Patapsco Female Institute
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Patapsco Female Institute
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Patapsco Female Institute in 1936
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| Location | Ellicott City, Maryland |
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| Built | ca. 1837 |
| Architectural style | Greek Revival |
| NRHP Reference # | 78001467 |
| Added to NRHP | July 31, 1978 |
Patapsco Female Institute (PFI) is a former girls' boarding school, now a partially rebuilt historical site, located on Church Road in Ellicott City, Maryland, United States. The grounds are home to popular outdoor theatrical performances by The Chesapeake Shakespeare Company. In the 1930s the Institute was also known as "Warwick".
The Patapsco Female Institute was chartered in January 1834. It was designed by architect Robert Cary Long, Jr. and built by Charles Timanus, who also built the Court House. It opened on January 1, 1837 as a girls' finishing school; it remained in operation until 1891.
The granite faced school sized for 100 students was built on 12 acres of land in Ellicott's Mills for a cost of $27,000. The hillside building was close to the new B&O railroad terminal and turnpike roads. A waterworks, greenhouse, servant's quarters, and facilities for male teachers were built on the grounds. Classes consisted of Latin, mathematics, music, religion, and philosophy. A Normal school program was instituted with students providing labor to reduce tuition. Profit was gained from boarding fees and textbook sales.
Between 1841 and 1855, the school was operated by Almira Hart Lincoln Phelps. Phelps, a northerner and Union supporter relocated to a slave state, accepted students from both the North and the South in order to encourage friendship between the two sections of the country. In 1864, Phelps' wrote of the "fatal curse" of slavery and a present "obscure, dimmed with the tears which fall from mourner's [sic] eyes throughout the land." During Phelps' tenure, the school expanded from six teachers with forty one students to eight teachers and nine staff with seventy students. In 1852, the State removed funding for the school and a board of directors was established with Judge Thomas Beale Dorsey presiding. In 1856, Robert Archer became manager of the school, serving until 1879. During the Civil War, the 12th New Jersey Infantry Regiment camped near the Institute's grounds in 1862 while guarding the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad against the Confederacy's advance.
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