Abandoned School Building in Baltimore MD

Frederick Douglass High School, Baltimore Maryland

Date added: January 01, 2024 Categories: Maryland School

The old Frederick Douglass High School at 1601 North Calhoun Street was built in 1923-1924. It was the first public high school building in the city, and believed to be the first in the state of Maryland, specifically erected for blacks and was the only secondary school in the Baltimore area that could be attended by black students through the 1930s. In its provision of space for "lower" vocational training and classrooms for "higher" academic pursuit, the building's design embodied what was the prevailing philosophy toward black education of the period. The building is characterized by an elaborately decorated exterior, though somewhat plainer than the standard Baltimore school of the period, with a simple interior plan and decorative detailing. It remained as a "colored" high school until 1954 when the Baltimore school system adopted the desegregation policy of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision and the high school was moved to another location.

During the 1920s, Baltimore was the most influential section of Maryland. It was the state hub for railways, manufacturing, banking, insurance, law, medicine, and education. The city of Baltimore comprised 51 percent of the state's population during this period and unlike the smaller towns of the state, it was a city composed of ethnic neighborhoods, each of which was moving out along a radial path from the center of the city. Nearly half the black population was living in the northwest sector, packed close around Pennsylvania Avenue and Dolphin Street; an area that included most of the city's black homeowners, the professionals, the dealers, and the highest share of the literate and youthful. The urban concentration, relative wealth, and political mobilization of the black community in the northwest ghetto was influential in city politics, securing the location of a new "colored" school when the city embarked on an impressive new school building program after WW I. There was no pretense of equal accommodation; segregation was complete in the schools and remained so until 1954 when the city and the state were the first in the nation to implement the decision of the Brown .v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision.

In 1885, the Colored High School, the original name of Douglass Senior High, with a principal and several assistants, had become a separate unit within the High and Grammar School on Holliday Street, where the Peale Museum now stands. In 1897, a separate building was erected for the advanced students, but in 1901 the school was relocated to Pennsylvania Avenue and Dolphin Streets; it included a normal and polytechnic department. In November 1909 the training school was separated from the high school. Dr. Mason A. Hawkins, a Douglass graduate, served as the principal of the high school from 1909 to 1934. As late as 1920, Frederick Douglass High School and Booker T. Washington Junior High School provided the only training beyond the elementary level for Afro-Americans residing in Baltimore and the immediate area. Youngsters throughout the state traveled to Baltimore to attend Douglass. In 1901, thirteen persons graduated from the high school. Hawkins, as one of his last duties as principal, presided over commencement exercises for 209 seniors. The number of graduates has increased yearly. In time, the academic standards of the school and the qualifications and commitment of the teachers and the administrators earned for Douglass national recognition for its academic excellence.

Community and educational groups such as the Alumni Association of the Colored High School, the Civic Aid Association, and the Defense League began as early as 1902 to petition for a new physical plant for Douglass. However, it was not until 1925 that the facility was erected at Calhoun and Baker. streets. The building contained an auditorium, music room, gymnasium for boys and girls, and classrooms. Adequate space was also provided for auxiliary offices; the industrial arts program was housed in an adjacent building. Harry T. Pratt, another Douglass alumnus, served as principal through 1940. The building was used during the day, and at night served as the educational center for those unable to attend the day program. Douglass was also used as a center for community, cultural, and related educational activities during the evening and the summers. The high school remained at this site until 1954 when it was relocated to another location. The building continued to serve as a school and housed Douglass students from 1981 to 1984 while the present school underwent renovation.

Building Description

Completed in 1924, the old Frederick Douglass High School is a free-standing building with an adjacent playground area occupying nearly three-quarters of the city block bounded by Calhoun, Cumberland, Carey, and Baker Streets in Baltimore, Maryland. It is set within a residential neighborhood of three-story row houses known as Sandtown-Winchester and is located two blocks west of Pennsylvania Avenue. The building is primarily a large three-story brick masonry structure with a flat roof. The three primary facades, exhibiting the stylistic details of Late Gothic Revival design, are punctuated by regularly displayed classroom fenestration framed in stone quoins, have entries defined with shallow stone-pointed arches, and are capped by a brick parapet broken with stone battlements. The school is roughly square in plan with classrooms arranged about the perimeter of a centrally placed auditorium. Interior finishes and detailing are simple. Floors are either wood or terrazzo and the walls and ceilings are typically painted plaster. The original window sashes are missing in many areas. The interior plans and decorative detailing remain essentially intact to the 1920s. On the back of the property is a circa 1880 four-story brick building which was renovated and incorporated into the school when the larger building was erected. Additions were made in the 1950s and 1970s. To the north, extending from the high school building to Cumberland Street, is a paved playground area.

Completed in 1924, the school is primarily a three-story masonry structure with a flat roof. Because the site slopes away from north to south, it has three full levels above grade and a partial ground floor along Baker Street. Its primary entrance is oriented west to Calhoun Street, the school is roughly square in plan, enveloping a previously constructed two and four-story masonry building located on the Carey Street (east) side. These structures were renovated in 1923 as part of the building of the new high school. To the north, extending from the high school to Cumberland Street, is a paved outdoor area used as the school's playground.

Frederick Douglass High School exhibits the stylistic detailing of a Late Gothic Revival influence commonly known as "collegiate gothic style." The building is approximately nine bays wide and eight bays deep, reflecting the internal concrete post and beam structural system. A medium-tone red brick laid in a common running bond pattern punctuated by fenestration regularly displaced in the bays makes up the body of the elevations. Stylistic detailing common to the Gothic style are concentrated primarily at the building's entrances and exit stair locations. The central bay of the principal, west, facade is projected slightly; the four main entry doors are surrounded by a heavy, shallow pointed arch "butressed" on each side by setback "buttresses" extending up to the parapet. Above the doors, to the underside of the arch, is simple wood tracery forming lancet-shaped lites. This same composition motif is repeated at the exit doors of the fire stairs on the side (north and south) elevations. In contrast to the brick of the main body of the building, almost the entire assemblage at the door locations is faced with dressed limestone. Many of the original 12/12 wooden double-hung sashes are missing.

The projecting two end bays of the principal facade are blind except for the top floor fenestration. Double-hung windows are typically combined in groups of four or five within a bay and framed with jambs consisting of alternating small and large limestone blocks in a quoinwise fashion. Each window within the group is typically separated by a slender engaged wood column. Three belt courses of limestone form the ground-floor window lintel, the first-floor window sill, and the first-floor window lintel. Above the third-floor windows there is a limestone cornice; a brick parapet surmounts the cornice and has a limestone coping. The parapet is broken by "battlements" demarcating the structural bays. The overall effect of the elevations with the limestone banding, cornice, and cap, and the horizontal grouping of the windows, gives the building a heavy overall horizontal impression.

The east facade fronting Carey Street, unlike the unified design of the other elevations, reflect the assemblage of existing buildings, the two gymnasium masses of the building proper, and the three additions. All are, however, red brick buildings, and because of their relatively small scale, do not compromise the school's historic integrity. Besides the structure renovated in 1923 previously discussed, a semi-detached one-story music building was added in 1953 and semi-detached vocational shop building was completed in 1974 directly northeast of the building proper.

The floor plan is symmetrical in composition about the east-west axis. A large auditorium is located at the very center of the building while the classrooms and laboratories are arranged about the perimeter. Open-air courtyards separate the mass of the auditorium (north and south sides) from the classrooms allowing natural light through windows of both. The 1800-seat auditorium, entered directly from the foyer of the building's main entrance, contains a balcony, a stage with an orchestra pit, and wooden seats with metal sides detailed with a gothic tracery pattern. The pilasters and panel composition of the auditorium walls, as with the ceiling, are finished in painted plaster. The entry foyer has a plaster groin vaulted ceiling and is finished with a marble wainscote. A wide corridor with terrazzo floors inscribes a basic square circulation pattern within the building. At the four outside corners of the corridor are located in interior stairways connecting the floors and leading directly to outside entrances. Between the stairs locations are the classrooms, offices and laboratories opening off both sides of the corridor.

Situated at the northeast and southeast corners of the school are the two-story high gymnasiums, one for each, boys and girls. Set between the two gymnasiums, accessed by the east corridor, are located the older structures and the music room addition. At the north end of the east hall on the first floor, a corridor extension leading to the shop building is provided.

The interior finishes and details are simple. The classroom floors are wood with linoleum tile; walls and ceilings are finished in plaster. There are plain wood baseboards and plain wood surrounds at openings. Original classroom panel doors have been replaced with flush wood doors. Stairways have a terrazzo floor, plaster walls and ceiling, and a singular metal pipe handrail. The entrance foyer has marble paneled walls and a groin vaulted ceiling. The auditorium interior is decorated with plaster pilasters, panels, dentiling, coffered ceiling, ware molding, and bolection molding bordering the rectangular proscenium opening and shows extreme deterioration.

Vandalism has occurred in recent years but has been mostly limited to the removal of copper wiring and the breakage of window glass, the latter exposing the interior to the weather and thus accelerating interior plaster deterioration throughout the building.

The exterior, on the other hand, is particularly well-preserved, excepting that the majority of the original double-hung wood windows with 12/12 lites were replaced with aluminum windows (of which only the metal frames remain) and the original wood panel entry and exit doors have been replaced with flush metal doors. Window openings in the gymnasiums have been filled solid with brick masonry, its color approximating the original brick.