Mount Vernon Place

Mount Vernon Placeis an historic view of the charming neighborhood that is home to the Walters Art Museum that explores its depth and chronicles the growth of this gracious urban space from its 19^th century origins to the present day.

Long cherished as the cultural heart of Baltimore, Mount Vernon Place arose in the wake of a contested idea: the construction of America's first freestanding monument to George Washington. Responding to opposition from local residents, Revolutionary War hero and Federalist statesman John Eager Howard offered part of his wooded estate as an alternative site for this bold and graceful Doric column. After its dedication in 1829, Howard's heirs developed the area into public parks and individual building lots. Mount Vernon Place became an early and successful model of enlightened civic virtue and shrewd commercial enterprise. Noted writer John Dorsey observes, "It is the history, the accumulated life, that gives the Place its depth of sensation."

Softcover
128 pp.
6.75 x 9.25”