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.

Back to Baltimore, Part 2: The Architecture of Mount Vernon Place

As I mentioned in yesterday's post about the Baltimore Washington Monument, this next post is going to be about the area around the monument which is referred to as Mount Vernon Place. Technically there are two distinct areas that branch out from the circle that surrounds the monument and form a Greek cross. The squares to the east and west are called Mount Vernon Place, while the north and south squares comprise Washington Place; however, it seems that most people lump the two areas together and for the sake of argument call the entire area Mount Vernon Place - which is what I'm going to do!

As I mentioned yesterday, when the townspeople of Baltimore decided they wanted to erect a monument for George Washington the initial idea was to build it closer to town but due to a fear that the massive structure would collapse on neighboring houses, the monument was constructed on land located outside of the town itself in an area known as Howard's Woods. The land on which the monument was to sit, as well as surrounding property for the building of parks, was donated by Colonel John Eager Howard who had served under Washington when both fought in the American Revolution.  A favorite native son of Baltimore, John Howard was the fifth Governor of Maryland as well as holding the title of State Senator from 1796 to 1803.  Colonel Eager was born and died at the family's palatial estate in Baltimore known as "Belvidere" and it was part of that estate that eventually became the Mount Vernon section of Baltimore.

After Colonel Howard died in 1827, just two years before the completion of the Washington Monument, his heirs sold lots that bordered the parks and monument.  Baltimore was the fastest growing city in America during the first few decades of the 19th century and by the 1840s some of the city's most gracious townhomes had been built in the lots around the monument by some of the city's most prominent families.

Unfortunately, I didn't get as many pictures as I would have liked when it comes to the beautiful homes around Mount Vernon Place as I was too busy looking at the parks themselves and the sculptures there. It wasn't until I got home and started doing research that I realized that I had been in the presence of some very grand homes of some very grand people which I guess means another trip down to Baltimore will be in order one of these days! Perhaps if/when Claire ever gets her cheeky ginger-topped self back over to this side of the Atlantic I can talk her into a jaunt down there!

At any rate, I did get pictures of The Hackerman House which is the second oldest house on the square built between 1849 and 1851. The home was originally known as the Thomas-Jencks-Gladding House which was designed using the Italian Renaissance features then in fashion. The house was built for John Hanson Thomas, a descendent of John Hanson, President of the Congress under the Articles of Confederation. At the time of its construction the house was described as "one of the most elegant and princely specimens of architectural taste and mechanical skill."  It may not look all that grand from the outside but I've heard that the interior is just gorgeous.  Unfortunately, it wasn't open while I was there so I'm going to have to take the word of everything I've read!

The house changed hands several more times before Mr. and Mrs. Willard Hackerman presented the house to the City of Baltimore in 1984 and in 1991 it was remodeled for museum use and now houses the famed Asian art collection of the Walters Art Gallery which is just around the corner from the Hackerman House. The gallery, modeled on the University of Genoa's University Palace, holds the tremendous art collection that was amassed by William and Henry Walters in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and given to the people of Baltimore on Henry Walters death in 1931.

Across Charles Street from the Hackerman House stands the original building of The Peabody Institute - the oldest continuously active music conservatory in the United States - which was built between 1858 and 1862 but not dedicated until after the Civil War in 1866.

 In 1857 George Peabody, an entrepreneur and philanthropist originally from South Danvers, Massachusetts, wrote to 25 leading Baltimore citizens outlining a specific proposal to create a cultural institution in Baltimore. When his gracious offer was accepted, he insisted that it be built on this site which was one of the most expensive and prominent locations in the city. The building was designed in the Renaissance Revival style and it's most most impressive feature is its large central reading room which rises to the full height of the building under a skylight, with six stories of alcoves giving room for 300,000 volumes. Another building I gotta into one of these days!

Directly across the street from the Peabody Institute on the northeast corner of Mount Vernon Place sits the Mount Vernon Place United Methodist Church but I'm not going to say anything more than that in this post as I've got a full post on the church alone and you're just going to have to come back for that one!  Claire isn't the only one who can be cheeky!

In addition to the other beautiful buildings surrounding the Washington Monument , North Washington Place hosts two large apartment houses, the Washington Apartments built in 1906 in the Beaux Arts style and the Stafford Apartments (originally Hotel) which was built in 1894.  At the northwest corner of Washington Place stands the Graham-Hughes House, a grand 1895 example of a French chateau-style townhouse.

In addition to all of the lovely buildings and examples of gorgeous architecture that line the streets around the Washington Monument there are four parks but I think we're covered enough for one post.  After all, I don't want to overload you with too much history just in case there's a quiz later!