Chase Brexton Health Care was founded in 1978 as a gay men's STD screening clinic. The clinic operated as program of the Gay and Lesbian Community Center of Baltimore from 1978 until 1989. In 1989, Chase Brexton became an independent healthcare provider retaining its ties to the LGBT community and greatly expanding its health care services. As an acknowledgement of their origins, the new organization took the name Chase Brexton because the GLCCB was located at the intersection of Chase and Brexton Streets. After operating many years at Cathedral and Eager Streets, Chase Brexton Health Services purchased the Monumental Life Building at 1111 North Charles Street in 2012 and by the end of 2013 had transformed the buildings from offices into a new health clinic. The work included repairing the limestone exterior, even keeping and repairing the signature gold lettering spelling out “MONUMENTAL LIFE.” Original marble walls and floors were restored and imitation gold leaf ceiling was refinished using the original methods. An original wood-paneled 1928 board room was fully restored after having been subdivided into offices. The move enabled Chase Brexton to continue to expand its services to the broader community while maintaining its long standing ties to the LGBT community in the Mount Vernon neighborhood. An iconic Mount Vernon Building had not only found a new owner, but found a new life and promises to serve as a great asset for years to come.
Mount Vernon’s elegant and historic Ivy Hotel has a rich lineage: its roots are as a Gilded Age mansion and its uses have included city offices, a city owned and operated inn, and now a private boutique hotel.
The historic Ivy Hotel got its start in the late nineteenth century when a prominent Baltimore banker named John Gilman commissioned a mansion in Mount Vernon for the princely sum of $40,000. Gilman died before the building's completion in 1889, but his widow lived there for several years before selling it to William and Harriet Painter. William Painter was the head of Crown Cork and Seal company and his invention of the bottle cap made him one of the city’s leading businessmen.
After the deaths of Mr. and Mrs. Painter, the mansion went through several other owners, including Robert Garrett, grandson of the president of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad and the gold medalist in both discus and shot put at the first modern Olympics in Athens in 1896. Mr. Garrett eventually donated the building to the Playground Athletic League, which he chaired, and in 1939 the PAL donated it to Baltimore City for use as offices for the Department of Recreation and Parks. In 1985, Mayor William Donald Schaefer had the city purchase two adjacent rowhouses, undertook a complete historic renovation project, and turned the building into a city owned hotel: the Inn at Government House.
In 2015, the Azola Companies, Ziger/Snead Architects completed a restoration turning the building into a boutique historic hotel, complete with parquet floors, pocket doors, stained glass, and a grand staircase.
In October 1835, Eleanora Weber, her son, Edward Weber, and her nephew, Augustus Hoen, carried pieces of lithographic machinery, lithographic stones, and ink powders from Coblenz, Germany, to America. Upon arriving in America, Weber founded the Edward Weber & Co. So began 146 years of continuous business for the company, which garnered it the title of the oldest lithographic firm in the United States. After Weber’s death in 1848, Augustus took over and renamed the business A. Hoen & Co., Lithographers and Printers. Hoen helped create an international name for the company. He patented his litho-caustic method of printing, which required citric acid and gum Arabic to be laid over the etching in order to allow the lithographer to see the progress of his work. The company became most readily known for its maps, art reproductions, medical charts, and posters. Also, when the Civil War broke out in 1861, A. Hoen & Co. printed Confederate money. In 1880, the firm operated from a building on Lexington Street next to City Hall. The six-floor building owned by A. Hoen & Co. held ten additional businesses aside from the lithographers. At around the same time that Hoen received patents for producing halftone prints, the Lexington Street building caught fire. The top three floors and the roof suffered severe damage. The fire cost the Hoen Company roughly $150,000 in machinery and building damage. It also cost the Southern Electric Company, occupying an office in the building, approximately $75,000. Immediately after the fire, the firm moved to a temporary location in order to finish their government contracts, which preceded the establishment of the Government Printing Office. In 1902, A. Hoen & Co. moved to a new location on Biddle Street. The Lexington Street building was sold to the city in 1921 and after a failed renovation plan, it was torn down in 1926. During their time in operation at the Biddle Street location, the building had four different additions constructed to give the company more space. In honor of Aloys Senefelder (inventor of the lithographic process), the Senefelder symbol and the words “Sara Loquuntur” (which meant “the stones tell”) adorned the entrance. In 1969, the Maryland Historical Society and A. Hoen & Co. partnered to provide an exhibition of Hoen Lithographers’ history. A. Hoen & Co. succumbed to bankruptcy in 1981 after the pressure of a decline in business, the failure of a merger effort, an adverse tax ruling, and a union disagreement.The building on Biddle Street, after sitting empty for years, is planned for redevelopment. A joint venture aims to turn the abandoned building into housing for nurses, office space, and a café. The building’s 85,000 square feet will cost roughly $17 million to renovate. The redevelopment broke ground in the spring of 2018 and is expected to be complete in 2019.
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The Duchess of Windsor, born Bessie Wallis Warfield, moved into the three-story brownstone at 212 East Biddle Street with her mother in 1908. It was the first home they could call their own as they were dependent on the charity of wealthier relatives ever since Wallis’s father died shortly after her birth 12 years earlier. Little did she know that one of the three bedrooms would be for the man her mother planned to marry, John Freeman Rason. Wallis was crushed. She had envisioned a life of independence with her mother, free from relying on the financial help of others. Wallis threatened to run away, but reluctantly came to terms with her mother's decision.
The marriage was held in the parlor of their home on June 20, 1908. The climax of the wedding came when Wallis, perhaps out of spite, snuck off to the kitchen and dug her hands into the cake in search of the good-luck tokens hidden inside. When her mother and stepfather came into the kitchen and saw the ruined cake, they stood speechless. Suddenly, Mr. Rasin laughed, picked Wallis up, and twirled her in the air. This act of forgiveness touched the young Wallis, and she never gave her stepfather any more trouble.
Unfortunately, John Freeman Rasin died suddenly in 1913. Without the financial security of her stepfather, Wallis and Alice had to move out. They moved to a small apartment building called Earl's Court, at the corner of Preston and St. Paul streets.
Wallis went through two failed marriages before meeting Edward, Prince of Wales in 1931. In 1936, Edward became King Edward VIII of England, but abdicated the throne on December 10 of the same year to marry Wallis. Edward and Wallis were married on June 3, 1937, and remained so until Edward's death in 1972. Wallis died in Paris on April 24, 1986.
In 1937, Wallis' old home at 212 East Biddle Street was turned into a museum, but it was not a commercial success. The biggest hit of the museum was the bathtub. According to the museum's tour guide, Mrs. W.W. Matthews, nine out of ten visitors sat in the house's bathtub for good luck, including a bride and groom who sat in the tub while Mrs. Matthews took their picture.