The Ivy Hotel – a Gilded Age mansion with two MICHELIN Keys

In Baltimore's Mount Vernon district, an 1889 mansion commissioned by banker John Gilman carries a weight of history unusual even for a city built on red brick and ambition. Architect Charles Carson, fresh from the city's Grand Masonic Temple and Mt. Vernon Place Methodist Church, gave Gilman turrets, leaded glass and a staircase that climbs three storeys toward a skylight; Gilman died before he could move in. The house passed to bottle-cap inventor William Painter, then to a Johns Hopkins physician, then to the City of Baltimore, before philanthropists Eddie and Sylvia Brown bought it in 2010 and reopened it in June 2015 as The Ivy Hotel. Today it is one of a few Black-owned boutique hotels in America, a member of Relais & Châteaux, and the only hotel in Maryland to hold Two MICHELIN Keys. Eighteen rooms, a small spa and the restaurant Magdalena fill a house built, originally, for one family.

01The house

Vernon Place Methodist Church and Baltimore's Grand Masonic Temple. 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, head of the Crown Cork and Seal Company and inventor of the bottle cap. The house later passed to a Johns Hopkins physician, and in 1939 was donated to Baltimore City by Robert Garrett, an 1896 Olympic gold medallist who chaired the Playground Athletic League; in 1985 the city reopened it as the Inn at Government House. The Browns gained ownership of the mansion in 2010, and after a restoration by Azola Companies and Ziger/Snead Architects, the doors opened as The Ivy Hotel on 19 June 2015.

It was designed with the kind of architectural intention that was built to last — 23 individual fireplaces, leaded glass windows, carved wood wainscoting, green marble sourced from local quarries, and a magnificent central staircase that ascends three stories, crowned by original skylights at the top.

02Rooms and suites

The Ivy Hotel has eight airy, light-filled suites and ten beautiful rooms, each with a four-poster bed fitted with 400-thread-count Frette sheets, a gas fireplace and a lavish bathroom with heated limestone floor. Some accommodations offer a corner turret with a view of Mount Vernon, some a balcony over the leafy courtyard, some a grand octagonal living room. Mansion Room Thirteen, a generously sized corner room, has a dining table set in the turret looking out over Mount Vernon, and can adjoin with Room Twelve to form a large suite.

Insider tip

Mount Vernon has the country's greatest concentration of 19th-century brownstones.

03Where to eat

Magdalena, A Maryland Bistro, occupies the ground floor and courtyard. Chef Scott Bacon began as a line cook in the kitchen and rose through the ranks to take the helm; his bold, seasonal dishes reflect his deep understanding of Maryland's bounty. Led by Bacon, of Black and British descent, the restaurant offers a rotating dinner menu inspired by the Chesapeake Bay's seasonal bounty, and after a post-pandemic relaunch the bistro-style menu draws from the area's best fishermen and farmers while always paying its respect to the Mid-Atlantic, from a crispy sea bass with chanterelles in summer to a golden Amish chicken with pickled okra in autumn.

The dinner menu runs from starters such as a caramelised cauliflower soup with smoked mushrooms, apple and hazelnut, through a truffle-ricotta ravioli gnudi with kabocha squash cream sauce, to mains including a harissa-glazed venison with rye bread pudding and a 10oz grass-fed New York strip with pommes purée. The whiskey selection, the cocktails, and a Wine Spectator-awarded bottle list make for ideal accompaniments.

04The bar

Long before it was a bar, the room now known as the Mansion Bar was where Dr. Thomas B. Futcher, a Johns Hopkins physician who made the house his private residence in 1918, treated his patients. Today it is one of several serve-yourself spaces where guests take coffee in the garden, choose a book from the library, or try their hand at the piano in the Music Room or the full-size billiards table — all variations on the house's invitation to make yourself at home.

05Spa

On the second floor of The Ivy Hotel, The Spa at The Ivy offers a completely personalised approach to well-being, built around an in-depth discussion with your therapist to design a treatment such as the Custom Massage or the signature Ultimate Zen, which combines a full-body exfoliation, hydrating wrap and shea-butter massage. The Facial Studio uses results-driven treatments with Nelly De Vuyst skincare.

06The neighbourhood

The Ivy is located in Baltimore's historic Mount Vernon neighbourhood, which houses the greatest concentration of nineteenth-century brownstones in the country. It is walking distance to a handful of cultural destinations, including the Walters Art Museum, the Peabody Library, the Washington Monument, the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, the Modell Performing Arts Center at the Lyric, and Baltimore Center Stage.

07Making the most of a stay

As Maryland's only hotel awarded Two MICHELIN Keys and a member of Relais & Châteaux since 2015, The Ivy arrives with considerable credentials, and for guests on standard rates an unusually extensive collection of amenities is included: daily chef-prepared breakfast, a stocked in-room refrigerator, valet parking, private car service based on availability, afternoon tea, cocktails at the Mansion Bar, housekeeping and nightly turndown. The hotel sits twelve miles from BWI Airport, about thirty minutes by car, and just around the corner from Baltimore Penn Station.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.