The Ivy Hotel

The Ivy Hotel opened in 2015 inside a restored 1889 Gilded Age mansion in Baltimore's Mount Vernon Historic District, an 18-room luxury boutique hotel that became the city's first Relais & Châteaux property months after opening. The mansion, designed by Charles Carson for banker John Gilman and later owned by bottle-cap inventor William Painter, had never previously operated as a hotel.

The place

205 East Biddle Street, in Baltimore's Mount Vernon Historic District.

The concept

Architect Charles Carson designed the mansion in 1889 for banker John Gilman, who died just before it was completed. It later passed to William Painter, the inventor of the bottle cap and founder of the Crown Cork and Seal Company, and eventually to the Playground Athletic League, which donated it to the City of Baltimore in 1939 for use as recreation department offices before it briefly hosted visiting dignitaries under Mayor William Schaefer. The mansion had never operated as a hotel before owner Eddie Brown's roughly $18 million restoration, which opened The Ivy in 2015 with 18 rooms across the original house: Baltimore's first Relais & Châteaux property, admitted to the association a few months after opening.

Dining & wellness

Magdalena, a Maryland bistro named for owner Eddie Brown's grandmother, spans five distinct rooms on the ground floor (the Garden Room, the Treasury, the Wine Cellar, the Tasting Room and the Bar) serving Chesapeake Bay-driven, from-scratch bistro fare. A chef-made breakfast and evening cocktails at the mansion bar are included in the room rate, along with on-site activities and private car service around the city.