Charles Street and The Historic
Mount Vernon District
Designed in 1831, the
neighborhood is one of the most fashionable in Baltimore. The
streets of Mt. Vernon are lined with 18th century brownstones,
historic churches, antique shops, distinguished art galleries,
and modern skyscrapers. Mt. Vernon is the cultural center of
Baltimore, as the neighborhood is home to a wide array of ethnic
restaurants.
Located in Mount Vernon are some
of Baltimore’s most interesting attractions, the Maryland
Historical Society (201 W. Monument Street - 410/685-3750),
and Antique Row (800 Block of N. Howard Street -
410/383-2881), which consists of a cluster of Baltimore’s
finest antique stores. At Charles and Mt. Vernon Place lies
Baltimore’s famous Mt. Vernon Square, site of the towering Washington
Monument (609 Washington Place- 410/369-0929).
This neighborhood also has a
renowned literary history. Every September the district hosts
the Baltimore Book Festival, a two-day event that celebrates
everything there is to celebrate about literature. On the corner
of East Mt. Vernon Place and South Washington Place is the Mt.
Vernon Place Methodist Church, built in 1873. The church sits on
the grounds where Francis Scott Key died in 1843, A plaque on
the outside of the church commemorates the poet. For those
unfamiliar with his work, Key penned America’s National
Anthem. Directly across Mt. Vernon Place is the Peabody Library,
which holds more than 250,000 books, some dating back to the 15th
century. Another famous author who resided in Mt. Vernon is F.
Scott Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald stayed in the Stafford Hotel at 716
North Washington Place while his wife, Zelda, was being treated
for mental illness at Johns Hopkins University. A plaque outside
the hotel notes his residence. The author would later move into
a town house at 1307 Park Avenue, and there he would complete
his novel Tender Is The Night. To the west is the home of
19th-century best-selling author John Pendleton
Kennedy, who resided at 12 Madison Street.
In addition to these authors, the
famous journalist, H.L. Mencken, also known as "the
sage of Baltimore," lived just outside of Mt. Vernon at 704
Cathedral Street. Mencken, one of the most influential writers
of the early to mid 20th century, attributed these words to the
neighborhood: "A walk down Charles Street on a fine autumn
afternoon is still a romantic and stimulating event. To these
old eyes the girls are ever pretty, and the shops are ever
charming, and the gaunt monument to the northward is ever a
thing of beauty. This is my home, my stomping ground, my roost.
Here I can stretch my legs and feel at ease."
Mt. Vernon is just north of the
Inner Harbor and makes for a hardy walk or a very quick drive
from the seaport. This neighborhood, especially Charles Street,
has some of the City’s hottest nightclubs and bars, and is
home to Restaurant Row, a plethora of intriguing places to dine,
located on Charles Street between Saratoga.
