Mount Vernon is a

neighborhood A neighbourhood (Commonwealth English) or neighborhood (American English) is a geographically localized community within a larger town, city, suburb or rural area, sometimes consisting of a single street and the buildings lining it. Neigh ...

Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the List of United States ...

, located immediately north of the city's

downtown ''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in American and Canadian English to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political, and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business district ( ...

. It is named for

George Washington George Washington (, 1799) was a Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the first president of the United States, serving from 1789 to 1797. As commander of the Continental Army, Washington led Patriot (American Revoluti ...

Mount Vernon Mount Vernon is the former residence and plantation of George Washington, a Founding Father, commander of the Continental Army in the Revolutionary War, and the first president of the United States, and his wife, Martha. An American landmar ...

estate in

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

, as the site of the city's

Washington Monument The Washington Monument is an obelisk on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., built to commemorate George Washington, a Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father of the United States, victorious commander-in-chief of the Continen ...

Overview

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 The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak (; ), is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates intercity rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

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 The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...

Walters Art Museum The Walters Art Museum is a public art museum located in the Mount Vernon, Baltimore, Mount Vernon neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland. Founded and opened in 1934, it holds collections from the mid-19th century that were amassed substantially ...

University of Baltimore The University of Baltimore (UBalt, UB) is a public university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. It is part of the University System of Maryland. UBalt consists of four colleges in applied arts and sciences, Robert G. Merrick School of Bu ...

, 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 The Enoch Pratt Free Library is the free public library system of Baltimore, Maryland. Its Central Library is located on 400 Cathedral Street (southbound) and occupies the northeastern three quarters of a city block bounded by West Franklin S ...

, 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 A gay village, also known as a gayborhood or gaybourhood, is a geographical area with generally recognized boundaries that is inhabited or frequented by many lesbian, gay, bisexuality, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people. Gay vil ...

. The Gay and Lesbian Community Center of Baltimore, now known as the Pride Center of Maryland, was established in Mount Vernon in 1977.

Architectural history

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

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 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 The New York Public Library (NYPL) is a public library system in New York City. With nearly 53 million items and 92 locations, the New York Public Library is the second-largest public library in the United States behind the Library of Congress a ...

, portions of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., and the residence that houses the

Frick Collection The Frick Collection (colloquially known as the Frick) is an art museum on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. It was established in 1935 to preserve the collection of the industrialist Henry Clay Frick. The collection (museum) ...

. 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. The Mount Vernon Place United Methodist Church lies northeast of the Washington Monument. Conceived as a cathedral of

Methodism Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a Protestant Christianity, Christian Christian tradition, tradition whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's brother ...

, it was built on the site of the Charles Howard mansion, the house in which

Francis Scott Key Francis Scott Key (August 1, 1779January 11, 1843) was an American lawyer, author, and poet from Frederick, Maryland, best known as the author of the poem "Defence of Fort M'Henry" which was set to a popular British tune and eventually became t ...

died. In 2021, the church's owners sought planning permission to subdivide the building, separating the church from the adjacent Asbury House. 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 Stafford () is a market town and the county town of Staffordshire, England. It is located about south of Stoke-on-Trent, north of Wolverhampton, and northwest of Birmingham. The town had a population of 71,673 at the 2021–2022 United Kingd ...

Hotel on Washington Place, built in 1894, now serves as an apartment building primarily housing Peabody Institute students. 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 Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was the 16th president of the United States, serving from 1861 until Assassination of Abraham Lincoln, his assassination in 1865. He led the United States through the American Civil War ...

. It was converted into a hotel in 1967, and was where

Oscar Wilde Oscar Fingal O'Fflahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish author, poet, and playwright. After writing in different literary styles throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular and influential playwright ...

stayed as part of his 1882 lecture tour of the United States. The Mount Vernon Place Historic District, surrounding the Washington Monument, was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

and further designated as a

National Historic Landmark District A National Historic Landmark District (NHLD) is a geographical area that has received recognition from the United States Government that the buildings, landscapes, cultural features and archaeological resources within it are of the highest signific ...

on November 11, 1971. Selected parcels with the National Historic Landmark District have been designated Baltimore City Landmarks, including: *Washington Monument and Mount Vernon Place (defined as the city square of the monument and the cruciform-shaped area of parks radiating north, south, east and west) *Peabody Institute, 1-21 E. Mount Vernon Place *Thomas-Jencks-Gladding House, 1 W. Mount Vernon Place *George Howard House, 8 E. Madison Street The National Historic Landmark District also includes: *Mount Vernon Place United Methodist Church and Asbury House, individually NRHP-listed * Stafford Hotel The Mount Vernon neighborhood also includes: * First Unitarian Church, NRHP-listed, NHL, BCL The entire Mount Vernon neighborhood is included within the Baltimore National Heritage Area, which was established in 2009.

Demographics

As of the

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

of 2000, there were 4,520 people living in the neighborhood. The racial makeup of Mount Vernon was 55.3%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 33.4%

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

, 0.2% Native American, 7.4% Asian, 1.2% from other races, and 2.3% from two or more races.

Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...

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 The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...

. 5.6% of occupied housing units were owner-occupied. 10.2% of housing units were vacant.

Education

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 A charter is the grant of authority or rights, stating that the granter formally recognizes the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights specified. It is implicit that the granter retains superiority (or sovereignty), and that the ...

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.

References

External links