Join Mayor Sheila Dixon and the Pratt Library's Director Carla Hayden at this celebration of the 200th anniversary of Enoch Pratt's birth.
Enoch Pratt was born September 10, 1808, in North Middleborough, Massachusetts. He came to Baltimore in 1831 where he began a wholesale hardware business on south Charles Street. Mr. Pratt built his fortune through investments in western Maryland coal mines and iron yards in Baltimore's Canton neighborhood. He was president of the National Farmers' and Planters' Bank of Baltimore.
Enoch Pratt gave much of his time and wealth to various Baltimore cultural and charitable institutions, including the Peabody Institute and the First Unitarian Church. In 1882 he gave a gift to the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore for a Central Library and four branch libraries, plus an endowment of more than $1million, thus creating the "first urban library system" in the country.
Visit your neighborhood library and sign a birthday card for Mr. Pratt. It's your chance to thank Mr. Pratt for his gift and tell him what the Pratt Library means to you!
Opening September 10: Enoch Pratt's Living Legacy, an exhibit of photographs, letters and other memorabilia from the Pratt Library's archives. On display at the Central Library, through January 10, 2009.
Presented in partnership with The First Unitarian Church of Baltimore (firstunitarian.net) and the Maryland Historical Society (mdhs.org).
