Walk through the door and look up — five tiers of cast-iron balconies rise 61 feet around a marble floor of books, in what is often called one of the most beautiful libraries in America. The George Peabody Library, opened in 1878 as part of the Peabody Institute, was designed as a ‘cathedral of books,’ and its 300,000-volume collection (strong in British and American literature, history and science) still glows under the glass skylight.
The library is part of Johns Hopkins University’s Sheridan Libraries, and its reading room is open to the public — you can walk in, sit at the long tables and read beneath the balconies, free of charge. Wedding parties covet it; scholars revere it; visitors simply gasp.
The George Peabody Library is at 17 East Mount Vernon Place in Mount Vernon. Public hours are posted at library.jhu.edu — check before you go, as the space hosts private events. Photography is welcome; silence is golden.
