Baltimore City College

Baltimore City College
Site Information
Address	3320 The Alameda
Geo-reference	39°19′33″N 76°35′49″W
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Owner	Mayor & City Council of Baltimore
Building Data
Building Type	Educational
Design
Architecture Firm	Buckler & Fenhagen
Construction
Completed	1928
Renovation
Date	1978
Architect	Leon Bridges
National Register of Historic Places
ID Number	3000573

What’s now known as Baltimore City College is the third oldest public high school in the United States, founded in 1839. During the nineteenth century, however, the school relocated multiple times between downtown locations. The “Castle on the Hill,” recognizable today in northeastern Baltimore as a Gothic stone and limestone structure with a 150-foot tower warding over 34 acres of land, wasn't built until 1928. The architects were Riggin T. Buckler and George Corner Fenhagen. After winning a competition in 1924, Buckler & Fenhagen designed the building with stained glass, arched windows, cornices, cloisters, and gargoyles (two of which are in the shape of the architects themselves). The same firm, which would evolve into the firm Ayers Saint Gross, also designed the marble Green Mount Cemetery - Mausoleum, Shriver Hall at Johns Hopkins University, and many public schools throughout the state. Originally an all-boys and all-white school, Baltimore City College began admitting African American boys after the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision in 1954. The school didn’t begin admitting girls until 1978, when it underwent a massive restoration project, including a beige brick gymnasium, which was designed by Leon Bridges, who was the first registered African American architect in the state. In 2003, the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places, leading to a successful effort to keep cellular telephone transmitters from being erected on the building’s tower. In 2007, it was added to the Baltimore City Landmark List.