Maryland Institute College of Art

of Maryland incorporated the institute in 1826, and starting in November of that year (Tuesday, November 7, 1826), exhibitions of articles of American manufacture were held in the "Concert Hall" on South Charles Street. A course of lectures on subjects connected with the mechanic arts was inaugurated, and a library of works on mechanics and the sciences was begun.
The school operated for a decade at "The Athenaeum" (the first of two structures to bear that name, a landmark for educational, social, cultural, civic and political affairs) at the southwest corner of East Lexington and St. Paul Streets facing the second Baltimore City/County Courthouse between North Calvert and St. Paul Streets. This first Athenaeum was destroyed by fire on February 7, 1835, along with all of its property and records. The fire was caused by a bank riot due to the financial panic following the collapse of several Baltimore banks.
In November 1847, Benjamin S. Benson and sixty-nine others (including many of the original founders of …