Like many of America’s house museums, Mount Clare, the 18th-
century Baltimore plantation home of Charles Carroll, struggles
to maintain relevance, sustain its mission and remain
financially sound. More recently formed museums, such as the
Tenement Museum of the Lower East Side of Manhattan, have begun
to recognize their capacity as platforms for dialogue and social
justice and the necessity of engaging their local communities,
providing a useful model for Mount Clare Museum House. Engaging
with its southwest Baltimore community would enable Mount Clare
to fully support an educational mission that resonates with the
local population, while preserving the role of the historic
site. The purpose of this paper is to explore Mount Clare Museum
House in terms of its relevance to various levels of community.
This will be accomplished by examining Mount Clare’s governing
boards and mission statement, by considering its interpretation
and outreach programming, by researching community opinion, and
by comparing it to as