The Mount Vernon Literary Tour is created by The Baltimore National Heritage Area (BNHA), which promotes, preserves, and enhances Baltimore's historic and cultural legacy and natural resources for current and future generations. A site-by-site walking tour of this and other destinations is available at www.https://bnha.visit.zone/

Located 417 North Charles Street

Transcript: On this site stood the boardinghouse where Upton Sinclair (b. 1878, d. 1968) was born, son of a faded Southern belle and an unstable alcoholic father. The family occupied a series of shabby rooming houses until leaving Baltimore ten years later, though Sinclair sometimes stayed with his wealthy grandparents. His childhood experience of poverty and class differences led him to become a devoted socialist. As a writer and politician, he joined with other “muckrakers” to expose the corruptions of American capitalism in the early 20th century.

In 1906, Sinclair’s novel "The Jungle" laid bare atrocious conditions in the meat-packing industry. The book caused a sensation, with the public especially horrified by its vivid description of contamination in the meat supply. The furor helped spark the creation of the FDA, which regulates the food industry to this day—making "The Jungle" one of the most influential novels in American history.

The Mount Vernon Literary Tour is created by The Baltimore National Heritage Area (BNHA), which promotes, preserves, and enhances Baltimore's historic and cultural legacy and natural resources for current and future generations. A site-by-site walking tour of this and other destinations is available at www.https://bnha.visit.zone/

Located at 11 West Mulberry Street

Transcript: Poe (b. 1809, d. 1849) lived in Baltimore during four crucial years of his life. In 1833, young and broke, he submitted some pieces to a local writing contest. The judges met here, the home of John Latrobe, and voted unanimously to award the fiction prize to Poe’s story “Ms. Found in a Bottle,” earning him a much-needed $50. (He nearly won the poetry award as well.) They published the story and launched Poe’s literary career. He went on to write some of the most memorable (and chilling) lines in American literature. His life and work—adapted for film, TV, music, and theater—made him a pop culture icon.

With family roots in Baltimore, Poe visited the city often. He died here under mysterious circumstances and is buried not far from this spot. And so, Baltimore claims him for its own, even naming its football team after his most famous poem.

The Mount Vernon Literary Tour is created by The Baltimore National Heritage Area (BNHA), which promotes, preserves, and enhances Baltimore's historic and cultural legacy and natural resources for current and future generations. A site-by-site walking tour of this and other destinations is available at www.https://bnha.visit.zone/

Located at Enoch Pratt Free Library, 400 Cathedral Street

Transcript: Baltimore native Karl Shapiro (1913-2000) loved the Pratt Library so much, he wrote a poem about it, asking, “What is it, easier than a church to enter… this center, that … leads to everywhere?” Shapiro was attending librarian school here in 1941 when he was drafted into the army. While serving in the South Pacific, he wrote poems about the everyday life of a World War II soldier. His poetry won him a Pulitzer Prize and acclaim as a voice of his generation. He never did become a librarian but had a noted career as a poet, an outsider who explored middle-class life in books like The Bourgeois Poet and Poems of a Jew.

In 1985, another outsider and voice of his generation serenaded the Pratt. Fourteen-year-old Tupac Shakur and crew won second prize in a Pratt Library youth rap contest with his song “Library Rap,” which opened, “Yo’ Enoch Pratt, bust this!” An avid reader, Tupac had no trouble telling kids to “heed my advice, ‘cause it’s not hard / to get yourself a library card.” For more on Tupac’s Baltimore years, see site #9.

The Mount Vernon Cultural Walk is created by The Baltimore National Heritage Area (BNHA), which promotes, preserves, and enhances Baltimore's historic and cultural legacy and natural resources for current and future generations. A walking tour of this and other destinations is available at www.explorebaltimore.org/tours.

Located at 10 East Mount Vernon Place

The Mount Vernon Place United Methodist Church opened in 1872. Its leaders’ ambition to build a “Cathedral of Methodism” influenced both their choice of locale—the city’s most prestigious square—and the church’s striking Victorian Gothic design.

The exterior features six types of stone, including rare green serpentine from Bare Hills quarry in Baltimore County. Red sandstone trim accentuates the building’s Gothic elements, which include pointed arches, soaring spires, and a large rose window. The west wall displays grotesque faces said to depict prominent Baltimoreans of the day. Plans called for a steeple taller than the Washington Monument; it was shortened to 12 inches below Washington’s head after local residents and city officials objected. The church’s interior includes a 3,927-pipe Möller organ and a 10-foot stained-glass Connick cross, installed over the pulpit in 1956.

The congregation traces its roots to Baltimore’s Lovely Lane Meeting House, where the Methodist Episcopal Church of the United States was officially organized in 1784. A lectern used by Francis Asbury, “father of American Methodism,” stands behind the altar rail.

The church replaced the mansion of Charles Howard, son-in-law of Star-Spangled Banner composer Francis Scott Key. Key died in the home while visiting his daughter.

The Mount Vernon Cultural Walk is created by The Baltimore National Heritage Area (BNHA), which promotes, preserves, and enhances Baltimore's historic and cultural legacy and natural resources for current and future generations. A walking tour of this and other destinations is available at www.explorebaltimore.org/tours.

Located at 17 East Mount Vernon Place

George Peabody’s bequest created a research library, art gallery, and lecture series in addition to a music conservatory. The library quickly outgrew its space, causing the Peabody Institute to open a new building next door in 1878. Architect Edmund G. Lind blended the two structures so that they appear to have been built at the same time rather than years apart.

Known as Baltimore’s “Cathedral of Books,” the Peabody Library’s main reading room is considered by many to be the most spectacular interior space in Baltimore. Surrounding a central atrium, books are housed in five tiers of ornamental cast-iron balconies with gold-scalloped columns that soar to a latticed skylight 61 feet above the black-and-white marble floor. The unique ironwork was fabricated by Baltimore’s Bartlett-Robbins foundry. The library’s 300,000-volume collection includes books in all branches of knowledge, dating from the 15th century.

The Peabody Institute also established Baltimore’s first art museum in the 1870s. Though it closed in the 1930s to make way for the growing conservatory, the Institute continues to maintain an art gallery. Following George Peabody’s instructions, the library and gallery remain free and open to the public.

The Mount Vernon Cultural Walk is created by The Baltimore National Heritage Area (BNHA), which promotes, preserves, and enhances Baltimore's historic and cultural legacy and natural resources for current and future generations. A walking tour of this and other destinations is available at www.explorebaltimore.org/tours.

Located at 1 East Mount Vernon Place

In 1857, George Peabody gave Baltimore $1.4 million to improve its cultural life, which lagged behind its rapid economic growth. His bequest established the Peabody Institute, a cultural center featuring America’s first music conservatory.

Born in 1795, Peabody came to Baltimore from Massachusetts at age 20, made a fortune in dry goods and banking, and departed to become a London-based financier. He donated more than half his wealth to charitable ventures. His impact on Baltimore was considerable: setting new standards in philanthropy, he greatly influenced America’s rising millionaire class—and especially Johns Hopkins and Enoch Pratt.

Delayed by the Civil War, the Peabody Institute opened its elegant Italianate Renaissance Revival building in 1866 and has trained generations of musicians since then. However, it barred Blacks for 82 years. One Baltimorean whose application was denied, Ann Wiggins Brown, later became an acclaimed singer who inspired George Gershwin’s songs for Porgy and Bess.

The Institute’s alumni include celebrated classical musicians Andre Watts and Manuel Barrueco. Luminaries such as Leon Fleisher and Nadia Boulanger have taught here. World-renowned Baltimoreans Hilary Hahn and Philip Glass studied here as children. Since 1977, the Peabody Institute has been affiliated with Johns Hopkins University.

The Mount Vernon Cultural Walk is created by The Baltimore National Heritage Area (BNHA), which promotes, preserves, and enhances Baltimore's historic and cultural legacy and natural resources for current and future generations. A site-by-site walking tour of this and other destinations is available at www.https://bnha.visit.zone/

Located at 400 Cathedral Street

Transcript: In 1882, businessman Enoch Pratt offered Baltimore the gift of a central library, four branch libraries, and a $1 million endowment to maintain them. “My library,” Pratt declared, “shall be for all, rich and poor without distinction of race or color, who, when properly accredited, can take out the books if they will handle them carefully and return them.” The Pratt opened in 1886 as the nation’s first citywide library system.

The current Pratt Central Library, a stunning Art Deco structure completed in 1933, is the second library building on this site. To welcome all, it features a street-level entrance rather than an imposing grand staircase; its 12 front windows were modeled after department stores. The building includes ornate ceilings, a state-of-the-art teen center, an open central hall, a children’s library with an iconic goldfish pond, and much more. In 2019, the library underwent a $115 million renovation funded by the state, city, and private donors.

One of the country’s most widely used public libraries, the Pratt has expanded to 22 locations and serves as the State Library Resource Center of Maryland. Its mission is to empower, enrich, and enhance the quality of life for all through equitable access to information, services, and opportunity.

The Mount Vernon Cultural Walk is created by The Baltimore National Heritage Area (BNHA), which promotes, preserves, and enhances Baltimore's historic and cultural legacy and natural resources for current and future generations. A walking tour of this and other destinations is available at www.explorebaltimore.org/tours.

Located at Mount Vernon Place

Constructed from 1815 to 1829, the Washington Monument was the nation’s first monument to our first president. A simple, 160-foot Doric column is topped by a 16-foot statue of George Washington resigning as the U.S. army’s Commander-in-Chief—an act symbolizing the peaceful transfer of power, recognized at the time as crucial to creating a democracy.

The Monument stands on a small plot donated by Revolutionary War hero John Eager Howard from his country estate, where his family lived along with enslaved and free Black workers. Howard’s heirs later donated land for Mount Vernon Place, the four squares that radiate from the Monument.

One of America’s finest formal urban parks, Mount Vernon Place is a National Historic Landmark. Its landscaping, fountains, and statues reflect its redesign during the 1910s City Beautiful movement. In 2017, one statue was removed: that of Marylander Roger Taney, the Supreme Court chief justice who wrote the 1857 Dred Scott decision denying rights to Black people.

Mount Vernon Place has long served as an important civic gathering place. LGBTQ activists calling for a gay rights bill held the city’s first Pride rally around the Monument in 1975, with others to follow. The bill finally passed in 1988, and these historic rallies evolved into Baltimore’s annual Pride celebration.

The Mount Vernon Cultural Walk is created by The Baltimore National Heritage Area (BNHA), which promotes, preserves, and enhances Baltimore's historic and cultural legacy and natural resources for current and future generations. A walking tour of this and other destinations is available at www.explorebaltimore.org/tours.

Located at 600 North Charles Street

The Walters Art Museum is among America’s most distinctive museums, forging connections between people and art from cultures around the world and spanning seven millennia. With a campus of five historic buildings and 36,000 art objects, the museum is free for all. Visitors encounter everything from 19th-century paintings of French country life to Ethiopian icons, richly illuminated Qur’ans and Gospel books, ancient Roman sarcophagi, and images of the Buddha.

The collection, begun by liquor wholesaler and railroad magnate William T. Walters, was expanded by his son Henry, who opened the palazzo-like structure in Mount Vernon Place to visitors in 1909. He gifted the collection to Baltimore in 1934. Since then, the Walters has evolved into a civic institution that creates space for dialogue, reflection, and artistic creation.

The museum is committed to examining its past and sharing the histories of its origins and the art that it stewards. This includes acknowledging the original occupants of the land on which the City of Baltimore and the museum were created; William and Henry Walters’ embrace of the Confederacy; and how their original collections reflect the Eurocentric worldview that drove collecting in the United States and Europe during the 19th and 20th centuries.

The Mount Vernon Cultural Walk is created by The Baltimore National Heritage Area (BNHA), which promotes, preserves, and enhances Baltimore's historic and cultural legacy and natural resources for current and future generations. A site-by-site walking tour of this and other destinations is available at www.https://bnha.visit.zone/

Located at 10 West Franklin Street

Transcript: The First Unitarian Church was founded in 1817 as the “First Independent Church of Baltimore.” Its name reflected the views of its congregants, free thinkers with “liberal sentiments” on religion. Within two months they began to build a church. Completed in 1818, it is the oldest purpose-built Unitarian church in North America and a National Historic Landmark.

The church is among the world’s finest examples of French Neoclassical architecture. Daring for the time, its design by French émigré Maximilian Godefroy used the basic shapes of the cube, sphere, and triangle with a minimum of detail. A major interior renovation in 1893 added a barrel-vaulted ceiling to improve the sanctuary’s acoustics and a Tiffany mosaic of “The Last Supper,” composed of some 65,000 pieces of favrile glass.

At the 1819 ordination of the church’s first minister, Jared Sparks, the Rev. Dr. William Ellery Channing delivered a landmark sermon that defined the tenets of Unitarianism in the United States, emphasizing freedom, reason, and tolerance. Later known as the “Baltimore Sermon,” it led to the formation of the denomination in 1825.

Members of the congregation have included artist Rembrandt Peale, George Peabody, Enoch Pratt, pioneering social worker Mary Richmond, and Adelyn Breeskin, first woman director of the Baltimore Museum of Art.