Colored High and Grammar School Newspaper Article, 1885

February 18, 1885, Baltimore Sun

The Baltimore Sun wrote an evaluation of Male and Female Colored High and Grammar School No.1, based on a review from a team of school board members and the principal. They commented on the school being in an industrial area, the hazardous conditions inside the building, and overcrowding.

Transcription: Colored High and Grammar School. Messes. G. S. Griffith, Charles W. Slagle and Francis P. Steveus unite in a communication to THE SUN, in which they state that, as the result of a recent visit to the colored high and grammar school, they desire, 'to call the attention of the citizens of Baltimore to the urgent need of providing larger and better accommodations in a more suitable locality. As regards location there is scarcely a more unfit place for school purposes than the old City Hall, which stands on Holliday street near Lexington, and which is now used by this school. The neighborhood, as everyone knows, is given up so entirely to manufacturing establishments that you can scarcely conceive of. place more unsuitable for educational purposes.

The continual roar from the street, the whirr of machinery, the blowing of steam whistles, with the smoke and dirt from engines, make school work at times impossible, and all the time comparatively unsatisfactory. But still worse than this, the guilding is utterly unfit for school use. Of the thirteen rooms used by the school not more than three are really fit for classrooms, by reason of defective ventilation and insufficient light. Most of the rooms are crowded almost to suffocation, those on the first floor having low ceilings and damp walls, and doubtless mch of the sickness of teachers and scholars alike is due to want of pure air and better light.

The actual attendance of pupils on the day of our visit was 495 out of 524 on the roll, being 95 percent. The school is under efficient charge of Prof. George L. Stately, and is certainly doing a good work for our colored citizens ,but it's facilities can be very greatly promoted by moving it into a proper building in a better location. This number, however, does not include the 150 primary-school scholars who are in the same building, but under the charge of Mr. M. T. R. Saffel.

The colored population of Baltimore is 64,500 and we think it a reproach to our large and prosperous city that more suitable accommodations are not made for the more advanced scholars of the colored public schools. The parents and guardians also complain greatly of the present building, adn many children in consequence are kept home. The committee of the school board fully appreciated the force of all these objections, and urged upon the city council the importance of selecting another site and building ad suitable school-house. The council committee on education was also unanimous upon the same subject.

We, Therefore, deem it eminently prudent at this time to urge upon the new council the importance of taking this matter under early consideration, and suggest that the members individually examine the subject for their own satisfaction, so that as soon as practicable some provision can be made for the just and proper accommodation of this school.

The old City Hall property, originally built for Peale's Museum, and now occupied by this school, being in a central manufacturing locality, if sold, would yield no inconsiderable sum of money towards providing a modern school building in another and more suitable neighbourhood."

Visual Description: Long, rectangular newspaper article on sepia-colored paper