth” Great Lake), continues to be home to multiple interesting and historic establishments as well as a place to enjoy Pure Michigan.
Stop #1
Begin where most of the action takes place in New Baltimore: Water and Mary Burke Park. This downtown waterfront park is the prime location for multiple events held throughout the year, in addition to swimming, boating, rock finding, and general beachgoing during the summer months. The boardwalk provides a perfect stretch to promenade, as well as a 190-foot dock jutting out into the lake, picnic facilities, and a playground. It’s not a large beach, but the crowds don’t get very large, either. If you happen to be in the area during any of these events, make sure to check them out: Bay-Rama Fly Fishing Festival in June (with fireworks on Thursday night), Flyfish Festival in June, Art on the Bay on Labor Day Weekend (artonthebay.com), and Winterfest in January.
Stop #2
Within the waterfront park you’ll find the majestic flagpole with the state’s tallest flag, waving 160 feet in the air. Supporting this 16-story flagpole is 80 tons of concrete seven feet in diameter and 30 feet deep. It’s located on the site of the old water tower. As to be expected, the beautiful American flag is quite large as well: 30 by 60 feet!
Stop #3
What once was one of the grandest hotels in New Baltimore is now an attractive historic museum and home of the New Baltimore Historical Society, the Grand Pacific House Museum. Exhibits include a variety of period pieces, along with a small display of items from bygone days that were found in the hotel. The Michigan Historic Site marker on the exterior of the building reads: “Frederick Losh opened the Grand Pacific House in 1881 during New Baltimore’s golden era. The Italianate hotel and saloon was built of bricks made locally at Streits’s brickyard. Losh quickly profited from the city’s popularity as a summer resort. Following Losh’s death in 1890, his window, Emma, ran the hotel until 1909 when she sold it to her brother Amos Springborn, who converted it into a boarding house. In 1986 a descendent sold the building to the New Baltimore Historical Society.” It was the last remaining hotel of the era and over the decades has housed a variety of businesses, including a candy store and a hardware store.
Stop #4
Finish off your time in New Baltimore with a stop at Tashmoo Distilling, which opened in 2022. It would be more accurate to call the bartenders “alchemists,” and that’s exactly how they refer to themselves. You need only to look at the innovative menu to see why. Tashmoo has a flare for mixing the old and the new – inventive and fresh cocktail concoctions yet old-world looking labels on their bottles of spirits. A brief selection of hand-crafted cocktails includes the Belle Isle Butterfly and the distillery’s classic, Ol’ Fashioned Sidewheel. The distillery makes bourbon, whiskey, rum, gin, and vodka, all featured in the various cocktails and available for individual sale on site (and worth taking back to the campsite). How did the distillery choose its unusual name? Well, back in the early 1900s, Tashmoo was a day boat, a paddle-wheeler steamer known as the “prettiest girl on the Great Lakes.” It was a beautiful boat, full of life and merriment and the hostess to many historic figures including Henry Ford and Theodore Roosevelt. Unfortunately, it sank in 14 feet of water in 1936 and was broken upon it being raised. This legendary steamer was well-known and well-admired during her Golden Days. When you visit the distillery, if the weather is nice, enjoy your libation outdoors with your four-legged friend.
If you’re looking for food in the downtown area, you can visit CC’s Dairy Bar for delectable frozen treats as well as basic fare, the Blind Owl Restaurant and Lounge Bar, or Fins Eatery and Spirits. For shopping, take your time perusing at the 7,000-square-foot Ditto Consignment and Design “Upscale,” Celtic Sisters Candles and Candie, and Boater City Marketplace.