Maryland Institute College of Art

"The Maryland Institute", above the old "Centre Market" on Market Place between East Baltimore Street and Water Street, east of South Frederick Street and west of the Jones Falls stream, home of M.I., 1851–1904 Maryland Institute for the Promotion of the Mechanic Arts The Maryland Institute for the Promotion of the Mechanic Arts was established by prominent citizens of Baltimore, such as Fielding Lucas Jr. (founder of Lucas Brothers - office supply company), John H. B. Latrobe (lawyer, artist, author, civic leader), Hezekiah Niles (founder of national newspaper Niles Weekly Register ) and Thomas Kelso . [ 3 ] Other leaders and officers in that first decade were William Stewart (president), George Warner, and Fielding Lucas Jr. (vice presidents), John Mowton (recording secretary), Dr. William Howard (corresponding secretary), as well as James H. Clarke and D.P. McCoy (managers), Solomon Etting (local merchant/political leader), Benjamin C. Howard, William Hubbard, William Meeter, William Roney, William F. Small, S.D. Walker, John D. Craig, Jacob Deems, William H. Freeman, Moses Hand, William Krebs, Robert Cary Long, Jr. (architect), Peter Leary, James Mosher, Henry Payson (founder of First Unitarian Church), P. K. Stapleton, James Sykes and P. B. Williams. The General Assembly of Maryland incorporated the institute in 1826, and starting in November of that year (Tuesday, November 7, 1826), exhibitions of articles of American manufacture were held in the "Concert Hall" on South Charles Street. A course of lectures on subjects connected with the mechanic arts was inaugurated, and a library of works on mechanics and the sciences was begun. The school operated for a decade at "The Athenaeum" (the first of two structures to bear that name, a landmark for educational, social, cultural, civic and political affairs) at the southwest corner of East Lexington and St. Paul Streets facing the second Baltimore City/County Courthouse between North Calvert and St. Paul Streets.

This first Athenaeum was destroyed by fire on February 7, 1835, along with all of its property and records. The fire was caused by a bank riot due to the financial panic following the collapse of several Baltimore banks. [ 5 ] In November 1847, Benjamin S. Benson and sixty-nine others (including many of the original founders of the former institute), issued a call for a meeting of those favorable to the formation of a mechanics' institute, which resulted in the reopening of the institute on January 12, 1848. [ 3 ] The first annual exhibition was held at "Washington Hall" in October 1848, followed by two more. The 1848 officers were John A. Rodgers – president, Adam Denmead – first vice president, James Milholland – second vice president, John B. Easter – recording secretary, and Samuel Boyd – treasurer. The institute was reincorporated by the state legislature at their December session in 1849 and was endowed by an annual appropriation from the State of Maryland of five hundred dollars. In 1849, the Board of Managers extended the usefulness and broadened the appeal of its programs to ordinary citizens by opening a School of Design and an additional Night School of Design was extended two years later in the new hall and building, under William Minifie (from the Faculty of the old Central High School of Baltimore) as principal of the reorganized institute. Classes resumed in rented space over the downtown Baltimore branch of the U.S. Post Office Department in the "Merchants Exchange". [ 6 ] The City Council in 1850 passed an ordinance granting the institute permission to erect a new building over a reconstructed "Centre Market", laying the cornerstone on March 13, 1851, with John H. B. Latrobe, [ 5 ] and son of national architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe , (1764–1820).

In 1851, the institute moved to its own building, built above the old Centre Market on Market Place (formerly Harrison Street) between East Baltimore Street (to the north) and Water Street (to the south) alongside the western shore of the Jones Falls . Centre Market continued to be known in the city as "Marsh Market" after the former Harrison's Marsh from colonial times. The building covered an entire block and had two stories built on a series of brick arches above the market, with two clock towers at each end. The second floor with the institute, housed classrooms, offices, shops and studios and one of the largest assembly halls/auditorium in the state. During this period the institute added a School of Chemistry, thanks in part to a bequest from philanthropist George Peabody , (1795–1869), (for which the Peabody Institute and George Peabody Library is named) and B.& O. Railroad president Thomas Swann , along with a School of Music. [ 6 ] Night classes for Design are added for men who work during the day, but would like training in Architecture and Engineering at night. In 1854, a Day School of Design opened for women—one of the first US arts programs for women. In 1860, the Day School for men opened, and in 1870, the Day school became co-ed . [ 6 ] The Maryland institute, after the 1904 Fire For 79 years the institute remained in the location above the Centre Market, and its "Great Hall", large enough to accommodate 6,000, attracted many famous speakers and lecturers. It hosted events and shows related to the arts, and as one of Baltimore's largest halls, it hosted important events to the city and the region. In 1852 , it hosted both of the national political conventions to nominate presidential candidates Winfield Scott and his opponent Franklin Pierce (who was later elected 14th president of the United States). [ 6 ] During the American Civil War , the institute was briefly an armory for the Union and a hospital for soldiers wounded at the Battle of Antietam .

[ 6 ] On April 18, 1864, President Abraham Lincoln gave his famous speech known as the "Baltimore Address" (or "Liberty Speech") during a Sanitary Fair held in the Great Hall to benefit Union soldiers and families. On February 7–8, 1904, the Centre Market and the Maryland Institute burned down along with 1,500 other buildings in downtown Baltimore during the Great Baltimore Fire . [ 6 ] Temporarily, classes moved to spaces above other covered municipal markets in the city, while construction was ongoing in two locations. Michael Jenkins donated the future site of the "Main Building" on Mount Royal Avenue near the new Bolton Hill neighborhood in the northwest, which opened in 1908. It was to house the School of Art and Design, and the City of Baltimore offered the old site and funding to rebuild the Centre Market as a location for the Drafting school and "mechanical arts". [ 7 ] Upon opening, the Main building had spaces for pottery, metal working, wood carving, free-hand drafting and textile design, as well as a library, galleries and exhibition rooms. The galleries and exhibition rooms were important, because at the time of construction, Baltimore had no public art museum (institutions such as the Walters Art Gallery were not founded and opened for regular public viewing until 1909 and acquired by the city in 1934, and the Baltimore Museum of Art , in 1914). In 1923, the institute's galleries hosted the first known public showing of Henri Matisse 's work in the United States, brought from Europe by sisters Claribel and Etta Cone. [ 7 ] In 1928, the new Centre Market building, now known as "The Market Place" building, offered a course in Aeronautics theory and drafting following the great excitement and increase in interest in the industry following Charles Lindbergh 's flight over the Atlantic Ocean to Paris.