The Golden Age of Baltimore

     Some of our EB friends organized a Golden Age of Baltimore field trip.  Our first stop was Mount Vernon Place UMC.  This church was completed in 1872 and was built on the property owned by Francis Scott Key's daughter.  He died in her home and there is a plaque there to commemorate it.  The church is really beautiful.  The carved wooden pews were done by hand, and the stained glass is amazing.  The organ was damaged and they are in the process of raising funds to fix it.  There is still a living congregation at Mount Vernon, albeit a small one.  It is neat to think of worshiping in such a grand place.

     Our next stop was the Garrett Jacobs Mansion that is also on Monument Square.  This mansion was bought and restored by the Engineers Club of Baltimore.  It is also an amazing building.  The luxury and opulence of this mansion is crazy.  There are Tiffany stained glass, and mahogany banisters.  It was a very interesting tour and the guide did a great job getting everyone to imagine life as it would have been in the late 1800s when the residence would have been the site of many high-society parties.  The scene from Seven Monkeys where Brad Pitt jumps from the balcony at a black-tie party was filmed there also.

     We all ate a picnic lunch in Monument Park in the shadow of the Washington Monument itself.

     The next stop in our Golden Age tour was the George Peabody Library, which is now a part of the Johns Hopkins Special Collections Department.  This library is amazing!  I could live in a place like this.  The collection is non-circulating, but open to the public.  And why wouldn't you want to spend hours in here?  We also got a special tour of some antique books, like hundreds of years old scriptures written on lambskin and a Judy and Punch book from the 1870s.

     The last stop on our trip was to go up in the Washington Monument itself.  It's only been finished recently from some costly renovations, so it was extra special to finally go up inside.  It was quite a climb, but it's open air at the top and you can get a 360 degree view of the city from its windows.  Baltimore is such a neat city.  I love getting these glimpses into its history and being able to appreciate the city a little more as it is today.