Existing comment:
The Enoch Pratt House
Enoch Pratt (1806-1896) moved to Baltimore in 1831 to launch a wholesale hardware business on South Charles Street. By 1851 he had invested in western Maryland coal mines and iron foundries in the Baltimore neighborhood of Canton. He made his own merchandise, thereby ending his dependence on other manufacturers. Pratt became the president of the National Farmers' and Planters' Bank of Baltimore, president of the Baltimore Clearing House, and the Maryland Bankers' Association, in addition to establishing a role in several transportation companies.
Pratt and his wife built their home on the southwest corner of Park Avenue and Monument Street in 1845. As they had no children, Pratt gave much of his time and wealth to Baltimore's cultural and charitable institutions, serving as a trustee of the Peabody Institute as well as treasurer and chairman of its library committee. He founded the House of Reformation and Instruction for Colored Children at Cheltenham, and the Maryland School for the Deaf and Dumb at Frederick. In 1885 construction began on the Enoch Pratt Free Circulating Library. After constructing a central library building and four neighborhood branches, he presented them to the city along with a $1 million endowment indented for the perpetual support of a free public library system in Baltimore.
In 1847 The Baltimore Equitable society issued an insurance policy to Enoch Pratt for his new home and stable noting a: "two story brick stable, 24 feet by 46 feet - built in a secure manner."
In 1916, as a memorial to her husband H. Irvine Keyser, Mary Washington Keyser presented the former Enoch Pratt residence and its land to the MdHS as its permanent home. |