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Maryland Historical Society
Library of Maryland History
201 W. Monument Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
Phone: 410-685-3750
Fax: 410-385-2105
E-mail: library @mdhs.org
Buy the Book
Maryland
History In Prints: 1752-1900
by Laura Rice |
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House of Refuge Baltimore
From First Annual Report of the Managers of the House of Refuge,
frontis
1852
Lithograph, printed with gray and orange tints
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As Maryland's population grew, so did its social problems. Juvenile
delinquency was especially disturbing to a society attempting to build
on the ideals of the Christian virtue and a strong work ethic. Unruly
or indigent children, some as young as five years old, were removed from
the streets and placed in jail, alongside older, hardened criminals.
Recognizing the problems inherent in this situation, prominent citizens
supported the creation of homes specifically geared toward the care, reformation,
and education of youngsters, especially boys. Molding boys from disadvantaged
circumstances into good citizens required that they be removed from their
immediate surroundings and, perhaps more importantly, from the influence
of those around them. This imposing structure, located on Frederick
Road west of Gwynns Falls, was built in 1851 to meet that need.
In spite of its founders' good intentions, however, the institution
was sharply criticized in 1877 by a state employee: "There is probably
no institution in the state so faulty in construction and so illy adapted
to the purposes for which it is used. The prison-like wall which
surrounds it and the jail-like appearance of the building are far from
being in accordance with the enlightened idea of a reformatory institution
in the nineteenth century.Cold and cheerless brick floors, dungeon-like
cells on gloomy corridors, are not.considered the best means of transforming
wayward youth into useful citizens."
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