A quick visit to Baltimore's Mount Vernon Neighborhood

Finding ourselves with some time to kill before an appointment in Baltimore the other week, we decided to take a quick look around nearby Mount Vernon, one of the city’s more august neighborhoods. A brisk walk around one of the squares and peeking down some side streets not only rewarded us with remarkably fine examples of mid-nineteenth century domestic architecture, but also the opportunity to take an up-close look at interiors by Charles A Platt, Stanford White, John Russell Pope, and Delano and Aldrich, all on the same block.

Parking opposite the elegant Peabody Institute set off to see as much as time and temperature would allow (it was chilly).

The Palazzo-like building housing the Peabody Institute was built in 1858.

The neighborhood’s centerpiece is Baltimore’s Washington Monument, the United States earliest public monument to its first president designed by a man reputed to be the country’s first native-born professional architect.

It was originally intended for another location, but when Robert Mills winning design for the monument was unveiled in 1814, some residents were afraid the towering column might fall over and damage their homes. In part to alleviate those concerns, John Eager Howard donated a hilltop spot for it on part of his vast Belvidere estate, which was outside of the city proper. The cornerstone was laid with appropriate fanfare on July 4th, 1815 (decades later Mills design another, perhaps more famous monument to Washington for the nation’s capitol), and in 1829 the statue of Washington by sculptor Henrico Causici was placed on its top.   

a depiction of Washington Monument, circa 1829

Howard’s heirs later commissioned Mills to lay out four squares radiating from the monument in a Greek cross pattern as part of their plan to develop the area into a high-end residential quarter as the city expanded outward.  The neighborhood’s street plans were formalized by 1831 and one, named Mount Vernon Place, gave the neighborhood its name. While one of the Howards erected a house on the squares in 1829, it took a while for the area to take off before hitting its stride in the 1840s. By the 1850s, it had become the center of wealth and fashion in Baltimore. 

A view of Baltimore from 1850 showing a number mansions along the square

Holding that reputation for many decades, some later owners razed or remodeled earlier homes, replacing them with styles more in keeping with the times. 

Fortunately, a significant number of handsome late greek revival mansions and Italianate brownstones the from neighborhood’s earliest waves of development still stand, interspersed along with their gilded age brethren between churches, cultural institutions, hotels and later apartment buildings. 

This handsome 5 bay wide greek revival mansion undoubtedly dates from the neighborhood’s early years of development.

With such a long and storied history, it seems every building has a story. Looking across the square, we spied this well-maintained mansion. Its minimal neo-regency look may date from the time the Mount Vernon Club moved there in 1941 (the club had formerly occupied a brownstone Italianate on the square at 3 Mount Vernon Place). The Duke and Duchess of Windsor stayed here for several nights in the 1950s (the Duchess, née Wallis Warfield, is arguably one of the City’s more famous daughters).  It is said the Duke complained about the building’s antique plumbing.

From the square we could catch a glimpse of 702 Cathedral St. Built in 1847, President Abraham Lincoln stayed there as guest of its then owner, William J. Albert in 1861. The Church of Christ Scientist purchased the mansion in 1924, converting the mansion’s interior into reading rooms and a 250-seat auditorium, while substantially altering its façade. 

A sense of how it once looked can be gained by observing its neighbor at 704 Cathedral street, which retains its original restrained Italianate style.  Built in the 1850s for William Hamilton Graham, it was later converted into flats. Well-known literary couple H L Mencken and his wife Sara Haardt occupied a third floor apartment in the building for five years before her death in 1935. Today it is part of the Baltimore School for the Arts campus.

Nearby, we passed two stunning brownstones at 103 and 105 West Monument Street, both by architect Louis L. Long.  He designed the palatial 105 W. Monument Street, featuring a slightly recessed center bay and shallow doric-columned porch. for William or Augustus H. Albert in 1859 It was converted to a hotel in 1867, then back to a private home in 1902 by architects Parker & Thomas for Waldo E. Newcomer who had them remove the hotel’s later mansard roof while adding Tiffany stained glass windows and walnut paneling. Today the building houses the Oxford Club, owned by Agora Inc.

Long designed neighboring 105 West Monument Street for Dr. George Rueling in 1860.  While simpler than 105, it is no less elegant.

Back on the square we stood in front of one of Baltimore’s most lavish gilded age homes, the Garrett-Jacobs mansion at 7-11 W. Mount Vernon Place. 

The Garret-Jacobs Mansion showing John Russell Pope’s addition (the left-hand third) seamless blending with Stanford Whites 1880s mansion to the right.

Its story begins with a rowhouse built in 1853 at Number 11, which was purchased around 1874 by railroad executive Robert Garrett and his wife, née Mary Sloane Frick. In 1884 Garrett purchased the house next door at Number 9 and commissioned Stanford White to combine the two into a larger mansion. Mrs. Garrett, who had become Baltimore’s leading society hostess, took control of the project working, closely with White to ensure the result would give her a stage for her entertainments on par with the most fashionable residences found in New York or Boston. 

Robert Garrett’s died in 1896. Mary eventually wed his former doctor, Dr. Henry Barton Jacobs in 1902, bought the house next door at Number 7 and hired John Russell Pope to enlarge her home yet again (she later purchased Number 13 as well, razing its rear portion to gain more light and garden space. Currently owned by the Engineering Society of Baltimore, it is a private club and popular event venue. Poking our head in the front door, the receptionist graciously encouraged us to have a quick look. 

 The fruits of White and Mrs. Garrett’s collaboration can be seen in the two-story entrance hall with its stained glass, arches, columns, spiral staircase and seating inglenooks surrounding the fireplace, 

while Pope’s hand is evident in the adjoining massive drawing room and library.

Pope created the massive drawing room by combining the mansions former ballroom and original ballroom

Our next and last stop was 1 Mount Vernon Place, formally known as the Thomas-Jencks-Gladding-Hackerman House. Built around 1848 in the late Greek revival style with Italianate decorative elements, the future King of England, Edward VII was entertained there in 1850 (a full century before his grandson complained about the antique plumbing across the street). 

Mr. and Mrs. Francis M. Jencks purchased the mansion in 1892, hiring Charles Platt to remodel it. Amongst other changes, Platt had the grand staircase widened, an oval Tiffany skylight installed above its dome, updated the study, and the dining room.

After a long and varied history, the building is now part of the Walters Art Museum, housing its collection and special exhibits. The institution has done an exemplary of creating gallery spaces while retaining a strong sense of the buildings residential past.

1 Mount Vernon Place’s double parlors

An enclosed third-floor passageway connects it to the museum’s original building designed by Delano and Aldrich. While time prevented us from more than a cursory look through the treasures within its galleries, I took a moment to admire the interior space modeled after the 17th Century “Collegio dei Gesuiti” in Genoa, before dashing across it, out the door and into the car, our all-too-brief visit at an end.