HISTORICAL SOCIETY STORY TRAILS • OF BALTIMORE COUNTY • 9811 Van Buren Lane • Cockeysville, MD 21030 ISSN 0889-6186 Editors: JOHN W. McGRAIN and WILLIAM HOLLIFIELD VOL. 38 WINTER 2005-2006 Numbers 1 & 2

Baltimore County's House of Refuge By John McGrain

— Enoch Pratt Free Library, Cator Collection Lithograph by A. Hoen & Company from House of Refuge first annual report, 1852

The House of Refuge was founded by citizens of Baltimore make. The city appropriated $10,000 and got another $10,000 in 1849 as a privately operated reformatory and was by selling the first piece of property called "Bower's Lot." apparently a pretty grim place in spite of its good intentions. A corporate charter was passed by the General Assembly on There had been efforts to establish such a place from about March 7, 1850. A history of the project which appeared in a 1814, and in 1830, a number of citizens, including John H. B. later annual report stated that in 1850 "after selecting their Latrobe, were incorporated with powers to start a school "for architectural plan . . . Mr. George A. Davis was appointed juvenile delinquents" and provide instruction "in such building superintendent." Davis was listed as a carpenter at 317 branches of useful knowledge as may be suitable to their years West Lombard Street in at least two city directories. The ind experience." The school managers could also "bind out building committee visited other houses of refuge in New said minors as apprentices." The incorporators even acquired a York and Massachusetts. The Sun of May 7, 1850, reported building site, but no funds were available for construction until the return of the committee from "the northern cities" with "a 1849 when George Brown, principal of Alex. Brown & Son, full collection of information as to plans, organization and offered to match whatever contribution the city and state would discipline." PAGE 2 HISTORY TRAILS OF BALTIMORE COUNTY WINTER 2005-2006

Henry V. D. Johns, Chairman of the site selection commit- due time, detailed specifications and estimates to tee, advertised in the Sun of May 27, 1850, that the managers guide in the construction. An approximate estimate of wanted to buy a place within three miles of the city courthouse. cost should accompany every plan. The Sun of June 21, 1850, reported that the board of trustees The Plans, etc., should be transmitted to Dr. John J. had received a number of offers and they were investigating the Graves, City Hall, Baltimore, before the 31st day of title of a tract owned by the Union Bank of Maryland about August. Those that may not be accepted will be three miles from the city near the junction of the Frederick road carefully returned, free of expense, to the authors. and Gwynns Falls. The purchase was probably finalized during July because the Republican & Argus of August 3, 1850, called Further information if desired, can be had on attention to a paid advertisement for architects to design a application by letter or otherwise, to either of the building for that site. The paper reported: undersigned. The tract contains 55 acres and is situated on Gwynns WILLIAM BAKER Falls, with an entrance from the Frederick Turnpike. The JOHN J. GRAVES Building Committee. location is among the most commanding, overlooking the J. H. ALEXANDER, city with a view of the river and bay as far as the eye can carry the sight. It has the recommendation of great health- The Republican & Argus of October 4, 1850, reported that fulness; and through its northern limits there runs a fine some 21 plans had been received and a committee was at work stream, which from the guage [sic] of a competent engi- selecting the winner. The contract for raising the stone and neer, is capable of affording by means of a dam an ample building a wall had been given to Captain James Muller [sic] supply of water to the establishment for all the purposes of "who will immediately enter upon its fulfillment." The same bathing, washing, &c. There are also on the premises fine newspaper reported on October 29, 1850, that the board had quarries of granite, not only sufficient for the erection of selected the plan submitted by Charles F. Anderson, Esq., of the building, but to yield a handsome income from them New York. The Sun also reported Anderson as the winner on until after the Board shall have ceased using them. October 30. They also determined to find a building superin- tendent at a salary of $1000. The Sun of December 20, 1850, In 1850 the trustees acquired 55 acres of the tract "Georgia" reported that the board had selected George A. Davis, Esq., as from the Union Bank. With the land in hand, the building com- superintendent of constructing the building "on the first ballot."• mittee was able to solicit bids for architectural designs "We understand there were twenty one applicants. We can only August 3, 1850): (Baltimore Republican & Argus, add that they have a most competent and energetic superintend- To Architects ent. Mr. Davis is at present a member of the second branch of the city council." The managers of the House of Refuge for Juvenile Delinquents in Baltimore, about to erect the Building, invite the exhibition of plans and drawings for that purpose. The site of the Building is upon an eminence about 120 feet above Gwynn's Falls, and it will he visible for a great distance on any of the approaches to the city from the E. and S. E. It will be placed in an enclo- sure of not less than five acres, surrounded by a lofty wall; but from the character of the ground, the princi- pal floor of the building will not be masked. The plan of the Building (of brick or stone) should be calculated to accommodate 400 inmates (of whom one-fourth will be females) when completed and to —Maryland State Archives allow of being opened at first for the reception of 200 inmates. The arrangements for the two sexes will, of House of Refuge, main facade, Baltimore County. course, be entirely separate, and it is desired to make Tabulated expenses in the report for the year ending provision also for separating either sex into two December 31, 1851, included $1,218.74 for the cost of an distinct classes. architect and for placing advertisements—nowhere in the man- FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS will be paid to the agers' report was the architect named. However, Pamela L Author of the Plan which shall be adopted by the Scott of the Society of Architectural Historians has identified' Managers; and the Architect of such plan, in case he Charles Frederick Anderson as an architect who entered a com- should not be engaged to superintend its execution, petition to design the Baltimore institution and showed that he will be expected to furnish without further charge in submitted plans for several prisons, including the District of PAGE 3 HISTORY TRAILS OF BALTIMORE COUNTY WINTER 2005-2006

DAVIS, Building Superintendent, who will be found at the Room of the Managers, at the City Hall, every day between the hours of 4 and 6 P. M. Proposals endorsed with the name of the work bid for, and directed to the undersigned, to be left at his office at the City Hall. JOHN J. GRAVES, Sec'y.

The Sun of May 23, 1851, reported a visit to the grounds of the institution and reported that a side stream was being dammed to provide drinking water. It quoted a visitor from Boston who had seen the wooded setting, and continued: The buildings have not yet been commenced, but the spot for them is located, and proposals are now out for the erec- tion of so much of them as can be completed this year. They will be erected under the immediate supervision of Mr. George A. Davis, the General Superintendent. The main building, which will directly front the gateway, will be 45 by 108 feet in size, with two wings, each 225 feet long. The general plan adopted was that which was consid- ered to be the most suitable in all respects. It will be sur- rounded by a stone wall 18 feet high, which will enclose about six and a half acres. This wall is now in progress of House of Refuge from book The Great South by Edward King and being built by Mr. Jas. Mullen. The front gateway will be James Wells Champney, 1875. about seventy feet in width. It was a lucky circumstance that immediately on the grounds there have been found Columbia Jail and the Penitentiary and Workhouse on excellent quarries of stones, and banks of sand, ready to Blackwell's Island in New York's East River. Anderson lived the hands of the workmen. from ca. 1802 to 1869, practicing in both New York and Washington. None of the familiar Baltimore architects or firms The Sun of June 24, 1851, reported: entered the House of Refuge or Blackwell's Island competi- House of Refuge. – The work upon the grounds of the tions—at least they are not in the list provided by Ms. Scott. House of Refuge is progressing as rapidly as circum- The local papers did not mention the unsuccessful bidders. stances will admit. George A. Davis, Esq., the general Anderson was listed in Architects in Private Practice New superintendent, has fixed his office permanently on the York City—I840-1900, as having offices in Manhattan and spot, and arrangements are making to go with as much of Brooklyn from 1850 to1868. He was also listed as author of the main building as can be completed this season. In the American Villa Architecture, published in 1860. A photograph mean time, Capt. Mullen is going ahead with the wall, of his New York workhouse was found on a web site about which is to enclose the building. The Board of Trustees Blackwell's Island, which has also been called Welfare Island have just given out the first contracts for the building; and Roosevelt Island. The workhouse had a collegiate appear- Capt, Mullen has the excavation; Messrs. Timanus & ance with wings and pavilions, somewhat like the Baltimore Stevenson the Masonry, and Messrs. Sumwalt & Green the County project. Granite work. An advertisement soliciting bids appeared in the Sun of May 15, 1851: The location of the House of Refuge was the west bank of HOUSE OF REFUGE Gwynns Falls, just upstream of Frederick Road and the Three Mills, downstream of Western Cemetery, and adjoining Mount To BUILDERS AND CONTRACTORS. Olivet Cemetery. Not too far away was the parallel branch of SEALED PROPOSALS will be received until SAT- Gwynns Falls, Gwynns Run, where many of the breweries and URDAY, the 24th of May, instant, for the MASONRY, slaughterhouses had clustered outside the city limits, along GRANITE WORK, BRICKWORK and MATERI- with the plague-infested Calverton Alms House. The large ALS required for the erection of so much of the reformatory property and its buildings were shown on the 1852 Buildings of the House of Refuge as it has been edition of Poppleton's plan for the city streets of Baltimore. decided to proceed with. The House of Refuge was at the very top center of the row of vignettes on the map and its caption listed the date of the cor- Persons disposed to bid can receive all necessary nerstone laying and gave the principal officers as George information on application to Mr. GEORGE A. PAGE 4 HISTORY TRAILS OF BALTIMORE COUNTY WINTER 2005-2006

Brown, president; William Baker, treasurer; and J. J. Graves, cordial—all our dispensations speak that spirit and signify a secretary. The footprint of the buildings was shown on James present care for our wards, and a happy future for their Slade's water supply map of 1853, the various wings of the improved natures." institution fanning out at 45-degree angles. The Baltimore Republican & Argus noted with glee that The 1873 city map by William Sides also showed the angled soon it would be possible to say that "young scamps (and wings. Four years later, the 1st Election District Map in G. M. scampesses)" were being sent to the House of Refuge. The Sun Hopkins' 1877 Atlas of Baltimore County, Maryland, showed noted that it had previously described the building plans at the same institution. The suburban Volume II of the G. M. length. The architect of the edifice was not named in the Hopkins atlas showed five small buildings at the House of cornerstone story. The Sun concluded with, "Thus was laid the Refuge. That more detailed map showed the main structure as cornerstone of the 'Baltimore House of Refuge' which in time four large blocks laid out in a cruciform pattern, linked by to come shall be regarded as the noblest monument of the narrow corridors. The largest adjoining property was Johns `Monumental City.— Hopkins Colored Orphanage, which was proposed to stand The Sun of September 30, 1854, reported rapid progress in between the House of Refuge and Mount Olivet Cemetery. The building "this noble edifice, standing as it does a monument of 1914 topographic map of the city, probably more accurate than liberality and practical benevolence." The State had still not earlier charts, also showed the footprint of a very wide building subscribed "one cent" towards the effort. Construction was with small end wings, no angled appendages—and there was being supervised by George A. Davis, Esq. "Imagine a noble no orphan asylum bordering on the south. The 1914 map looking edifice of pale blue stone, from four to five stories showed that the Baltimore & Potomac Railroad had cut through high, and with a commanding front, and a hundred little the property on the northwest and the Western Maryland windows of tasteful sash work, a bold cornice, large projecting Railroad's route to Port Covington had come between the build- wings, and in length just about equal to the square formed by ing and its frontage on the Falls. The 1914 Sanborn insurance South and Calvert streets, and you will then have a feint [sic] idea of what has been done in the way of a home for the wretched youth of our city." The Sun called Davis "one of the best practical men of the day" and stated that "he is discharging his duty to the satisfaction of all concerned." Completion was expected in May of 1855 providing space for 350 inmates. "Great regard has been paid to its proper lighting and ventilation throughout, whilst an abundant supply of water has been introduced by means of the best constructed plumbing. The system of drainage is also of an admirable character, whilst the interior arrangements are certainly superior, in —New York State Department of Corrections many respects, to any similar institu- Workhouse at Blackwell's Island, by the same architect as the reformatory in Baltimore County. tion. The whole cost of the ground, water rain, stone wall, and building will atlas also showed a cruciform building, no radial wings. not exceed $135,000." The Sun reported on the cornerstone laying ceremony with An undated clipping in the Maryland Historical Society's three full columns of text. The most notable guests were the files gave the total cost as $150,000, with George A. Davis the Chief Justice of the United States Roger Brooke Taney and superintendent of construction all the way. The Sun of March Governor Enoch Louis Lowe. The ceremonies included 15, 1855, reported that Hayward, Bartlett & Company had prayers, hymns, and orations. The governor concluded his brief installed an iron stairway and woven iron railing in the T remarks with, "In the name of the good citizens of Baltimore Building. Most roofing had been completed and the interior and of the State of Maryland, (and I fervently, sincerely and had been plastered and a gate lodge constructed. The paper confidently hope that it will receive the encouraging bounty of quoted the 1854 annual report, the State,) on behalf of the young of the city of Baltimore and The whole ground floor has been paved with the best sand the State at large, I dedicate this building." The principal brick and rubbed down to a smooth surface. A brick speaker, Charles F. Mayer, noted, "Stern as may be the walls pavement has also been laid all around the exterior of the that are to grow to their frowning stature upon this hill, they buildings, both as a walk and also to prevent water from will shut in no harsh or penal area. Our restraints do not soaking into the foundations; and as an additional punish. We are the guardians, the friendly instructors, of these security against dampness, all the outer walls of the captives to our sympathy. Our monarchy, though absolute, is PAGE 5 HISTORY TRAILS OF BALTIMORE COUNTY WINTER 2005-2006

—Baltimore County Public Library House of Refuge cells photographed by Baltimore American, ca. 1909.

buildings have been plastered with a coat of hydraulic room contained a 21 horsepower Worthington pump that forced cement from the bottom of the foundations to the surface 300 gallons of water per hour. There were highly modern of the ground. The carpenter's work of the easterly T cooking devices, six 45-gallon iron boilers in the kitchen for building and corridor will be entirely completed during the cooking by steam, all equipped with safety valves. There was month of January next, and that of the westerly T building also an ice house with several outer walls packed with saw-dust and corridor during the month of February; the carpenter's for insulation "for the preservation of meats and other foods of work of the main central building is likewise well a perishable nature during the summer season." The water was advanced and could be completed early in the spring. to come from an artesian well still being excavated—which Still quoting the annual report, the Sun continued, would have spared the residents from drinking Gwynns Falls water contaminated upstream at Powhatan Factory and The plumbing and water pipes are nearly completed; one Wetheredsville. Fortunately, the effluent from the disease- large receiving cistern for a supply of water was erected ridden Alms House drained into Rutter's Run or Gwynn's Run last fall, and another is proposed to be built during the and bypassed the refuge before it reached the main Gwynns coming spring. Falls. The newspaper noted that all the projected construction goals Sleeping accommodations were described in the same article: had been met and some temporary financial problems had been The southern wing contains dormitory accommodations solved. for the girls, and that of the north for the boys, each By November 19, 1855, the Sun was able to report the com- apartment being three times as wide as the usual width of pletion of the institution, the largest of its kind in the United prison cells. They measure each 6i feet wide, 91 feet high, States. The slope leading to the two porters' lodges had been and 9 feet long and each can easily accommodate two planted in sod. Inside, there were furnished parlors and china occupants. These apartments are arched, finished in the closets. The chapel had a central partition to screen the females best quality of cement, well ventilated, fire-proof and from the males. There were six cisterns on the roof fed by provided with iron bedsteads and are 252 in number. steam pumps, providing 10,000 gallons of water. The boiler PAGE 6 HISTORY TRAILS OF BALTIMORE COUNTY WINTER 2005-2006

turned them over to the tender mercies of those who recognize no such word in their vocabulary. For years this asylum was tolerably well supplied with inmates, but the establishment of the "Boys Home," and kindred institu- tions has materially retarded the growth of these embryotic felons and it is to be hoped that the rapid enlargement in the future of their sphere of usefulness will leave the House of Refuge without occupants. Other sources state that a separate facility for females was opened on December 5, 1861. J. Thomas Scharf's 1881 History of Baltimore City and County stated that 3,008 inmates had been enrolled at the House of Refuge in the preceding quarter century. Writing a century after Scharf, Sherry L. Olson, in Baltimore: The Building of an American City summed up the dream versus the reality: A joint effort of the city and George Brown was the House of Refuge for delinquent youth, the prize example of a mechanism of social engineering. Brown subsequently left the largest fortune thus far probated in the state of Maryland: it paid for the building of Brown Memorial Church in Bolton Hill. His role was characteristic of a new form of personal philanthropy, very different from the days of his grandfather, Alexander Brown. Instead of a circle of A 6. the wealthy getting together to back a public effort for the —Baltimore County Public Library common good, one sees the single individual who applied House of Refuge fire escape, date unknown. his personal wealth, whim, organizing skill, and his own Nor was sanitation neglected: theory of society. A fifty-five-acre site was chosen on Frederick Road beyond Gwynns Falls. At the laying of the The bathing rooms in the basement of both wings, large cornerstone the speeches associated crime with foreigners. basin for swimming, water fixtures, and plumber's work "The cities of the old world, it is well known, are casting generally are not equaled by any building. upon our shores, to a terribly forceful extent, the vilest and The Sun of December 6, 1855, reported that the building was most reckless, and desperate of the population that swarm finished and the first inmate had been admitted the day before. in their deepest and darkest purlieus." Brown blamed Twenty more youths were enrolled in the next six weeks. foreigners for "rendering the night hideous in parts of our Gobright's Baltimore Guide Book of 1858 quoted from the own cities" and for the "horrible multiplication of superintendent's annual report, "The work done in the female robberies, and drunkenness and murders." Social ills and department comprised the manufacture of 84 dresses; altering dependency he attributed to individual weakness, and the and repairing, 37; sacks, 8; chemise, 38; skirts, 15; aprons, 17; cure was an individual moral battle, in which the House of bonnets, 2; towels, 37; quilts, 4; comforts, 25; shoes bound, 52; Refuge would play a role. "Its object is to save, not to pairs stockings knit, 43; garments repaired, 77; pillow cases , punish . . . It aims directly at the intellectual and moral 28, handkerchiefs hemmed, 84, all for the girls; and for the culture of the poor, friendless and vicious children . . . boys—shirts made, 695; do. repaired, 579; sacks, 34; aprons, growing up . . . to be pests and curses upon communities 41; handkerchiefs, 153; coverlets, 22; bed spreads, 38; pillow and the body politic." The refuge was promptly filled to cases, 72; bolsters, 4, and towels, 261. Besides the above, there capacity. Statistics were compiled to show that indeed, of were washed 49,679 pieces." 350 inmates, white and between ten and sixteen years old, Gobright also stated, "The report of the superintendent also 60 percent had foreign-born parents. Most had lost one speaks of the necessity of separating the sexes." Many of the parent or both, and three-quarters were described as boys were indentured to farmers and craftsmen. All the girls "offspring of intemperance." were to learn "housewifery." The 1873 booster book, The Monumental City, stated: Dr. Olson's sources for that vigorous paragraph were a pamphlet describing the cornerstone ceremonies and George' This is the House of Refuge for the reformation of boys, Brown's, "Memorial to the State Legislature," of February 5, who, like Topsy, "never had no mother, but growed," or whose parents after a series of years of unsuccessful 1852. The State had not contributed to the construction of the training have pronounced them incorrigible, and have complex but later joined in supporting its operating expenses. PAGE 7 HISTORY TRAILS OF BALTIMORE COUNTY WINTER 2005-2006

It might be noted that George Brown resided on the vast in accord with the enlightened idea of a reformatory insti- Liberty Road estate of Mondawmin, site of the present tution in the nineteenth century . . Cold and cheerless shopping center and community college. His son resided on the brick floors, dungeon-like cells in gloomy corridors, are Brooklandwood estate, the present site of Saint Paul's School not considered the best means of transforming wayward on Falls Road. youth into useful citizens. The first annual report showed that the first wave of The same report also mentioned that "a very large majority construction consisted of only the main building and one wing. of the boys are confined in isolated, gloomy cells, locked in and The main block was 94 by 144 feet, four stories, including a in the event of a fire escape would be almost impossible." chapel 44 by 78 feet. The wing was 195 feet "with a basement George E. Tack, writing in the Maryland Monthly Magazine story and three tiers of dormitories, school room, hospital, in August 1907 described "The Romantic Gwynns' Falls": work rooms, &c." The building was of stone, and fireproof. The outer wall was 16 feet high and enclosed six acres. The From this place we will follow the Western Maryland, or report included a "Description of the Buildings" and stated that Wabash track, which runs alongside the Gwynn's Falls the finished result was "wholly devoid of any thing gloomy or under the old Frederick Road, to the House of Refuge. prison-like in its character." The description gave the intended Here are placed for certain periods of time the wayward width of the building as 446 feet 8 inches. boys who refuse to heed their fond parents. Yet from this Photographs show a distant view of the institution, perched place have come forth not a few young men who have on a hill, looking like any small American college of its day. become a credit to their city and state. The buildings and Another photograph shows that there was a conservatory and walls are built of gray rocks taken from the hills hereabout; greenhouse and beautifully laid out white gravel paths. Yet and the high walls sometimes keep the boys within their another up-close photo shows that the windows were barred. A confines. Many have been the escapes and captures of the photo from the News American files taken in 1909 shows that inmates from time to time, although of late years such the interior of at least one wing of the collegiate building was a affairs are of rare occurrence. hollow space lined with at least three tiers of cells and catwalks. The school grounds were taken within the city limits by the An 1877 comment on this Dickensian institution has been annexation of 1888. The Sun of February 15, 1911, published a much quoted: photo of the empty House of Refuge and noted that the There is probably no institution in the State so faulty in property had been acquired for park purposes. The grounds are construction and so illy adapted to the purposes for which now occupied by Baltimore City's Southwestern High School, it is used . . . The prison-like wall, which surrounds it and which like the House of Refuge, shares a boundary with Mount the jail-like appearance of the building are far from being Olivet Cemetery.

—Maryland State Archives House of Refuge lawn and greenhouse, date unknown. PAGE 8 HISTORY TRAILS OF BALTIMORE COUNTY WINTER 2005-2006

By 1905, there had been a decision to relocate farther out in What happened to the House of Refuge and its splendid r the country. The Baltimore County Union of August 12, 1905, architecture? A search of the Sun index between 1911 and 1928 reported, "The trustees of the Baltimore House of Refuge, an yielded very few mentions. For example, there was a industrial school for boys, that lately acquired several hundred suggestion reported on December 8, 1912, to use the place as a acres of land east of Loch Raven for their new location, will reformatory for boys. Then in 1916, both Morgan College and adopt what is known as the "cottage system," which will do Saint Elizabeth's School wanted to acquire the campus, and the away with the one large general building, thus eliminating Park Board refused an offer of $40,000 from Saint Elizabeth's. entirely the prison features. Mr. Joshua Levering is president of The mayor blamed the park commissioners for not seizing the the institution; Mr. Maurice Lubbheimer, secretary, and Mr. J. opportunity, although it would have meant a loss of $35,000 on M. Hendrix, superintendent." The Baltimore County Union of their original purchase. November 18, 1905, reported under "New Home of the House Late in 1918, the Park Board offered free use of the building of Refuge" that the new facility was to consist of cottages to the U. S. Army Quartermaster Corps for storage of records. designed by the architectural firm of Nagle, Cooper & Davis. The "buildings were in fine condition" and provided 50,000 The same newspaper reported in December 1906 under "Our square feet of floor space. The Sun noted that the Park Board Cottage Home" that the new institution was called the had never used the buildings. Captain R. L. Smith of the Maryland Training School and a new barn was under contract. Construction Division of the Quartermaster Department The Baltimore County Union of April 13, 1907, stated that inspected the property in September, but in less than two Mitchell's Mill was pulled down and the stone reused in months the Great War ended. building a barn at the Maryland School for Boys—Mitchell's Local photographer Charles Thomas Duvall in his poetry Mill had burned late in December of 1903. The Sun of June 25, book The Sunshine Trail, published in 1920, showed a view of 1907, reported that Wyatt & Nolting had made plans for two the House of Refuge, identified only as "The Castle on the cottages at the Maryland School for boys. That architectural Hill." In 1921, the "Old House of Refuge Site" was proposed firm had won the 1896 contest to design what is now called the for a new Municipal Hospital, which was ultimately built at Clarence Mitchell Courthouse in downtown Baltimore. Montebello. Did the use of the word "site" mean that the main The Sun reported in the week ending February 7, 1909, building had been demolished? Three years later, when a stable "Plans and specifications for the large administration building at "the Old House of Correction [sic], Font Hill Avenue near and three large cottages to be erected at Loch Raven, Baltimore Frederick Road," was burned, the same paper mentioned that County, for the Maryland School for Boys were completed "adjoining buildings" had been saved. A fairly late map that yesterday by architects Wyatt & Nolting. The proposed showed the unmistakable cruciform footprint of the buildings buildings will cost about $80,000." The old House of Refuge and walled enclosure was issued by the Baltimore Park Board population moved to the new site in 1910, and the youths were in 1926. ("Report of the City Plan Committee to the Park kept busy with dairy farming. Board. Plan C. District Play Grounds [or Athletic Fields]"). The By 1918, the State had become the sole responsible agency aerial photos of the city taken by the Chesapeake Aircraft for the Maryland School for Boys, renamed the Maryland Company between October 19, 1926, and February 24, 1927, Training School for Boys in 1918. At that period, the school seem to show a vacant area when viewed with a magnifying limited its population to white juveniles; those of other races glass. The Sanborn insurance maps showed only park land in were served by two other institutions. the 1928 issue. The Sun in April 1932 presented a long feature article about the school "at Loch Raven" and again noted that it was the successor of the House of Refuge. The School was renamed in honor of the late Baltimore County Sheriff, Charles H. Hickey, Jr., in 1985. An extensive history and critique of the institution was published in the Sun, October 11, 1992. That article described the 1991 decision by the State to contract out for the management of the institution to eliminate unsatisfactory conditions. In 2005, the Governor of Maryland, Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr., decided to close the school altogether. The Charles H. Hickey, Jr., School has been listed as a historic site by Maryland Historical Trust. Also on the grounds is another listed site, the former Piney Grove Methodist Episcopal Church, which was a roofless stone ruin when listed House of Refuge map showing footprint of wings, ca. 1914. many years ago.