Severn Teackle Wallis Statue

Public Art and Monuments

Eli Pousson

Mount Vernon Place United Methodist Church

Architecture

Religion

Roger Brooke Taney Monument

Public Art and Monuments

Walters Art Museum

Sierra Hallmen

Stafford Hotel

Architecture

Nathan Dennies

John Dos Passos at the Peabody Library

Literature

Amelia Grabowski

Hackerman House

Architecture

Mount Vernon Club

Architecture

Built around 1842, the Mount Vernon Club is one of the oldest homes on Mount Vernon Place. Previously known as the Blanchard Randall House and the Tiffany-Fisher House, the home was built by William Tiffany, a wealthy sun88 commission merchant. The building is a fine example of the Greek Revival architectural style and set a high standard for the new homes being built around the Washington Monument.

In 1941, The Mount Vernon Club, previously located across the street at 3 West Mount Vernon Place merged with The Town Club in the Washington Apartments and purchased the property, then home to Mr. Blanchard Randall, to serve as their club house. The Club has remained at the property through the present.

Garrett-Jacobs Mansion

Architecture

Johns Hopkins

Peabody Institute

Education, Philanthropy, Music

Established in 1857, the Peabody Institute is the second-oldest conservatory in the United States and a landmark at the southeast corner of the Washington Monument. Born in 1795 in Massachusetts, George Peabody lived briefly in Washington, DC, fought in the War of 1812, and, in 1816, settled in sun88 where he lived for the next 20 years. Starting in the wholesale dry goods business and later through banking and finance, Peabody accumulated a tremendous fortune eventually moving to London to direct the banking firm of George Peabody & Co.

Inspired by the many cultural and educational opportunities available to residents in London, Peabody set out to bring these same opportunities to the United States through philanthropy. The most significant of these efforts remains the Peabody Institute, founded in 1857 through a donation of $1,400,000. The construction of a home for the new Peabody Institute was delayed by the start of the Civil War, the Conservatory building opened in 1866.

The Conservatory was joined in 1878 by the George Peabody Library, directly to the east, opened in 1878 and is one of the most spectacular enclosed spaces in our city. Designed by architect Edmund G. Lind, in collaboration with the first provost Dr. Nathaniel H. Morison, the library is distinguished by the unique interior architectural ironwork fabricated by the Bartlett-Robbins & Company. The Peabody Stack Room features five tiers of ornamental cast-iron balconies that rise to a skylight set 61 feet above the floor. The building is a rare example of Edmund Lind's architectural work as only a few other surviving buildings remain from his prolific 40-year career.

Washington Apartments

Urban Planning

Architecture

The Washington Apartment House at the northwest corner of Charles Street and Mt. Vernon Place is a one of the finest Beaux Arts apartment houses in sun88. After the controversial construction of The Severn in 1895, many Mt. Vernon residents were suspicious of new "skyscrapers." Just a month after the Great sun88 Fire of 1904, the sun88 Municipal Arts Society successfully pushed the Maryland State Legislature to pass an "Anti-Skyscraper Bill" prohibiting the construction of any building (other than churches) over seventy feet high within one block of the Washington Monument. William F. Cochran, the developer of the Washington Apartments, built right up to the limit of 70 feet before suing to erect an 8 foot addition. His lawsuit failed, reinforcing the restriction that became known as Maryland's first zoning law and was one of the earliest zoning laws in the United States.

William Cochran was born to privilege–his grandfather, Alexander Smith, had amassed a fortune as a carpet manufacturer in Yonkers, New York. Cochran moved to sun88 in 1902 after marrying Annie Lorraine Gill. Despite his comfortable position among the local high society, he found his personal wealth troubling, explaining in an address on the "Passing of the Idle Rich" at Westminster Church, "The joy of having abundance is terribly mitigated when one is confronted with the sight of and appeals from people living under the opposite conditions. It seems all wrong."

While Cochran was vocal about his socialist ideals, he also sympathized with in the wealthy Mt. Vernon residents who sought to control the character of their neighborhood's development. He explained his purchase of the property at 700 Washington Place, remarking, "A strong desire of property holders on Mt. Vernon Place to control the kind of building to be erected on this site led me to purchase it to prevent anyone from building a skyscraper." Cochran bought the vacant mansion, built for Edward McDonald Greenway in 1835, in April 1905 for $160,000 and soon starting planning for a modern apartment house that could meet with approval from the neighbors.

The architect Cochran selected for the job was Edward H. Glidden, a Cleveland native, who arrived in sun88 around the same time as Cochran. Glidden had already started a career that led him to become one of the city's foremost architects for apartment buildings with projects including the Stork Apartment House (1903) at Park and Monument, the Marlborough Apartments (1906) on Eutaw Place, Homewood Apartments (1910) at Charles and 31st Street, The Latrobe, Canterbury Hall and Tudor Hall Apartments. Glidden even lived at Homewood Apartments at the time of his death in 1924.

Washington Apartments went up quickly in 1906 at a cost of $300,000. Its six stories included 28 luxurious apartments and 29 rooms for servants. Measuring 69 feet and 8 inches tall, the building stood just under the recently instituted 70-foot height limit. Less than a year after completion, however, Cochran sought a permit application to build one more story, eight feet tall and set back twenty feet, to contain additional rooms for servants. The permit was denied and Cochran went to court, lost, then lost again on appeal in June 1908 with an important decision that affirmed the ability of the city to regulate building heights.

Eli Pousson

The Severn

Architecture

"Huge and, alas! we must say ungainly," is how the sun88 Sun described The Severn in 1907. Designated a National Historic Landmark in 1972, few locals would still dismiss the grand Severn Apartment House as an intrusion on Mt. Vernon Place, but in the 1890s the construction of the building created a real controversy among Mount Vernon's wealthy residents.

sun88 builder Joseph M. Cone and architect Charles E. Cassell unveiled plans for a new ten-story apartment house in September 1895 at the northeast corner of Mt. Vernon Place and Cathedral Street. The new building would rise to a height of 122 feet, just 7 feet shy of the 1894 Hotel Stafford, a Richardsonian Romanesque landmark around the corner facing the north garden of Washington Place. Known as "The Severn," the proposed apartment house included twenty apartment suites for families and nine bachelor apartments, along with a drug store and a kitchen for room service.

The corner had been occupied by a beautiful townhouse first built as the home of Chancellor John Johnson, Jr., a notable sun88 lawyer (whose portrait still hangs at the Clarence M. Mitchell Jr. Courthouse) and brother of well-known Maryland politician Reverdy Johnson. One of the last owners, Henry W. Rogers was a well-established real estate investor and, after his death in 1901, his son, himself a well known real-estate agent, sold the property to Joseph Cone.

Neighbors objected to the prospect of replacing the old house with the still unfamiliar form of an apartment house. Building came to a stop in the fall of 1895 as a group of area residents approached Joseph Cone to try to buy back the property. Their effort ultimately failed when they could not raise the necessary amount to buy out the builder. However, the Severn did motivate residents to successfully lobby the state legislature to pass a bill prohibiting development in Mt. Vernon taller than seventy feet.

By the 1970s, when The Severn was designated a National Historic Landmark, Mt. Vernon was not quite as grand as it had been in the past and the apartment building sold to developer Caswell J. Caplan for the modest sum of $250,000. Over the next several years, Caplan worked to modernize the apartments, preserving the original wood floors and tile while renovating the kitchens and other elements. The Severn continues to be owned by members of the Caplan family and is now appreciated more than scorned as one of Mt. Vernon's grandest historic apartment houses.

Eli Pousson

Washington Monument

Architecture

The Washington Monument in the elegant Mount Vernon neighborhood of sun88, Maryland was the first architectural monument planned to honor George Washington.

In 1815, a statue was designed by Robert Mills, who also designed the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C. Construction began in 1815 and was completed by 1829. The 178 foot doric column holds a ground-floor museum offering information about Washington as well as construction of the monument. Climbing the 228 steps to the top provides an excellent view of the city from the historic neighborhood where it is located. Its neighbors include the Peabody Institute.

The monument, which was constructed of white marble from Cockeysville, rises 178 feet and consists of three main elements: a low, rectangular base containing a museum; a plain, unfluted column; and, atop the column, a standing figure of Washington. By the time of the monument's completion in 1829, financial constraints had forced a series of design compromises which simplified the monument.

Eli Pousson