Mary’s Magnificent Mansion: 7-11 Mount Vernon Place, Baltimore

As we walked past the massive brownstone Engineers Club on a visit to Baltimore earlier in January, we were unable to resist peeking inside. After the gracious receptionist encouraged us to take a look around, our quick view of some of the stunning interiors whet my appetite to learn more about the building’s history and the people who lived there. 

 The story of Baltimore’s grandest mansion begins at 11 West Mount Vernon Place, built in 1853 for Samuel George.

11 Mount Vernon Place, circa 1870 ( 3rd house in from the right corner)

In 1872 John Work Garrett, President of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, purchased the commodious townhouse as a wedding present for his son Robert and his wife, the former Mary Sloane Frick.

Robert Garrett

Robert Garrett eventually succeeded his father as president of the railroad, and Mary became the city’s leading hostess (dubbed Baltimore’s “Mrs. Astor” by the press).

Mary, painted by Alexandre Cabanal in 1883

Needing a larger home for entertaining, the couple bought the house next door at 9 West Mount Vernon Place and hired society architect Stanford White to combine the two into one larger mansion in 1884. Mrs. Garrett took an intense interest in the project; closely monitoring White’s work to ensure the results would be on par with the most fashionable homes in New York or Boston. The New York Times ultimately agreed, dubbing the palace one of the finest residences in the country and estimating its cost at $500,000 in its coverage of the grand ball the Garretts hosted in January 1887 to officially open their new home.

 By removing some second floor bedrooms of number 11, White created a soaring two-story entrance hall entered via an enclosed portico.

The portico, which extended out from the front of the home, was the subject of ongoing legal suits between the Garretts and their neighbors at Number 13, who claimed it would ruin their view (after some tweaking of the original design, the Garretts ultimately prevailed). Lit by Tiffany glass stained glass windows and a Venetian lantern, the hall featured a large fireplace with inglenook seating (a White trademark).

A second floor gallery supported by carved wooden arches and an elegant spiral staircase created a fitting proscenium for Mrs. Garrett’s grand entrances.

 The Garretts also owned an estate outside of Baltimore named Uplands that Mary had inherited from family. They had the architect E Francis Baldwin; primarily for his church and B & O railway station designs, enlarge the house into a rambling forty-room mansion in 1885.

Uplands

The couple traveled abroad frequently, spent a good deal of time in New York and summered at fashionable east coast resorts. Wherever they happened to be, the Garretts were popular members of the most elite circles. According to the papers, a grand ball they threw in Newport in 1891 was attended by the social leaders of the resort, and members of the exclusive sets of New York and Washington attended a cotillion Mary threw in Baltimore the following January. 

 While well liked and philanthropic, they could also exhibit a sang-froid snobbism typical of their class. On one occasion, the Garretts were visiting Montreal with a party of New Yorkers which included George Gould and his pretty wife Edith. When the young Mrs. Gould learned Mary was friendly with the Marchioness Lansdowne, wife of Canada’s Governor General, she was desperate for an introduction. Despite her entreaties Mary coldly refused, remarking she did not think Lady Lansdowne would care to meet a young woman who had been actress (in the end, another member of the group facilitated an introduction, and by all accounts the marchioness and the former actress hit it off splendidly). Closer to home, Mary publically clashed with her sister in-law Mary Elizabeth Garrett over the latter’s progressive causes, which included such radical ideas as coeducational schools and women’s suffrage.  

 As President of the B&O, Robert Garrett was not as nearly as effective as his father had been, stepping down after only three years and a couple of calamitous business decisions in 1887. Around that same time he began having serious health problems that became progressively debilitating, eventually requiring him to withdraw from his public and social activities, culminating with his death in 1896. 

 After a proper period of mourning, Mary marked her re-entry into society in October of 1899 with her purchase of the Hitchcock-Travers villa on Narragansett Ave in Newport. Designed in 1862 by Richard Morris Hunt, the stick style cottage was too small and old-fashioned for Mary’s ambition and taste.

The Hitchcock-Travers Villa

In 1901 she hired a young architect by the name of John Russell Pope to design her something more suitable. It was Pope’s first independent residential commission, and he did not disappoint. Designing a French-influenced neoclassical villa with grand spaces (arranged within ingenious L-shaped footprint) ideal for entertaining, he moved Hunt’s original cottage behind it to serve as the service wing, stuccoing over its exterior to blend with the new construction.

The plan for Marys new villa, with Hunt’s cottage shaded in gray.

With interiors by Jules Allard and formal landscaping, Mary’s new cottage named Whiteholme became one of resort’s showplaces when completed in 1903.

While her Newport residence was still under construction Mary surprised society by marrying her late husband’s personal physician Dr. Henry Barton Jacobs in April 1902.

Dr. Henry Barton Jacobs

Although more than a few tongues might have wagged, her social position was unimpeachable, Dr. Jacobs New England lineage was above reproach, and he was by all accounts a devoted husband. To accommodate her new life and a growing art collection Mary decided to enlarge her house yet again, purchasing 7 West Mount Vernon Place and tapping Pope to merge it with numbers 9 and 11. Blending its exterior seamlessly with White’s earlier palace,

Pope’s addition to the mansion encompassed the three bays to the left of the Bowed windows, increasing its street frontage by a third.

Pope added a handsome library and a private bedroom suite above for Dr. Jacobs in the new section.

A photo I took of the library, with tables from an event the evening before still in place

Beyond the library, a handsome hall hung with tapestries Pope built an elegant Caen Stone staircase

which led downstairs to a new a large supper room and a theatre/ballroom

The Supper room

The Ballroom also served as the Picture gallery prior to Pope’s 1915 additions

Pope then knocked down the wall between White’s first floor drawing room and ballroom on the first floor to create one massive drawing room.  

the expanded drawing room on the day we stopped in

 In addition to entertaining the cream of society in the expanded mansion, the Jacobs were known for throwing an annual Christmas Party for the messenger boys of Baltimore, also attended by the children of all their employees. They called Pope back in decade later to convert the former stables into an art gallery for Mary’s Old Master paintings, connected to the mansion by a massive conservatory.

The former gallery circa 1958

Around the same time, the Jacobs purchased neighboring 13 West Mount Vernon Place, razing its back section to let in more light and create a garden space.

When Mary Jacobs passed away in 1936, Dr. Jacobs inherited Mount Vernon Place and the Newport estate for use during his lifetime, while Uplands was left to the Episcopal Church. Several years prior to her death she had arranged to leave her large art collection to the Baltimore Museum of Art on the condition that John Russell Pope design a new wing to house it, ensuring a permanent memorial to Mary Sloan Frick Garrett Jacobs. 

The Jacobs Gallery at the Baltimore Museum of Art circa. 1953

 The legacy of her splendid residences was unfortunately less secure. Following Dr. Jacob’s death in 1939, Whiteholme was sold in 1940 for $33,000. After several private owners, it was eventually acquired by Salve Regina College and demolished in 1963, replaced by a dormitory and dining hall. 

Whiteholme in its final days

View of the salon shortly before demolition photo: Beyond the Gilded Age

After serving as a residence for Church Women for decades, the Episcopal diocese sold Uplands to the New Psalmist Baptist Church 1986. 

The Church relocated in 2004, and the surrounding property was redeveloped by the City of Baltimore with over 1000 affordable housing units, with the mansion earmarked for potential adaptive reuse. Fifteen years, later, it still stands empty, a boarded-up moldering hulk.

photo: Baltimore Heritage

photo: abandoned.net

For a period, the future of 9-11 Mount Vernon Place looked precarious as well. Its contents were auctioned off in 1940 (with the proceeds going to previously designated charities). William Cook purchased the mansion intending to convert it to a funeral home.  When local zoning prohibited that, he in turn sold it to the Boumi temple. The temple made a number of changes, before selling it to the City in the 1950s. After plans to convert it into an extension of the Walters Art Museum failed, the mansion sat vacant facing an uncertain fate.

The empty ballroom/theatre

Fortunately, the Engineering Society of Baltimore stepped in, initially leasing then purchasing the building outright for $155,000 in 1962.  Used as their clubhouse and as a venue for events, the organization has invested millions on the building’s restoration and preservation over the decades, an excellent example of responsible stewardship, allowing Mrs. Jacob’s former palace to shine once again.

The Ballroom today, photo: esb.rg

Photo: esb.org

The drawing room photo: esb.org

This piece only skims the surface of this fascinating home and this fascinating woman. For more information, you can visit the Engineers Club website , Beyond the Gilded Age has some wonderful photos of Whiteholme, and Baltimore Heritage has more information on Uplands.