This article needs additional citations for verification .(October 2023) |
Mount Vernon Midtown | |
---|---|
Coordinates: 39°17.9′N76°37′W / 39.2983°N 76.617°W | |
Country | United States |
State | Maryland |
City | Baltimore |
Founded by | John Eager Howard |
Named for | Mount Vernon Estate |
Time zone | UTC-5 (Eastern) |
• Summer (DST) | EDT |
ZIP code | 21201, 21202 [1] |
Area code | 410, 443, and 667 |
Website | www |
Mount Vernon Place Historic District | |
Architect | Robert Mills and others |
NRHP reference No. | 71001037 [2] |
Significant dates | |
Added to NRHP | November 11, 1971 |
Designated NHLD | November 11, 1971 [3] |
Designated BCL | 1975 |
Mount Vernon is a neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland, located immediately north of the city's downtown. It is named for George Washington's Mount Vernon estate in Virginia, as the site of the city's Washington Monument.
The Baltimore City Planning Commission defines the neighborhood as being bound by Eager Street to the north, the Jones Falls Expressway to the east, Franklin Street to the south, and Eutaw Street to the west. The Mid-Town Belvedere neighborhood, named for the Belvedere estate of John Eager Howard, lies immediately to the north, and the two are sometimes considered to be one neighborhood.
The Light RailLink line runs along Howard Street on the western side of Mount Vernon, and the Metro Subway runs beneath Eutaw Street. Penn Station, served by Amtrak and MARC commuter rail, is located north of Mid-Town Belvedere.
Although mainly residential, Mount Vernon-Belvedere is home to a mix of institutions, including the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University, Walters Art Museum, University of Baltimore, Maryland Center for History and Culture, Maryland Institute College of Art, Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, Baltimore School for the Arts, Lyric Opera House, Center Stage, the Central Branch of the Enoch Pratt Free Library, Spotlighters Theatre, the Eubie Blake National Jazz Institute, and formerly the Peabody Bookshop and Beer Stube.
During the 1970s, Mount Vernon became Baltimore's main gay village. The Gay and Lesbian Community Center of Baltimore, now known as the Pride Center of Maryland, was established in Mount Vernon in 1977. [4]
The centerpiece of the Mount Vernon neighborhood, the cruciform arrangement of parks surrounding the Washington Monument, represents one of the nation's first examples of city planning for the express purpose of highlighting a monument. The Washington Monument was completed in 1829 to a design by Robert Mills, and in 1831 the Howard family was granted permission to lay out the surrounding parks [5] which eventually were lined by stately homes. The parks, which have survived almost intact, are considered to be the finest existing urban landscapes by the Beaux-Arts architectural firm of Carrère and Hastings, who also designed the New York Public Library, portions of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., and the residence that houses the Frick Collection.
Elsewhere in the neighborhood are many older apartment buildings and three and four-story rowhouses. The Belvedere Hotel, opened in 1903, was converted to condominiums in 1991. [5] [ failed verification ]
The Mount Vernon Place United Methodist Church lies northeast of the Washington Monument. Conceived as a cathedral of Methodism, it was built on the site of the Charles Howard mansion, the house in which Francis Scott Key died. In 2021, the church's owners sought planning permission to subdivide the building, separating the church from the adjacent Asbury House. [6] The southeast corner from the monument is occupied entirely by the Peabody Institute, and the southwest corner includes three buildings forming part of the Walters Art Museum.
The former Stafford Hotel on Washington Place, built in 1894, now serves as an apartment building primarily housing Peabody Institute students. [7]
The old Mount Vernon Hotel at 702 Cathedral Street, built in 1847, was the mansion home of U.S. Congressman William Julian Albert where he entertained Abraham Lincoln. It was converted into a hotel in 1967, and was where Oscar Wilde stayed as part of his 1882 lecture tour of the United States. [8] [ failed verification ]
The Mount Vernon Place Historic District, surrounding the Washington Monument, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places and further designated as a National Historic Landmark District on November 11, 1971. [2] [5]
Selected parcels with the National Historic Landmark District have been designated Baltimore City Landmarks, including:
The National Historic Landmark District also includes:
The Mount Vernon neighborhood also includes:
The entire Mount Vernon neighborhood is included within the Baltimore National Heritage Area, [10] [11] which was established in 2009.
As of the census of 2000, [12] [ failed verification ][ needs update ] there were 4,520 people living in the neighborhood. The racial makeup of Mount Vernon was 55.3% White, 33.4% African American, 0.2% Native American, 7.4% Asian, 1.2% from other races, and 2.3% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 3.1% of the population.
60.4% of the population were employed, 3.5% were unemployed, and 36.0% were not in the labor force, largely due to the large student population. The median household income was $21,225. About 15.2% of families and 26.9% of the population were below the poverty line. [12]
5.6% of occupied housing units were owner-occupied. 10.2% of housing units were vacant. [12]
The Baltimore School for the Arts is located on Cathedral Street in Mount Vernon.
In 2010, the Baltimore Leadership School for Young Women (BLSYW), a charter secondary school for girls, moved into the former headquarters of the Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) in Mount Vernon, becoming its first new public school in three decades. [13]
The Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University is a private music and dance conservatory and preparatory school in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1857 and affiliated with Johns Hopkins in 1977, Peabody is the oldest conservatory in the United States and one of the world's most highly-regarded performing arts schools.
Enoch Pratt was an American businessman in Baltimore, Maryland. Pratt was also a committed active Unitarian, and a philanthropist. He is best known for his donations to establish the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore and expanding the former Sheppard Asylum to become The Sheppard and Enoch Pratt Hospital,, located north of the city in western Towson, county seat of Baltimore County. Born and raised in Massachusetts, he moved south to the Chesapeake Bay area and became devoted to the civic interests of the city of Baltimore. He earned his fortune as an owner of business interests beginning in the 1830s originally as a hardware wholesaler, and later expanding into railroads, banking and finance, iron works, and steamship lines and other transportation companies.
Bolton Hill is a neighborhood in Baltimore, Maryland, with 20 blocks of mostly preserved buildings from the late 19th century. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, preserved as a Baltimore City Historic District, and included within the boundaries of Baltimore National Heritage Area. The neighborhood is bounded by North Avenue, Mount Royal Avenue, Cathedral Street, Dolphin Street, and Eutaw Place. Bolton Hill is a largely residential neighborhood with three-story row houses with red brick, white marble steps, and high ceilings. There are also larger more ornate originally single-family houses, many houses of worship, parks, monuments, and a few large apartment buildings. Many significant residents have lived in the neighborhood, including F. Scott Fitzgerald, Woodrow Wilson, the Cone sisters, and Florence Rena Sabin.
The Washington Monument is the centerpiece of intersecting Mount Vernon Place and Washington Place, an urban square in the Mount Vernon-Belvedere neighborhood north of downtown Baltimore, Maryland. It was the first major monument to honor George Washington (1732–1799).
Charles Street, known for most of its route as Maryland Route 139, runs through Baltimore and the Towson area of Baltimore County. On the north end, it terminates at an intersection with Bellona Avenue near Interstate 695 (I-695). At the south end, it terminates in Federal Hill in Baltimore. Charles Street is one of the major routes through Baltimore, and is a major public transportation corridor. For the one-way portions of Charles Street, the street is functionally complemented by the parallel St. Paul Street, including St. Paul Place and Preston Gardens, Maryland Avenue, Cathedral Street, and Liberty Street.
Thomas Dixon was a Presbyterian architect born in Wilmington, Delaware and one of the founders of the Baltimore chapter of AIA. He was the father of minister Thomas Freeman Dixon, an 1893 graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary. He partnered with his brother, James M. Dixon, from 1851 until James's death in 1863. In 1871, he partnered with another well-known Baltimore architect Charles L. Carson for some time doing business from their offices at 117 Baltimore Street as Thomas Dixon and Charles L. Carson until sometime before 1877 when the partnership was dissolved. In 1827, he was elected Honorary Academician at the National Academy of Design.
Clifton Park is a public urban park and national historic district located between the Coldstream-Homestead-Montebello and Waverly neighborhoods to the west and the Belair-Edison, Lauraville, Hamilton communities to the north in the northeast section of Baltimore, Maryland, United States. It is roughly bordered by Erdman Avenue to the northeast, Sinclair Lane to the south, Harford Road to the northwest and Belair Road to the southeast. The eighteen-hole Clifton Park Golf Course, which is the site of the annual Clifton Park Golf Tournament, occupies the north side of the park.
The First Unitarian Church is a historic church and congregation at 12 West Franklin Street in Mount Vernon, Baltimore, Maryland. Dedicated in 1818, it was the first building erected for Unitarians in the United States. The church is a domed cube with a stucco exterior. The church, originally called the "First Independent Church of Baltimore", is the oldest building continuously used by a Unitarian congregation. The name was changed in 1935 to "The First Unitarian Church of Baltimore " following the merger with the former Second Universalist Church at East Lanvale Street and Guilford Avenue in midtown Baltimore. The American Unitarian Association and the Universalist Church of America (established 1866) representing the two strains of Unitarian Universalism beliefs and philosophies merged as a national denomination named the Unitarian Universalist Association in May 1961.
The Belvedere is a Beaux Arts style building in Baltimore, Maryland. Designed by the Boston architectural firm of Parker and Thomas and built in 1902–1903, the Belvedere is a Baltimore City Landmark at the southeast corner of North Charles Street, facing north on East Chase Street in the city's fashionable Mount Vernon-Belvedere-Mount Royal neighborhood. In 1991 it was converted into condominiums, though areas remain open to the public.
Edmund George Lind was an English-born American architect, active in Baltimore, Atlanta, and the American south.
Franklin Street Presbyterian Church and Parsonage is a historic Presbyterian church located at 100 West Franklin Street at Cathedral Street, northwest corner in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. The church is a rectangular Tudor Gothic building dedicated in 1847, with an addition in 1865. The front features two 60 foot flanking octagonal towers are also crenelated and have louvered belfry openings and stained glass Gothic-arched windows. The manse / parsonage at the north end has similar matching walls of brick, heavy Tudor-Gothic window hoods, and battlements atop the roof and was built in 1857.
Mount Vernon Place United Methodist Church and Asbury House is a historic United Methodist church located at 2-10 Mount Vernon Place, Mount Vernon in Baltimore, Maryland. The church "is one of the most photographed buildings in the city, completed in 1872 near the Washington Monument on the site where Francis Scott Key died in 1843. Its sanctuary seats 900 and its rose window is modeled after the one in the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris."
St. Paul's Church Rectory, located a block west of Old St. Paul's Episcopal Church is a historic Episcopal rectory located on steep "Cathedral Hill" at the northeast corner of Cathedral Street and West Saratoga Streets in downtown Baltimore, Maryland, United States. In the rear of the old rectory is a small alley-like extension of West Pleasant Street and to the east behind the North Charles Street former residences and now commercial structures, is another small alley extension of Little Sharp Street.
J. Maximilian M. Godefroy was a French-American architect. Godefroy was born in France and educated as a geographical/civil engineer. During the French Revolution he fought briefly on the Royalist side. Later, as an anti-Bonaparte activist, he was imprisoned in the fortress of Bellegarde and Château d'If then released about 1805 and allowed to come to the United States, settling in Baltimore, Maryland, where he became an instructor in drawing, art and military science at St. Mary's College, the Sulpician Seminary. By 1808, Godefroy had married Eliza Crawford Anderson, editor of her own periodical, the Observer and the niece of a wealthy Baltimore merchant.
Charles L. Carson, was an architect born in Baltimore, the oldest son of Daniel Carson, a builder, and one of the founders of the Baltimore chapter of AIA. Carson had little formal training as an architect. Around 1870 he partnered with Thomas Dixon (architect) while taking drawing lessons at the Maryland Institute College of Art. Carson and Dixon worked from their offices at 117 Baltimore Street as Thomas Dixon and Charles L. Carson until sometime before 1877 when the partnership was dissolved. In 1888 he hired Joseph Evans Sperry who became his chief assistant, and later his partner and successor.
Baltimore Heritage is an American nonprofit historic-preservation organization headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland.
George Archer (1848–1920) was an American architect. A native of Baltimore, and Maryland and a graduate of Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey, he designed several churches, banks, and other buildings in the Mid-Atlantic states of the U.S.
Madison Park is a neighborhood in west Baltimore.
Mid-Town Belvedere is a neighborhood in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. The community lies north of the neighborhood of Mount Vernon, and is often described as part of it despite being officially separate. The Mount Vernon-Belvedere Association and the Midtown Community Benefits District both include Mid-Town Belvedere within their areas of purview.