A 40+ room Gilded Age mansion on Mount Vernon Place, expanded for Mary Frick Garrett Jacobs and Robert Garrett II in the late 19th century, now home of the Engineers Club of Baltimore.
11 West Mount Vernon Place, Baltimore, MD 21201
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$$
Private members' club with public access primarily during ticketed events, scheduled tours, and weddings/events. Baltimore Heritage occasionally hosts guided tours.
Access
Limited Access
Historic Gilded Age mansion with grand staircases
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1872 · Mount Vernon Place Historic District · Engineers Club of Baltimore home since 1962 · Gilded Age residence of Mary Frick Garrett Jacobs
The Garrett-Jacobs Mansion stands at 11 West Mount Vernon Place in Baltimore's Mount Vernon neighborhood. The complex was assembled and expanded across the late 19th century from earlier brick rowhouses on the square. The mansion's late-19th- and early-20th-century expansions were commissioned by Mary Frick Garrett Jacobs, a leading Baltimore socialite, and her second husband Dr. Henry Barton Jacobs (and earlier Robert Garrett II). At its largest the mansion had more than 40 rooms and incorporated three adjacent townhouses.
Mary Frick Garrett Jacobs (1851-1936) was one of Baltimore's most prominent late-Gilded Age figures and a major art collector and patron of cultural and medical institutions. The mansion hosted some of the most lavish entertainment Baltimore society saw in the 1880s-1900s, including formal dinner parties for 100 or more guests and chamber-music programs.
After Mary Frick Jacobs' death in 1936 the mansion passed through several uses, and the Engineering Society of Baltimore — founded 1905 — acquired the building and made it the Engineers Club's permanent home in 1962. The Engineers Club operates the building today as a private members' social club, with public access via ticketed events, scheduled Baltimore Heritage tours, and weddings/private events.
This is the Mount Vernon Place mansion. Mary Frick Jacobs' separate Uplands estate, a vacation home located in West Baltimore at 4501 Old Frederick Road, was destroyed by fire in October 2023 and is unrelated to the Mount Vernon mansion described here.
Sources
The Garrett-Jacobs Mansion's paranormal lore is anchored by the figure of Mary Frick Garrett Jacobs herself. According to Tour Baltimore Ghosts, Real Paranormal Experiences, and other Baltimore paranormal-tourism sources, the most commonly reported apparition is Mary Frick Jacobs descending the grand staircase in fine period clothing and jewelry, sometimes pausing as if to greet incoming guests for an event.
The mansion's most-cited single ghost narrative is the so-called 'phantom dinner party.' In one widely repeated account, a waiter preparing for an event opened the door to an otherwise empty banquet room and witnessed an entire 1890s-era black-tie dinner party in progress — formally dressed guests laughing, clinking glasses, and seated at a long table. When he returned with other staff members, the room was empty and undisturbed. Variants of this story are featured on multiple Baltimore ghost-tour itineraries.
Other reports include footsteps in upper hallways, the smell of cigar smoke in the library, and electrical anomalies in the ballroom. The mansion does not officially promote itself as a haunted attraction; the paranormal coverage comes from regional ghost-tour operators and paranormal-tourism sources.
For clarity: the paranormal stories described here all refer to the Mount Vernon Place mansion. The 2023 fire that destroyed the separate Uplands vacation home in West Baltimore is unrelated to this property.
Notable Entities
Baltimore Heritage periodically schedules behind-the-scenes guided tours of the Garrett-Jacobs Mansion's main public rooms, original banquet hall, library, ballroom, and grand staircase. Tours emphasize the Gilded Age history and Mary Frick Jacobs' role as one of Baltimore's most prominent late-19th-century socialites.
The mansion is a featured stop on Baltimore Ghost Tours' Mount Vernon Ghostwalk, which describes Mary Frick Jacobs and the famous 'phantom dinner party' story from outside the building.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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