Branches of Baltimore History

Stanford White (1853-1906) was one of the most successful and gifted architects of the Gilded Age.  A partner in the prominent New York design firm, McKim, Mead and White, Stanford was known for his detailed artistic renderings.  Specializing in elaborate private residences, he created a variety of houses throughout the eastern United States, along with public buildings and churches.  The second Madison Square Garden was designed by White, its rooftop the eventual site of his highly publicized murder.  In 1906, White was shot in the head by the millionaire Harry Kendall Thaw during the premiere performance of Mam’zelle Champagne. Thaw, an avid drug user and possible sadist, was the husband of 21 year-old Evelyn Nesbit, a model, actress and former lover of White.  The murder was mistaken as exhibition by the excited Madison Square Roof Garden crowd, cheers gleefully trailing three point blank pistol shots.  Two massively popular trials ensued and Thaw, after pleading temporary insanity, was sentenced to an asylum.  He walked in 1915 and continued his abusive, bizarre life.

White designed north Baltimore’s Lovely Lane United Methodist Church in 1884.  Then known as the First Methodist Episcopal Church, the building at 2200 Saint Paul Street was completed in 1887.  The Romanesque Revival style construct was modeled after the basilicas of Italy, the tower closely resembling Pomposa Abbey.  Along with the Munsey Building and the Garrett Mansion’s interior, Lovely Lane is one of three extant Baltimore buildings designed by Stanford White.

In 1930, the Peale Museum was saved from possible demolition. Over a hundred years of varied use had left the Robert Cary Long, Sr. deigned building in disrepair, and the city government was seriously considering its sale. Baltimore residents and journalists rallied to protect one of the first museum buildings erected in the western hemisphere. Eventually the Mayor was convinced and Rembrandt Peale’s Baltimore Museum was targeted for a complete rehabilitation.

Assigned to head the restoration project was local architect John H. Scarff, a partner in the Wyatt and Nolting firm. Scarff studied original drawings and historic photographs of the salon, and restored its original design and floor plan. The portico was rebuilt and a bas-relief sculpture (created by R. McGill Mackall) was installed above it. In the building’s rear, a courtyard was constructed with pediment from the demolished Union Bank building embedded in its northern wall.  The city reopened the museum in 1931.

39° 19′ 46.46″ N 76° 37′ 7.71″ W

The Homewood House Museum (Map) is located at 3400 N. Charles Street, just inside the east entrance to Johns Hopkins University. The building’s construction began in 1801 and and continued during the decade that followed . The estate was a gift from Charles Carroll of Carrollton to his son (Charles Carroll, Jr.) and his new bride. A signer of the Declaration of Independence and one of the wealthiest men in America at the time, Charles Carroll of Carrollton gave his son an unlimited budget to design and erect the stately manor.  The five-part Georgian style house was elaborate and ornate for its time.  After passing through the Carroll line the property was sold to Samuel Wyman, a successful Baltimore businessman.  Wyman’s family eventually gave the land and its constructs to Johns Hopkins University.  Restoration began on the mansion house in 1929 and was later completed in the 1980’s.  Once the headquarters of the College, today the historic building is a period museum open to the public

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A National Historic Landmark built in 1801 by Charles Carroll Jr. and one of the nation’s best-surviving examples of Federal-period architecture, Homewood Museum is renowned for its elegant proportions, fine workmanship, and extravagant details, including intricately carved woodwork, stylish faux finishes, and ornate plaster ceiling ornaments. Its collection of American decorative arts includes objects contemporary to or associated with the Carroll family, including superb examples of Baltimore furniture.

The City Life Museums was a series of historically significant buildings and exhibits once maintained by the Baltimore municipality.  In 1997, Mayor Kurt Schmoke shut them down due to poor attendance and funding issues. The Maryland Historical Society was able to acquire the significant contents of the museums after they were closed.

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The MDHS is the big winner in the liquidation of the Baltimore City Life Museums, which was forced to padlock its doors June 21, 1997.  It will add to the society’s collection 58 paintings by members of the Rembrandt Peale family, thus becoming the biggest repository of Peale art anywhere.  The historical society will also acquire and display in its Mount Vernon buildings the rest of the City Life memorabilia.  That’s the good news.  The bad news is that the future of various City Life buildings is uncertain.

Independent companies have stepped in to keep some of the historic sites open.  Carroll Museums, Inc. is running the Carroll Mansion complex and the Phoenix Shot Tower, offering tours on weekend afternoons for as low as five dollars.  However, the Peale Museum and H. L. Mencken House are still closed, two important buildings that deserve being rescued.  The Friends of the H. L. Mencken House is working to save the Union Square home that Mencken lived his entire life in.  On December 13, 2009 the rowhouse was open as part of the neighborhood’s annual Christmas Cookie Tour.

The Peale Museum’s future is still uncertain.  I’ve heard rumors that Baltimore may use the facility as a conference center for City Hall employees, but for now the building is vacant.  Opened just months before the Bombardment of Fort McHenry, the Peale Museum is one of the city’s most significant historical artifacts.

The list below comprises the former City Life Museums:

• Baltimore’s Peale Museum
• Phoenix Shot Tower
• Carroll Mansion
• H. L. Mencken House
• Fava Building (1840s Plaza) or Morton K. Blaustein City Life Exhibition Center
• Brewer’s Park (across from Carroll mansion)
• Center for Urban Archaeology
• John Hutchinson House (1840s House)

Baltimore’s Washington Monument and Museum (Map) is located at Mount Vernon Place near the Walters Art Museum.  The museum is at the base of the structure and includes access to the monument’s spire, its 228 steps leading to a panoramic view of the city’s skyline.  The facility displays various exhibits including a bust of Washington created in the late 1700’s.

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The Washington Monument and Museum at Mount Vernon Place was the Nation’s first civic memorial to George Washington. Built in the neo-classical style, the 178-foot monument was designed by architect Robert Mills and was completed in 1829, fourteen years after construction began. Mills also designed our more famous sister monument in Washington, D.C. which opened in 1855. The Monument held a profound meaning for 19th Century Americans and it is even now recognized as the preeminent symbol of the city of Baltimore.

39° 17′ 51.30″ N 76° 36′ 56.49″ W

The Peale Museum (Map) Courtyard contains early 19th century artwork salvaged from destroyed or demolished Baltimore buildings.  The largest sculpture comes from the facade of the razed Union Bank building that once stood nearby.  The French artist Augustin Chevalier was commissioned to complete the tympanum lunette, a representation of Ceres and Neptune.  The bas-relief dates from around 1807, making it one of the oldest pieces of architectural sculpture in America.  John Henry Scarff, the Peale Museum’s restoration architect, designed and installed the garden during the 1930 rebuild.

39° 17′ 30.56″ N 76° 36′ 37.02″ W

Location: 225 N. Holliday Street – (Street View)

The original Peale Museum was founded in Philadelphia by Charles Willson Peale. Charles Willson was a fascinating and gifted man, bouncing between art, politics and science. After a short career in civil service he began painting in earnest, eventually studying under Benjamin West in London. Upon returning to the states, he settled in Annapolis, embarking on a career in portrait art.  During this period he traveled to Charles Carroll of Carrollton’s Mount Clare mansion (in Carroll Park, Baltimore) to paint portraits of the Senator and his wife.  A few years later Peale moved his family to Philadelphia, a city establishing itself as the artistic capital of America.  There he painted the founding fathers and other Revolutionary War heroes, even painting the first ever portrait of George Washington.  At his Philadelphia studio he began displaying his work along with the various wildlife he collected (C. W. Peale always maintained a strong interest in science). This location became known as Philadelphia Museum or Peale’s American Museum, one of the first natural history exhibits in America.  He turned the operation over to son Rubens in 1810.

When the senior Peale retired, his other son Rembrandt, a famous painter in his own right, decided to start a museum in Baltimore.  Opening in 1814, the Peale Museum (sometimes known as Rembrandt Peale’s Museum) consisted of paintings, manufactured pieces and animal specimens.  The 3-story building, designed by Robert Cary Long , Sr., is crafted in the federal style, its most unique architectural feature being the 2-story gallery attached to the rear of the building.  The gallery consists of two open rooms, the top floor lit by skylight, and the ground floor receiving sun through its eleven windows.

Inside the third floor studio, Sarah Miriam Peale fine-tuned her portrait skills under Rembrandt’s Tutelage.  Sarah Miriam was the daughter of James Peale, Charles Willson’s brother, and cousin to Rubens and Rembrandt.  She became one of the first professional female American artists, earning steady commissions for her portraiture.

The museum as a business never earned Rembrandt financial stability he desired for his family.  Being short on initial investment funds, he sold stock in the museum to businessmen, granting them free access and a percentage of ticket sales.  This arrangement proved fatal for Rembrandt, the financial burden too much for the artisan.  In 1817, he and a group of local entrepreneurs started the Gas Light Company of Baltimore, targeting the city government for a gas street lamp contract.  The company eventually succeeded, but not before Rembrandt was forced out due to his financial inadequacies.  Younger brother Rubens took the museum over in 1822, but was compelled to close it permanently in 1830.  Rembrandt promptly returned to painting as his primary profession.

Through the years the Peale building served as Baltimore’s City Hall (1830 to 1876), a public school, the water board’s headquarters and even an organ factory.  In 1930 the building was renovated with John H. Scarff as lead architect.  For over 60 years the institution showcased the broad history of Charm City, featuring portraits, photographs, fine art and anything else Baltimore.  After closing in 1997, along with the City Life Museums, the salon’s exhibits were moved to the Maryland Historical Society.

GPS: 39° 17′ 30.65″ N 76° 36′ 37.04″ W