Back to Baltimore, Part 5: The Hotel Brexton

Yesterday I posted the following picture and asked everyone to leave me their guesses as to what they thought it was. Everyone was pretty spot-on about it being a spiral staircase but most seemed to think that it was a spiral staircase in a lighthouse which is a good guess but not quite right. Granted, I did play around with the picture a little bit ...

To find out what the real answer is and to get a tour of one of Baltimore's best boutique hotels click here to read the whole story complete with the original picture at The Distracted Wandererer, my travel blog.

Back to Baltimore, Part 4: The Parks of Mount Vernon Place

Now that I've covered the Washington Monument, the architecture of the buildings in the vicinity, and the Mount Vernon Place United Methodist Church it's finally time to move on to the park squares that surround the monument in the shape of a Greek cross. I thought perhaps an aerial view might give you a better understanding of what I'm talking about but not having had access to an aerial balloon which would have been the best method to get a good picture, I used one from Google Maps.

This picture was taken from the direction of downtown Baltimore and the Inner Harbor heading north; the Mount Vernon UMC, which sits on the northeast corner, can be easily spotted and serves as a good indicator of direction.  Truth be told, were I a smarter woman, I would have looked at this aerial map before I went to Baltimore but live and learn I guess!

Anyhow all lamenting aside, as previously noted, Colonel John Eager Howard died in 1827, two years before the completion of the Washington Monument which stands on land he gave to the City of Baltimore.  Following the death of the former Governor of Maryland, his heirs laid out the four park squares surrounding the Monument in the form of a Greek Cross. The squares running north and south from the Monument are named Washington Place and those laid out to the east and west are named Mount Vernon Place.  If you ever decide to go to Baltimore and check out the area yourself, type either of those streets into your GPS unit and you'll have no problems getting there.

As mentioned in previous posts, in the 1840s the City of Baltimore really began to boom and the town started to grow out towards the Monument which stands on the highest point in the city.  Colonel Howard's family sold lots bordering the four parks to some of the city's most prominent families who in turn built some of the most elegant townhouses to be found in Baltimore. As the fashion of the day changed, so did the landscape of the parks. At one time trees were allowed to grow tall but then they were cut down as they marred the view and until the 1890s the grass plots were enclosed within fences.

Each separate park at Mount Vernon Place holds its own statues and fountains - some are sculptures by famed French goldsmith-turned-sculptor Antoine-Louis Barye (donated to the city by collector William Walters) and others are statues to famed Maryland historical figures like Colonel John Eager Howard and Chief Justice Roger B. Taney who was the first-ever Catholic to be appointed to the United States Supreme Court. Unfortunately, what Chief Justice Taney is best known for is delivering the majority opinion in the Dred Scott case. Not a great legacy to be sure! In addition to those statues, a likeness of George Peabody reposes comfortably in the park in his chair across from The Peabody Institute.

A couple of the fountains weren't in operation and I even missed an entire statue dedicated to Severn Teackle Wallis, a prominent Baltimore attorney and political reformer of the late 19th century whose statue stands in East Mount Vernon Place.   I guess this is why I will never get a job as a travel writer - I miss things!

The last major piece of sculpture that was added to the parks stands at the northern end of South Washington Place and is the equestrian statue of Lafayette which was dedicated on September 26,1924 to the memory of the fallen American and French comrades of World War I. Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de La Fayette was a general in the American Revolutionary War and a leader of the Garde Nationale during the French Revolution. On the anniversary of Lafayette's birthday, the 16-foot tall bronze monument sculpted by Andrew O'Connor Jr, an American-Irish sculptor born in Worcester, Massachusetts, was dedicated atop a 20-foot tall Cockeysville marble base. Oh - and just in case you're curious - Cockeysville marble is a building stone quarried in Baltimore County, Maryland which is a metamorphic rock of Precambrian age, about 600 million years old. Originally a limestone, it was transformed by heat and pressure into marble.

As per my want, I took an awful lot of pictures (i.e. way too many!) of the area both while I was there around noon and again later in the evening when I walked back over from my hotel to catch a bus.  As such, I've put them together into a slideshow to share with you.  Some of the pictures have captions that seem to get in the way and the picture quality isn't all that great so if you'd like to get a better look, feel free to click on over to my Mount Vernon Place set over on Flickr. I apologize for the redundancy but sometimes I just find it way too hard to pick only one picture to share!

"Mount Vernon Place"

Back to Baltimore, Part 3: The Mount Vernon Place United Methodist Church

In Saturday's post about the architecture of Mount Vernon Place, I briefly mentioned the Mount Vernon Place United Methodist Church which sits just northeast of the Washington Monument at 2-10 East Mount Vernon Place. The church is a prime example of Norman-Gothic style architecture and is only one of three Gothic buildings in all of Baltimore.  Alas, I still need to figure out where the other two are!

The church was built on the outskirts of the city on land that originally was the site of the mansion of Charles Howard, son of Colonel John Eager Howard, who had erected the first residence on the square circa 1830. Charles Howard married Elizabeth Phoebe Kay whose father was Francis Scott Key - author of our national anthem "The Star-Spangled Banner". On January 11th, 1843, while visiting his daughter at her house, her father died of pleurisy and was later interred in the Howard family vault (though his body has since been moved to his family plot in Frederick, Maryland) . The Baltimore Chpater of the Daughters of the American Revolution, afixed a plaque observing Francis Scott Key's death on the southern outside church wall, marking the church as a highlighted location on the National Historic Register which it was added to in October of 1971.

Conceived as a "Cathedral of Methodism", the church was constructed between 1870 and 1872 with completion on November 12th of that year.  The cost of the structure including the land, building, and furnishings was $400,000 - not a small sum back in post-Civil War times.  The church has three spires with the tallest being on the southwest corner.  At the time of construction, it was stipulated that the tallest spire had to be shorter than the 178-foot height of the Washington Monument that the church sits kitty-corner from.

The building was constructed of six of different types of stone including now rare green serpentine marble from Baltimore County and buff and red sandstone trim. Its extraordinary color comes from the green serpentine marble which is reportedly quite exceptional when it gets wet. Not having any rain while we were in Baltimore I didn't get to see that but I did see the church in both the broad light of noon and again in the fading twilight of evening and it looked spectacular both times.

Unfortunately, neither the buff or red sandstone wears well so major repairs and replacements of individual pieces were made in 1932 and again in 1978 but I think that simply adds to the unique character and grandeur of the building.

As I was walking around outside taking pictures of the impressive structure, a gentleman sitting on the side steps told me that if I went into the church offices next door that I would be able to tour the inside of the church which I decided sounded like a grand idea!  I went next door to what is known as the Asbury House which is designed in the Italianate Renaissance style and was built in 1950 for one of Baltimore's leading German merchants, Albert Schumacher.

Asbury House is one of the few early-Victorian era homes left in Baltimore that hasn't been broken up into apartments and was purchased by the church in 1957 to be used as offices and meeting space. The mansion is named for Francis Asbury (1745-1816) who was the first bishop of the Methodist Church in America. The house has a gorgeous spiral staircase that leads up to an equally gorgeous library on the second floor of the house which has very elaborate carvings as well as a ceiling painting that is a replica of Guido Remi's "Aurora". Even though I went up there I didn't take any pictures though in retrospect, I can't figure out why not!  "Duh" moment, I guess!

My guide led me into the interior of the church and graciously turned on the lights for me so that I could take some pictures of the beautiful worship space which contained many beautiful stained glass windows including a Connick cross above the pulpit which replicates a sister cross at Notre Dame.

In 1870 the trustees purchased an organ for their new church that used water power to "raise the wind" and was the fourth largest of its kind in the United States. Since then it has been replaced with a state-of-the-art M.P. Moller organ which has a total of 3,827 pipes. Can you imagine being able to play something like that or how gorgeous it must sound?

The sanctuary sits 900 people though my guide told me that the average Sunday service nowadays is about 90 parishioners. She said that part of the problem is that there is very limited parking in the area which makes it difficult for the congregates. The American walnut pews were all hand-carved by just one gentleman - work that took him seven years to complete but was obviously lovingly done.

As you can see, there are large hand fans located in the pews which are for the comfort of parishioners on hot summer Sundays.  While I was there it was a bit stuffy inside the church and even though I didn't look around to be certain, I'm going to guess that there is no air-conditioning in the building - which would make complete and total sense as obviously it was unheard of at the time of its construction.  I'm pretty sure that buildings on the National Historic Register have to stay as original as possible also so I rather doubt anyone would have tried to put air-conditioning in.

Behind the sanctuary itself is located the much smaller and intimate Bosley Chapel which was named in memory young Sidney Bosley, the son of a former pastor of the church, who died in a tragic train accident at the age of 12. Accordingly, the stained glass windows depict the 12-year old David and Jesus.

The church worker who gave me my tour told me that the church is also home to Carpenter's Kitchen which provides meals for approximately 400 hungry people every single Saturday regardless of the weather or if it's a holiday.  Having been approached by quite a few people for hand-outs while I was in the area, I can see where that's a program that must be very well appreciated in Baltimore and I was more than happy to leave a small contribution in thanks for my chance to view the beautiful sanctuary of the Mount Vernon Place United Methodist Church.