A Free Boarding School for Indigent Boys

More than a century before UMBC situated itself on Hilltop Circle another educational institution formed here; its mission was to advance the reformation of a poor lot of "indigent boys" from Baltimore.

The Baltimore Manual Labor School for indigent boys, also known as the Arbutus Farm School, was established in 1841. The school emerged from of a larger social movement developing in urban Victorian society at the time. Amidst the energetic fervor of the Second Great Awakening, white, middle-class Americans began actively participating in a reform movement to change the lives of the poor, inner-city population. Industrialization in the early nineteenth century brought extreme population growth to urban centers. In Baltimore, the population grew six fold between the years of 1820 and 1860. Specialized private and federal institutions formed to battle a rise in young people living in poverty. They began working to relocate children from what they saw as unpromising home environments to more positive atmospheres.

The school provided a, “Free Boarding School for indigent boys, mostly sons of poor widows who are unable to feed, clothe, and train their boys during the years that they should be acquiring an education, to enable each to attain a position of self support.” The School opened its doors in 1841 with fifteen “destitute and orphaned boy[s].” By 1843, the Baltimore Manual Labor School had taken into its care a total of forty-two children.

By applying the boys to a rigorous program centered primarily on physical labor, the school intended to mold the character of these young men, while at the same time supplying them with applicable work skills, effectively generating productive members of society. In 1893, directors of the Baltimore Manual Labor School wrote:

“the best occupation we can train our boys up to, is that of a farmer. It is perhaps almost the only calling which is not overcrowded, and the one most likely to produce an honorable and independent livelihood for the boys who have no capital, but health and energy.”

The types of farm work included tending to the orchards, vegetable gardens, green houses and livestock. The boys attended educational classes including writing, reading and math. They also attended the Catonsville Methodist Church on Sundays and engaged in daily religious exercises. However, education and religion took a backseat to manual labor which required of a six hour daily shift from each child, even for young boys. The school admitted boys as young as five.

In 1922, Spring Grove Hospital purchased the land following a devastating fire in 1916. The Stabler family owned the property and helped to run the school. Family patriarch Edmund Stabler held the position of superintendent from 1884 to 1904. Interestingly, the hospital used the farmland for a patient agricultural rehabilitation program. The state incorporated this and adjacent tracts of land in the early 1960’s in order to create UMBC. The Stabler home was used by Dr. Albin O. Kuhn, UMBC’s first Chancellor, during the construction of the campus and the Albin O. Kuhn Library now occupies the site where the home stood.

University of Maryland, Baltimore County, 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250

By 1990, administrators at University of Maryland, Baltimore County faced a problem. The student body had outgrown the University Center within just a decade of its opening. They considered the solution of building a new activity space to make two campus centers, but students spoke up with a clear demand. In order to continue building the campus community, there could only be one campus center. No space remained on the campus’ “academic row,” an area of the campus consisting of academic buildings, to build an addition to the existing University Center so the university planned the construction of a brand-new student center called the Commons to open in 2002.

A collaboration between Perry Dean Rogers and Design Collective architectural firms, the Commons was designed to shift the center of campus life from “academic row” to a new, emerging quad facing many of the residence halls to the north and east. The university planned to build the Commons on the foundation of Gym I, one of UMBC’s original campus buildings, which housed physical education space and the Commuter Cafeteria. After UMBC funded improvements for the Retriever Athletic Center, the amenities of Gym I were no longer needed, allowing the campus to build the Commons in its place.

While there was a consensus among students, faculty, and administrators that UMBC needed the Commons, there was conflict as to how to pay for it. Students and families worried about the increase in fees placed on students in order to finance the space. Business owners in Arbutus and Catonsville worried that the potential retail space in the new building would create competition between local businesses and isolate students from their surrounding communities. Despite these concerns, UMBC pushed ahead and built what President Freeman Hrabowski believed would be a “university commons for the entire university.”

When the Commons opened on the first day of the spring semester in 2002, students appreciated expanded services and amenities previously located at the University Center, such as additional meeting space for all student organizations, a flexible performance space, retail space, and study areas. The innovative design of the Commons—marked by two larger corridors that intersect at the center and the use of glass walls to light up the space—won a design award from the Maryland Chapter of the American Institute of Architects. Most importantly, this functional and aesthetically pleasing space is student-centered with a majority of the spaces controlled by students themselves.

Originally built in the face of projected enrollment increases, the Commons remains a bustling center of campus activity. However, as UMBC continues to grow, a larger student space will need to be constructed to meet continuing population increases. A new Student Services and Student Life building is slated to be constructed in the future to address some of the strains currently placed on the Commons.

University of Maryland, Baltimore County, 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250

The Joseph Beuys Sculpture Park was established in April 2001 as part of a larger tree-planting effort that supported projects across the Baltimore region. Designer Renee van der Stelt, project coordinator for UMBC’s Fine Arts Gallery, now the Center for Art, Design, and Visual Culture, developed the Joseph Beuys Tree Partnership with a mission to “extend beyond the gallery walls [and] bring art to the people.” Joseph Beuys, a German avant-garde artist who emphasized natural materials in his work, inspired the new sculpture park—especially his most famous piece: 7000 Oaks.

Between 1982 and 1987 residents of Kassel, Germany planted 7,000 oak trees in the town and installed a stone next to each tree. As the oaks grow, the stones erode, nourishing the soil around the trees. “The intention of such a tree-planting event,” Beuys explained in a 1982 interview, “is to point up the transformation of all of life, of society, and of the whole ecological system.” Beuys believed that all of nature and humanity are in relationship with one another and this inter-connectedness is represented by both the installation itself and by the collaboration necessary to bring the art into existence. He called this type of partnership “social sculpture.”

In the fall of 2000, hundreds of children and adults pitched in to bring “social sculpture” to Baltimore. With help from nearly two dozen community organizations, the Joseph Beuys Tree Partnership organized volunteers to plant trees and rocks throughout the city. Annapolis-based TKF Foundation, an organization that promotes its mission of peace through the development of green space, provided funding for the Tree Partnership. The volunteers planted trees in Patterson Park, Wyman Park Dell, and Carroll Park in Baltimore. Later, stones were installed in each park to continue the Beuys model. The thirty oak trees and thirty granite stones planted on the UMBC campus in spring 2001 completed the project.

Visitors to the UMBC Sculpture Park can find a journal stored under one of the benches. The book provides an opportunity for visitors to contribute to the social sculpture by recording their thoughts and feelings. In 2011, the journal entries became source material for a music and dance program entitled “Creative Acts: Site Specific Dance & Music in Joseph Beuys Sculpture Park.” UMBC students composed and performed the music for a program hosted by the UMBC Center for Art, Design, and Visual Culture (CADVC). Their original works expressed “a dialogue between the human instinct to preserve and enjoy nature while also transforming and polluting it.” They encouraged the audience to add to the journal during the performance, continuing the interactions that make up the social sculpture.

The Joseph Beuys Sculpture Garden, along with its sister parks throughout Baltimore, is a space in which the art is constantly changing. Its material is not just the wood and stone, but the oxygen which the trees contribute to the air to combat the car exhaust from the adjacent parking lot, the minerals slowly eroding into the soil from the granite, and the deep breath that a harried college student takes when she stops for a moment on the bench and records her frustrations in the field journal. All are in relationship, and all are participating in the social sculpture.

, Center for Art Design and Visual Culture

University of Maryland, Baltimore County, 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250

A Sculpture by Marc O’Carroll

In the summer of 1976, Marc O’Carroll, a student and artist at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), designed and installed the Mnemonic sculpture next to the campus’ Fine Arts Building. The sculpture, a collection of steel trees displayed in various stages of being chopped down, brought a unique appeal to an institution that seemed overly engrossed with rapidly expanding in size and scope at any cost necessary.

As a student at the university, Marc O’Carroll grew fond of a massive and ancient sycamore tree that was located behind the school’s Dining Hall. The sycamore had stood on the campus years before administrators had begun planning for the UMBC campus. However, university workers cut down the tree in 1976 to build a short driveway for trucks to pull into during the construction of the new University Center. When O’Carroll was commissioned by the university to construct a sculpture project, he decided to pay homage to the destroyed sycamore tree by building the Mnemonic. O’Carroll intended for the sculpture to stand as a memorial to all the trees that had been cut down to make way for new campus construction projects during the 1970s.

By welding his memories in steel, Marc O’Carroll created a dynamic sculpture that invites people to reminisce about nature and its surroundings. Although the artist is no longer at UMBC and neither is the massive sycamore tree, the Mnemonic carries on the memories of both.

University of Maryland, Baltimore County, 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250

In 1990, Catonsville resident Charlie Kucera discovered an illegal garbage dump at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County where the bwTech@UMBC Research and Technology Park is located today. The university cleared away the contents of the dump relatively quickly, but the residents of Catonsville saw the discovery as evidence that UMBC did not care about the environment. This incident worsened the already strained relationship between the residents of Arbutus and Catonsville and the UMBC administration.

The next year, UMBC announced to the public their plans for a research park—the first university research park in the state of Maryland. While some residents were enthusiastic about the possible job opportunities and improvement to the local economy, Charlie Kucera and other residents were unconvinced of the park’s potential. Their opinion of the university had been damaged by their discovery of the dump, on top of which, they were concerned about adding another large scale building in close proximity to their homes and were wary of increased traffic and possible chemical leaks which could harm the environment.

Despite the community’s objections, plans for the research park continued. Residents felt slighted by the university’s unwillingness to incorporate them in the decision making process. These discrepancies led to a series of zoning conflicts between Arbutus, Catonsville, and UMBC administrators lasting for nearly a decade, halting any and all construction. When UMBC finally agreed to scale back the size of the research park in 2000, work began on the bwTech@UMBC Research and Technology Park.

Since the completion of the first buildings in 2002, the research park continues to be a thriving asset to the university. The research park’s two campuses, bwTech@UMBC North and BWTech@UMBC South, are both nationally recognized science and technology business parks that provide a home for over ninety different technological companies and research institutions to this day.

5520 Research Park Drive, Catonsville, Maryland 21228

A Place for Quadmania and More

University of Maryland, Baltimore County shares in a unique American college phenomenon of open or green spaces. Campus open spaces—places set aside for students, faculty and staff to gather informally or formally—help to shape a sense of community for universities across the country. These areas are a unique part of American college culture, something that cannot be seen in the tight and rigorous design of European universities which often have academic buildings spanning for blocks on end with few open spaces in sight.

UMBC’s most important public greenspace, the Quad, is bordered by Academic Row, the Commons, and the Retriever Athletic Center. The Quad provides the campus with a space for campus related or recreational activities, relaxation, and even class space in good weather. Having been used over the years for student protest, social celebrations, and more, the Quad has been a place where students can congregate outside of the academic buildings and structures on campus.

Throughout UMBC’s history, students have often used the Quad as a gathering place for celebrations. UMBC held the first graduation commencement on the in 1970. Involvement Fest, a day which gives students a chance to meet and learn about the various student clubs and organizations at UMBC, is held on the Quad every year. Most notably, Quadmania, an annual event in the spring featuring musical concerts, food, and other activities was first held on the Quad on September 19, 1981. The event was, and still is, intended to celebrate the campus, the coming of spring, and the nearing end of the school year.

The Quad is not only used for celebrations—it has also served as a meeting space for students to express their concerns or rally together in opposition to various proposals or events. In the late 1970s, students gathered on the Quad to express their disapproval of the Maryland Higher Education Commission proposing to merge UMBC with University of Maryland, College Park. The rally, organized by the Student Government Association (SGA) and other student organizations, included more than 1,000 students and was the largest in UMBC history at the time.

The Quad is just one of several open spaces on campus. Others include the library pond and Erickson Field, east of the Albin O. Kuhn Library and Gallery. Open and green spaces across the UMBC campus, provide the university with a unique way for students to come together as a community. Students can, as they have in the past, use these spaces as they see fit—for gathering, learning, rallying, or relaxing.

University of Maryland, Baltimore County, 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250

The Center of a Cohesive Community

When the University Center, known on campus as “the UC,” opened its doors in 1982 it definitively moved student life to the academic center of UMBC’s campus with a goal of cultivating a cohesive, unified community for students, faculty, and staff.

The UC, located between academic buildings Meyerhoff Hall and Sherman Hall, provided the campus community with a variety of amenities, including the campus bookstore, a dining room, a ballroom, and lounge space. Students who commuted and those who lived on campus enjoyed meals in the UC Pub or congregated outside on the patio. The UC provided office space for some student organizations, such as the Student Government Association and the Retriever, UMBC’s student newspaper, and storage space for others.

UMBC began to outgrow the UC within the first decade of its operation as the result of increased student enrollment and already limited student space. In 2002, the university completed construction of a new student center, the Commons, that took on many of the student centered functions of the old UC in a larger space, including housing the campus bookstore, dining amenities, and lounge space. The UC is still used by UMBC students. On a nice sunny day, visitors might see students congregating on the outdoor patio, drinking coffee, or eating lunch on the first floor of the building. The UC ballroom remains a popular venue for banquets and performances by student organizations. The Retriever Weekly newspaper and WMBC, UMBC’s radio station, have their offices in the UC.

Home to the College of Natural and Mathematical Sciences, the Psychology Center for Community Collaboration, and the English Language Institute, the UC is indeed changing its function over time. In 2009, campus administration announced plans for a full renovation of the UC intended to provide space for new traditional classrooms and active learning spaces, transforming into the aptly named University Learning Center.

University of Maryland, Baltimore County, 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250

A Memory of Spring Grove Farm

Visitors and students driving onto the University of Maryland, Baltimore County campus often wonder about the unexpected white silo that stands near the entrance to I-95. The silo is one of few remaining reminders of Spring Grove Hospital which was located on the site of UMBC from 1867 to the 1960s.

Albin O. Kuhn, the university’s first chancellor, pushed to keep the silo in place for a few reasons. Kuhn claimed the structure reminded him of his childhood growing up on a farm. He joked that the silo would be called “the Kuhn Silo because they knew that I had a farm background or an interest in, in fact, farming.” More practically, he suggested it would be difficult to move as “those are fairly heavy concrete things to remove.” So Kuhn conceded and said “Well, let [that] thing stand. It won’t bother anybody and it will be sort of a memory of the fact that this once was used as a farm for the Spring Grove.”

Spring Grove Hospital, formerly known as The Maryland Hospital for the Insane, moved from downtown Baltimore to Catonsville in 1872. The Maryland General Assembly intended for the hospital to “provide for the relief of indigent sick persons, and for the reception and care of lunatics” in the Baltimore region. To do this, the proprietors of Spring Grove used agricultural labor as a source of moral building. As part of their therapy, patients performed agricultural labor, grew their own food, and turned up a profit for the institution. This was especially the case in rough economic times, like the early 1930s, when the hospital had to cut the budget for patient care. However, the lack of strong income from these farming methods eventually outweighed their supposed moral good. By the 1960s, the hospital’s farm was operating at a reduced capacity.

Therefore, when administrators began planning for the UMBC campus, the acreage seemed more appealing as a college than a space for patient therapy. In the 1960s, the Commissioner of Mental Hygiene for the state of Maryland deemed the program no longer crucial to the hospital’s future. Instead, Spring Grove sold the land to make way for UMBC. Though there are few remaining reminders of Spring Grove Hospital that can be seen on the UMBC campus today, the white silo has stood, and continues to stand, as a direct link to UMBC’s historic roots.

University of Maryland, Baltimore County, 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250

Nitty Gritty, the Chesapeake Bay Retriever in Bronze

On a blustery winter day in December 1987, a small crowd of spectators gathered around the Field House at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). They had assembled for the unveiling of a life-size bronze sculpture of the young university’s mascot. The Retriever statue, aka the True Grit statue, currently located in the plaza in front of the Retriever Activities Center (RAC) continues to stand as a reminder of the student body’s pride in their university.

The Retriever was chosen as the school mascot in 1966 by the first class of UMBC. A competition was held and forty different suggestions were presented. After a university-wide vote, administrators selected the Chesapeake Bay Retriever, a dog breed native to Maryland, as the school’s official mascot. The Retriever has since gone on to become the name of the student newspaper, yearbook, and athletic teams.

In 1986, Alumna Paulette Raye, philosophy major and self-proclaimed dog-lover, was commissioned by UMBC administrators to construct a statue for the school’s 20th anniversary, based on the university’s beloved mascot. Raye took several studio art classes during her time at UMBC, even earning three credits towards her degree, for creating the life-size bronze model of the Retriever. Raye’s “conception was that the dog should represent the study body—alert, intelligent, eager to learn and friendly.” To capture this “alertness,” Raye designed a statue of True Grit that would stand upright and gaze straight ahead with his ears cocked.

Raye worked on the statue for almost two years, using a local five year old Chesapeake Bay Retriever named Nitty Gritty as her model. True Grit was the name of Nitty Gritty’s father, and in an interview with UMBC Magazine Raye recalled that she wasn’t exactly sure “why the mascot received that name [True Grit instead of Nitty Gritty]… other than it sounded bold and strong—like the [school’s] team.” Nitty Gritty later had the honor of pulling a black cloth off the statue of himself at the statue’s inauguration.

During the unveiling ceremony on December 7, 1987, UMBC Chancellor Michael Hooker instituted a new tradition for the young university: rubbing True Grit’s nose for good luck. At the unveiling, Hooker remarked, “Tradition is exceedingly important. We used to be young [but] we are adults now. It is appropriate that we begin a new tradition.” Since its unveiling, the Retriever statue has remained a beloved campus landmark, often greeting students with a student newspaper in its mouth or bedecked with a cap and gown during graduation. Students continue to stop by during finals to rub True Grit’s nose, now discolored due to almost thirty years of UMBC students and faculty taking part in a campus-wide tradition.

University of Maryland, Baltimore County, 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250

A Library that Grew with the University

Constructed of tooled Indiana limestone, glass, steel, concrete, and granite, the Albin O. Kuhn Library and Gallery is at the center of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County campus both literally and figuratively. Since the library first opened in 1968, it has served as a focal point of the campus and UMBC students’ academic lives.

In 1982, the building was named in honor of Dr. Albin O. Kuhn, the first chancellor of UMBC. Chancellor Kuhn helped to found and plan the University of Maryland campus in Baltimore County and took part in the early administration of the new campus. In 1965, Chancellor Kuhn hired his first full-time employee—the university’s first librarian, John Haskell, Jr. Haskell was only 24 at the time, coming to work straight out of graduate school and a few months of active duty in the Army Reserves. He spent many of the early months leading up to UMBC’s opening ordering books, hiring new employees, and creating a catalog ordering system. The campus master plan from that same year also noted the importance of the library:

“The building will be viewed on axis from the main approach drive, appearing unquestionably as the major building on campus.”

In its early years, UMBC housed the library collections in different locations throughout the campus. Chancellor Kuhn’s house served as the catalog center for the library’s 20,000 volume collection while other collection materials were held within Academic Building I. As the university’s holdings continued to grow, the UMBC administration began plans for the construction of a specifically designated library building, which would later become known as the Albin O. Kuhn Library and Gallery.

Campus architects designed the library to grow with the university, making plans to build it in three phases. Phase 1, in 1968, brought all of UMBC’s library collections, which had previously been scattered across the campus, together into one central location. The new library Brutalist unfinished concrete exterior contrasted with an interior of brightly colored walls and floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the pond. Baltimore Chapter of the American Institute of Architects recognized the design with their highest honors in 1975.

Phase II opened in 1975 adding the library’s Special Collections department and a select collection of state and federal government documents to the library’s collection and continued the university’s efforts to expand its holdings. Phase III, the Library Tower, opened in 1995, increasing the library’s capacity further to 1,000,000 volumes.

As the library has sought to grow and maintain its holdings, the building has also grown as a student-centered space. This role expanded with the completion of the Retriever Learning Center (RLC) in 2011. Student organizations, like the Student Government Association and the Graduate Student Association, advocated for a central group study space as early as the 1980s. The university administration responded by creating the RLC, a space open to UMBC students for collaborative learning and group study. As described by UMBC President Dr. Freeman Hrabowski in 2011, the RLC is “another example of UMBC’s innovation in teaching and learning.”

University of Maryland, Baltimore County, 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore MD 21250

Pine Street Station, the handsome, slate-roofed High Victorian Gothic building was built between 1877 and 1878 and designed by architect Francis E. Davis. The red brick structure, which is trimmed with painted bluestone lintels and adorned with ornate pressed metal roof finials and hip ridges, served as a court and jail for the area west of Lexington Market from 1878 to 1951. Originally built to protect the area's growing number of banks and police the often raucous blocks of theaters and taverns around Lexington Market, the station underwent a major transformation in the mid-twentieth century.

In 1952, the station became Baltimore's Bureau of Aid and Prevention and was officially renamed "Pine Street Station," a name that city residents had already used for years. During its tenure as the Bureau of Aid and Prevention (BAP), the increasingly run-down brick building served as a refuge for homeless women and orphan children and housed a police boys club. Though Pine Street made a safe haven for the city's disenfranchised while operating as the BAP and, according to an article in the Afro-American, the cells were tidied up and painted gray and peach to better suit its new residents, the Baltimore Sun later criticized the station for its practice of locking young people up with hardened female criminals and for a staff that did not have adequate training to work with children.

Though all manner of prisoners landed in Pine Street over the years, the tumult of civil rights activism in the 1950s and 1960s brought a new sort of inmate to the station: local female college students. Continuing its tradition of serving as a women's jail, city police often brought young women from Morgan State, Goucher College, and Johns Hopkins University to Pine Street after mass arrests during the 1950s and 60s civil rights demonstrations in Baltimore. Pine Street Station shut its doors in 1971 and sat vacant for twenty years while a planned extension of I-70 threatened the structure with demolition. Local preservation groups saved the building thanks to efforts that halted the highway at Leakin Park just outside of the city. In 1991, the University of Maryland acquired the building from Baltimore City and it currently houses the university's security department.

This story was created in partnership with the University of Maryland Baltimore County, Department of History, Public History Track.

214 N. Pine Street, Baltimore, MD 21201

In 1819, wealthy French merchant Louis Pascault, the Marquis de Poleon, constructed a row of eight houses on Lexington Street that now remain as the one of the earliest examples of the Baltimore rowhouse. Born in France, Pascault later moved to the French colony of Saint-Domingue (now known as Haiti). By the late 1780s, nearly 500,000 enslaved Africans labored at plantations on the island producing nearly half of the world's sugar and more than half of the world's coffee. In 1791, free blacks and enslaved people rose in revolt and Pascault joined thousands of white refugees fleeing the island for cities in the United States.

Pascault settled at Chatsworth, a large country mansion on Saratoga Street between Pine and Green, and profited from the quickly growing city's booming trade. After the city expanded in 1816, Pascault, together with carpenter and master builder Rezin Wight and merchant William Lorman, commissioned William F. Small to design this elegant row of Federal style houses adjacent to his estate. The dwellings soon attracted a host of wealthy residents, earning the row the distinction of being highlighted in an 1833 guidebook to Baltimore - the only row noted on the map.

The row soon became home to some of Baltimore's wealthiest families and remained a prestigious address for decades. Columbus O'Donnell, who was president of Baltimore's Gas and Light Company in the mid-nineteenth century and a director of the B & O Railroad (1839-1847) lived here with his wife, Eleanor, who was Louis Pascault's daughter. O'Donnell's mother, Sarah Chew Elliott O'Donnell, whose portrait hangs in Washington's National Gallery, lived in this row during the early 1820s. Her husband and Columbus' father, was John O'Donnell, a wealthy merchant and politician who had a momentous impact on Baltimore's international trade, particularly with China and Asia as a whole, and the man for whom Baltimore's O'Donnell Square is named.

By the 1970s, the iconic homes fell into disrepair. Using funds procured under the College Housing Loan Program, the University of Maryland, Baltimore, purchased the row in 1978 and renovated the historic buildings, transforming them into offices and student housing.

651 W. Lexington Street, Baltimore, MD 21201

Opened in 1786 by Baltimore's First Presbyterian Church, the Westminster Burying Ground is the resting place for many of early Baltimore's most notable citizens, including merchants, mayors, and fifteen generals from the Revolutionary War and War of 1812. In 1852, the church that also occupies the property was built on brick piers over some of the tombs, creating what is called the "Baltimore Catacombs."

Although notables such as Sam Smith and James McHenry are buried here (bitter rivals in life, fate brought them cheek to jowl in the graveyard), the most famous eternal resident is Edgar Allan Poe. When he died in 1849, Poe was originally buried in an unmarked grave next to that of his grandfather in the back of Westminster. In 1875, Poe's body was moved to the front of the graveyard with a dedication ceremony that included the American poet Walt Whitman. Adding to the mystery that surrounds Poe and his death, Baltimore lore has it that the re-internment in 1875 got the wrong poor soul into the new grave (probably not true) and that the current monument has Poe's birth date wrong (true).

The church and graveyard are now in the care of the Westminster Preservation Trust, a private, non-profit organization established in 1977. In the early 1980s, the Trust restored the graveyard as well as the former church building, and the church is now available to rent.

519 W. Fayette Street, Baltimore, MD 21201