Brownstone townhouses around a marble column monument, and the mansion House of Cards used as a Pennsylvania hotel.
What Mount Vernon looks like
Four small parks form a cross around a white marble column at the centre of Mount Vernon Place, 178 feet tall and cut from Cockeysville marble. Cast iron fencing lines each park, with paved paths crossing lawns set with bronze figures by Antoine Louis Barye, a seated lion in the west park and a paired war and peace group nearby. Brownstone townhouses, three and four storeys with high stone stoops, line every side of the four squares.
The occupies the block southeast of the monument, and its George Peabody Library holds a reading room stacked five tiers high with wrought iron book balconies under a skylight. Across the park, the is a brownstone house with marble columns at the entrance, now the private Engineers Club.
West of the squares, rows of red brick townhouses line Park Avenue, stone steps and cornices repeating down the block. A corner tavern marks Read Street where it crosses Park Avenue, with mixed storefronts at street level. , a block north, narrows to a single lane running behind the rowhouse backs.
On West Monument Street, a 1930 brick building fronts the sidewalk with a large arched entrance below a recessed loggia of columns. Once the , it is now apartments. stands northeast of the monument in green serpentine stone, its tower visible above the park's trees.
Shot in Mount Vernon
The Garrett-Jacobs Mansion at 11 West Mount Vernon Place, now home to the Engineers Club, is one of Baltimore's most reused film addresses. House of Cards used its rooms as a Pennsylvania hotel lobby and the secretary of state's office, and dressed the Peabody Institute's gated Centre Street entrance nearby as a Georgetown hotel front for the same season's fundraiser scene. Veep later shot an entire episode's Helsinki hotel inside the same mansion.
House of Cards
The Garrett-Jacobs Mansion
Played a Pennsylvania hotel lobby and the secretary of state's office, Pennsylvania, present day
House of Cards used the mansion's lobby and reception rooms as a Pennsylvania hotel and the office of the secretary of state through its first season. Veep later shot an entire episode inside the same rooms, standing in for a Helsinki hotel without a single shot in Finland.
12 Monkeys, 1995
Played Dr. Goines's house, 1990s
12 Monkeys used the mansion as the home of Dr. Goines, the scientist played by Christopher Plummer. Diner staged Eddie's wedding reception in the same building, playing a Baltimore wedding rather than a double.
Pink Flamingos, 1972
Pink Flamingos begins its epilogue at the corner of Read Street and Park Avenue, where the characters round the corner and walk northwest past what is now The Drinkery bar at 203 West Read Street. The route continues onto Tyson Street, a single lane behind the rowhouse backs, where the film's most notorious scene was shot beside the empty lot at 892 Tyson Street.
Back Bay's bowfront brownstones match Mount Vernon's own scale and period. The Commonwealth Avenue Mall gives a similar tree lined strip running between facing rows of townhouses, in place of Mount Vernon's cross of small parks. Back Bay's bowfronts curve out from the facade, which Mount Vernon's flatter fronts do not, so a straight on angle holds the match best. Try searching bowfront brownstones townhouses now.
Rittenhouse Square is ringed by townhouses and mansions around a single formal park, close to the scale of Mount Vernon's own squares. Later apartment towers now stand among them, taller than anything on Mount Vernon Place. Frame low and toward the square itself to keep the taller apartment buildings behind the park out of a period shot. Try searching townhouses around a formal square now.
Monterey Square in Savannah, Georgia
Monterey Square centres on its own column monument surrounded by grand townhouses, the same basic shape as Mount Vernon Place. Savannah's squares are shaded by live oaks and Spanish moss, which reads differently from Mount Vernon's open lawns. Keep the oaks out of frame or the shot looks like Savannah immediately. A tighter shot on the monument and the nearest facade holds the match better. Try searching monument square with townhouses now.
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