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Homewood campus

Restoring Fells Point’s Ship Caulkers’ Houses

Wednesday, October 29, 2025
6:00pm - 8:00pm
Room 50, Gilman Hall

Homewood Museum’s 25th annual architectural lecture will explore recent work to restore the Ship Caulkers’ Houses in Fells Point. The two houses, built around 1798, are contemporaries of Homewood, but tell a very different story of the free Black families who occupied them centuries ago. Courtney Capute and Sarah Groesbeck, board members of the Friends of the Ship Caulkers’ Houses, will discuss the group’s mission to rehabilitate the houses and shine a light on their significant but little-known social history. A reception will follow the talk in Gilman Atrium.

Free admission; advance registration required.

Photo: Alexander Heilner

 

SPEAKERS

As a founding member of the Friends of the Ship Caulkers’ Houses, Courtney G. Capute has served as President of the organization since 2019.  She is a retired real estate lawyer, formerly a partner with the law firm Venable LLP. Prior to retiring, she was the Partner in Charge of Venable’s Baltimore office and was a member of Venable’s real estate practice group for over 30 years. As a resident of Fells Point for over 40 years, Ms. Capute and her architect husband—Arnold J. Capute, Jr., also a governing board member of the Friends Group—were drawn to Fells Point because of its early architecture. They restored and lived in a 1790’s Fells Point row house on Shakespeare Street, a restoration that included attention to detail down to making the hand planes necessary to replicate missing moldings. The house is now owned by their son and his wife, but Courtney and Arnold remain residents of Fells Point.

Sarah Groesbeck has a B.A. in Art History and an M.A. in Historic Preservation. She has worked in the Cultural Resources Management field for over 15 years, including an internship with the National Parks Service National Capital Region Cultural Landscapes program, as a Preservation Planner with Montgomery Parks, and as an architectural historian at the Louis Berger Group. Sarah is currently employed by the state of Maryland as an architectural historian. She is a board member of the Society for the Preservation of Federal Hill and Fells Point and serves as Secretary of the Friends of the Ship Caulkers' Houses.

 

SPONSORSHIP

The 2025 Homewood Museum Architecture Lecture is generously supported by the following sponsors:

Premier+

Forbes & Sara Maner

Vernon and Lucy Wright 

Benefactor

C&H Restoration and Renovation

Henry Hopkins

Mary and Chuck Meyer

Meyers Greene Architects

 

Become a Sponsor: If you would like to sponsor this event, please contact Dominique Zeltzman, Associate Director of Development, at dzeltzman@jhu.edu. All sponsors will be acknowledged at the event. 

Sponsorship Levels:

Premier: $2,500+

Benefactor: $1,000

Patron: $500

Fellow: $25