Before Washington had a monument, Baltimore built one. The Washington Monument in Mount Vernon — a gleaming 178-foot marble column designed by Robert Mills and completed in 1829 — was the first major monument to George Washington in America, and you can still climb its 227 steps for one of the great urban views in the East.
Around it unfolds Mount Vernon, Baltimore’s most elegant neighborhood: four park squares with fountains and statues, the Peabody Institute, the Walters Art Museum, the Garrett-Jacobs Mansion and brownstone blocks that earned it the nickname of Baltimore’s cultural heart. The Mount Vernon Place Conservancy keeps the squares blooming and the monument open, with its ground-floor gallery telling the story in stone.
The monument stands at 699 Washington Place. Climb hours and events (including the beloved annual Monument Lighting in December) are at mvpconservancy.org.
