Original (1886–2015) The merchant and financier
Enoch Pratt, in a letter to the
Baltimore City Council on January 21, 1882, offered to donate and construct a free public library with several neighborhood branches open to all the citizens of the City of
Baltimore (and its surrounding environs). After some debate and discussion which was also widely reported in the local newspapers, the mayor and council accepted the gift and the terms of its conditions later that year, which were subsequently approved by the citizens in a referendum held during an election that October, 1882. Pratt's donation consisted of $250,000 for land and building for the central library; $50,000 for land and building for four branch libraries; and $833,333 in cash for an endowment whose estimated annual return of $50,000, he anticipated, would finance expenses for management of the library system. Construction of the Central Library began 1882; it opened on January 5, 1886 . The first four branches also opened in 1886. Subsequently, Pratt gave funds for the construction of two more branches; one opened 1888 and the other in 1896. In 1899,
Robert Poole, a Baltimore industrialist, built and gave to the City of Baltimore, a seventh branch located in Hampden. In 1905, steel-maker and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie gave $500,000 for the construction of twenty more branches. Because of closings, relocations, and reallocation of space, the Pratt system now has twenty-two active branches. Designed by
Charles L. Carson, "Old Central" occupied a fraction of the same plot of land as its successor 47 years later, facing West Mulberry Street near the corner of
Cathedral Street. The structure's elaborate
Romanesque Revival architecture became a target of criticism from journalists during final years of existence:
H. L. Mencken of
The Baltimore Sun, a frequent and prolific user of the branch at Calhoun and Hollins Streets, judged it "so infernally hideous that it ought to be pulled down by the common hangman".
Current By the late 1920s, Old Central could no longer hold the library's continually expanding collection, even though an annex had been added at the rear. Baltimore City voters approved a loan for $3 million by an almost 3-to-1 margin on May 3, 1927. The Central Pratt Library's staff, services and 400,000 volumes were relocated to temporary quarters at the old Rouse-Hempstone Building at West Redwood Street and Hopkins Place (now the site of the
Royal Farms Arena for a two-year stay during 1931–1933. At this temporary location, the Central Pratt was able to reorganize and plan for its future arrangements of departments and try out its soon-to-be famous "department store windows" displays The building was completed in January 1933, and opened to the public on February 3, with a record of not one day of suspended service since the original beginnings of "Enoch Pratt's Folly" on January 5, 1886. In Spring of 2016, ground was broken on a $115 million restoration of the historic Central Library. The building remained open to the public. February 11–19, the Central Library closed to the public to relocate departments to the newly renovated upper floors, and to begin renovation of the lower levels. The restoration was completed in Fall of 2019. A Grand Reopening block party drew a crowd of 9,000 people. In 2020, the Senator
Barbara A. Mikulski Room, with mementos and Mikulski's
Presidential Medal of Freedom, was opened in the Central Library.
Maryland Department The Maryland Department, located on the second floor of the 2004 Annex, contains many of the library's prized collections. These include 275,000 mounted documents (mostly newspaper articles), 2100 maps, 6000 pieces of ephemera, and 24,000 photographs, all relevant to
Maryland and
Maryland history. The Maryland Department also has a room full of books pertaining to Maryland, with an emphasis on
Baltimore. Most materials in the Maryland Department are non-circulating but available for patrons to examine. ==Statistics==