Baltimore City College: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia

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{{Use mdy dates|date=August 2024}}

{{For|the community college|Baltimore City Community College}}

{{Infobox school

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| zipcode = 21218

| coordinates = {{Coord|39.325663|-76.597338|region:US_type:edu|display=inline,title}}

| type = {{hlist|[[University-preparatory school|College preparatory school]]|[[International Baccalaureate|IB World School]]|[[Public school (government funded)|public]]|[[secondary school]]|[[selective school]]}}

| motto = ''Palmam Qui Meruit Ferat''

| motto_translation = "He who has earned the palm, let him bear it"

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| gender = [[Mixed-sex education|Co-educational]]<br />(Formerly [[Single-sex education|all-male]] from 1839 until 1979)

| enrollment = 1,497 (2022–23)<ref name=NCES/>

| campus_type = [[Urban area|Urban]]<ref name=NCES/>

| campus_size = {{convert|38|acres|km2}}

| colors = [[Black]] and [[Orange (color)|orange]]<br />{{color box|#000000}} {{color box|#FF8C00}}

| conference = [[Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association|MPSSAA]] (3A)

| mascot = [[Black knight]]

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| USNWR_ranking = 460 (2022–23)<ref>{{cite news | date = 2022| title = Baltimore City College | url = https://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/maryland/districts/baltimore-city-public-schools/baltimore-city-college-9008 | work = U.S. News & World Report}}</ref>

| budget = $13.64 &nbsp;million (FY23-24)<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.baltimorecityschools.org/page/budget |title=Budget Snapshot for FY23 and FY24 |publisher=Baltimore City Schools |access-date=November 30, 2023 }}</ref>

| affiliations = [[Advanced Placement]]<br />[[International Baccalaureate]]

| newspaper = ''The Collegian'' (est. 1929)

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}}

'''Baltimore City College''', known colloquially as '''City''', '''City College''', and '''B.C.C.''', is a [[college preparatory school]] with a [[liberal arts]] focus and [[selective school|selective admissions criteria]] located in [[Baltimore]], [[Maryland]].<ref name=schmeidel>{{citation|last=Schmeidel|first=Stacey|title=City Forever|url=https://www.amherst.edu/amherst-story/magazine/issues/2002_summer/city_forever|magazine=Amherst Magazine|date=Summer 2002|access-date=April 7, 2016}}</ref> Opened in October 1839, B.C.C. is the third-oldest active public high school in the [[United States]].<!-- It's the third oldest "active", not "continuous" --><ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.baltimoresun.com/community/guide/bal-rg-learnoverview,0,5643451.story?coll=bal-relocation-features |title=Contrasting studies |access-date=July 29, 2007 |last=Anft |first=Michael |work=The Baltimore Sun |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050909092919/http://www.baltimoresun.com/community/guide/bal-rg-learnoverview%2C0%2C5643451.story?coll=bal-relocation-features |archive-date=September 9, 2005 |url-status=dead }}</ref><!-- <ref name=mdhs/> --> City College is a [[Magnet school|public exam]] school and an [[International Baccalaureate]] World School at which students in the ninth and tenth grades participate in the [[IB Middle Years Programme]] while students in the eleventh and twelfth grades participate in the [[IB Diploma Programme]].<!-- <ref name=schmeidel/> --><ref name=bccmission>{{citation|title=Mission Statement|url=http://baltimorecitycollege.us/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=270306&type=d|publisher=Baltimore City College|access-date=April 7, 2016|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160126061011/http://baltimorecitycollege.us/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=270306&type=d|archive-date=January 26, 2016}}</ref>

The school is situated on a {{convert|38|acre|km2}} hilltop campus located in the [[Coldstream-Homestead-Montebello, Baltimore|Coldstream-Homestead-Montebello]] neighborhood in [[Baltimore#Northeast Baltimore|Northeast Baltimore]].<!-- <ref name=bcclibs/> --><ref name="Leonhart 1939, p. 120">Leonhart (1939), p. 120.</ref> The main campus building, a designated [[National Historic Landmark]], is constructed of granite and limestone in a [[Gothic Revival architecture|Collegiate Gothic]] architectural style and features a {{convert|200-|foot|m|adj=mid|-tall}} Gothic tower.<ref name=bcclibs>{{citation|title=About the school|url=http://www.citycollegelibrary.org/about|website=The BCC Library Campaign|access-date=April 7, 2016}}{{dead link|date=March 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref><ref name=mdhs>{{citation|title=Baltimore City College Photograph Collection, PP278|url=http://www.mdhs.org/findingaid/baltimore-city-college-photograph-collection-pp278|date=November 2013|publisher=Maryland Historical Society}}</ref>

==History==

{{Main|History of Baltimore City College}}

[[File:City College2.jpg|thumb|An 1869 print of Central High School of Baltimore, (later renamed Baltimore City College); the old "Assembly- Rooms" building of the old Baltimore Dancing Assembly was built in 1797 and its third floor was added in 1835 on northeast corner of Holliday and East Fayette Streets. It was occupied from 1843 to 1873.]]

[[File:Baltimore City College (drawing circa 1874).jpg|thumb|Rendering of theThe Baltimore City College's first building (of two) on this site at North Howard Street alongside West Centre Street. Completed in February 1875, it was designed by the new [[Baltimore City Hall]] municipal architect, [[George A. Frederick]], and collapsed in August 1892 during construction of the Howard Street Tunnel skirting on the westside and bypassing the longtime bottleneck of street-level rail cars and steam-powwred locomotives chugging in congested waterfront [[Downtown Baltimore]] by the [[Baltimore and Ohio Railroad]].]]

In response to increasing public pressure due to the changing needs of [[Baltimore]]'s trade and commercial classes, political leaders introduced legislation authorizing establishing a high school. After a long spirited public controversy and debate over the values of higher public education beyond the grammar (elementary) school level / modern eighth grade. The resolution establishing the new school was finally unanimously passed by the [[Baltimore City Council]] on March 7, 1839, and was signed into law by then Mayor [[Shepard C. Leakin]].<ref>Steiner (1894), p. 207.</ref> "The High School" opened with 46 pupils under the direction of Professor [[Nathan C. Brooks]],(1809–1898), a locally-noted classical educator and poet, who also served as the first principal, the first head of school of a new type of higher institution in Baltimore's developing public education system since it's establishment in 1829, a decade before. "The High School" opened on October 20, 1839, and was initially housed in a rented building on Courtland Street (present-day [[St. Paul Street (Baltimore)|Saint Paul Street/Place]]) "under the direction of Professor [[Nathan C. Brooks]] (1809–1898), a locally renowned Classics scholar.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.baltimorecitycollege.us/history|title = History}}</ref> The school was housed at three different locations in its first three years of existence before returning to its original building on Courtland Street. The City Council in 1843 allocated $23,000 ({{inflation|US-GDP|23000|1843|fmt=eq}}){{inflation/fn|US-GDP}} to acquire the nearby Assembly Rooms building at the northeast corner of East Fayette and Holliday Streets for the new school. The City Council in 1850 granted the Board of School Commissioners the right to confer graduates of the then-decade old high school with certificates of graduation, and the following year of 1851 in the old famous [[Front Street Theatre]], along the east bank of the [[Jones Falls]] stream (between East Fayette and Lexington Streets) in the colonial era [[Jonestown, Baltimore|Jonestown]] / [[Old Town, Baltimore|Old Town]] neighborhoods east of downtown, the school held its first [[Graduation|commencement]] ceremony under the name of the "Central High School of Baltimore" with(replacing well-knownthe influentialformer civicunofficial citizentitle andof lawyerthe [[SevernMale TeackleHigh Wallis]]School (1816–1894), as its first commencement speaker.<ref>Steiner (1894), p. 209.</ref>

– used following the 1844 founding of twin all-female secondary schools of the Eastern and Western Female High Schools sited in opposite sides of the city). The reorganized Central High had its first ceremonies with well-known influential civic citizen, orator and lawyer [[Severn Teackle Wallis]] (1816–1894), as its first commencement speaker.<ref>Steiner (1894), p. 209.</ref>

In the wake of an 1865 recommendation from the [[Baltimore City Public Schools]] Board of School Commissioners, the newly renamed and elevated the Central High School of Baltimore to become The Baltimore City College and to began offering a five-year academic track,<ref name="37th Report">{{cite book | last = Board of Commissioners of Public Schools | title =37th Annual Report of the Board of Commissioners of Public Schools to the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore | publisher = James Young | year = 1866 | location = Baltimore | pages = 105–106 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=BSwTAAAAIAAJ&q=%22Central+High+School%22+report+1866&pg=PA29 | access-date=August 6, 2007}}</ref> in an effort to elevate the school to the status of a baccalaureate degree-conferring college. On October 9, 1866, the cityCity councilCouncil accepted the School Board request and renamed the high school officially as "The Baltimore City College". The councilCouncil however failed to take any further action and B.C.C.especially wasto neverrecommend grantedto the powerstate tolegislature conferof Bachelorthe [[Maryland General Assembly|General Assembly of ArtsMaryland]] degrees.<ref>Steinerwho possessed the ultimate authority in that 19th century period (1894),before p.the establishment of later regional academic accrediting agencies 218.</ref> Inassociations 1873,and athe firemodern spreadgovernmental fromstructure of the [[HollidayMaryland StreetDepartment Theaterof Education]] to(1865) plus the Assembly[[United RoomsStates forcingDepartment theof cityEducation]] council(1954/1980). toAnd allocateso resourcesthe tonew buildB.C.C. awith newits schoollonger building.curriculum Theand citystricter councilacademic acquiredstandards awas lotnever ongranted Norththe Howardpower Streetduring oppositethe Westlater Centre1800s Streetto andconfer allocatedBachelor $150of Arts degrees,000 although for the constructionfollowing ofgenerations the/ newdecades, buildinga designedBaltimore byCity BaltimoreCollege architectelaborate [[Edmundinscribed G.diploma Lind]]frequently gave a graduate to be given advanced credit status in many American colleges and municipaluniversities, architectsuch [[Georgeas A.the Frederick|Georgelongtime special relationship between B.C.C Frederick]],and whoits alsoadjacent designedneighbors theat then-newHoward and Centre Streets at [[BaltimoreJohns CityHopkins HallUniversity|The Johns Hopkins University]], founded 1876.<ref>Steiner (1894), p. 220218.</ref> The new building was constructed in an English [[Gothic revival]] style on Howard Street.

In November 1873, a fire spread from the famous notable [[Holliday Street Theater]] next door to the north to the old historic then 76 years old "Assembly Rooms" structure forcing the City Council to allocate new resources to build a new school building especially for the recently renamed and elevated Baltimore City College. The City Fathers on the Council acquired a lot several blocks further northwest on the then edge of [[Downtown Baltimore]] on the southwest corner of North Howard Street opposite West Centre Street and allocated $150,000 (equivalent to ${{formatprice|{{inflation|US-GDP|150000|1873}}}} in {{inflation/year|US-GDP}}){{inflation/fn|US-GDP}} for the construction of the new building designed by Baltimore architect [[Edmund G. Lind]] and municipal architect [[George A. Frederick]], who also designed the then-new monumental [[Baltimore City Hall]] under construction 1867–1875, then nearing completion on the opposite / west side of Holliday Street, across from the now burned-out ruins of the old Assembly Rooms / Central High / B.C.C. structure.

The new City College building was dedicated on February 1, 1875.<ref>Steiner (1894), p. 221.</ref> The school remained in its new building for just 17 years when it was undermined in 1892 by the construction of the [[Baltimore and Ohio Railroad]] tunnel causing the structure to collapse.<ref>{{cite journal | title = A ninety-six ton electric locomotive | journal = Scientific American | date =August 10, 1895 | url = http://www.catskillarchive.com/rrextra/stbando.Html | access-date =July 13, 2007 | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20070607192655/http://www.catskillarchive.com/rrextra/stbando.Html| archive-date= June 7, 2007 | url-status= live}}</ref> A new larger structure designed in the [[Romanesque Revival architecture|Romanesque Revival]] style by the noted local architects [[Baldwin & Pennington]] was erected on the same site, fronting on the south side of Centre St. midway between Eutaw and Howard Sts. This new building quickly became overcrowded and an annex was established on 26th Street.▼

Following World War I in 1917 under visionary Mayor [[James H. Preston]], the entire block across from City Hall was razed and cleared open for a monumental War Memorial Plaza and vista with a palace-like War Memorial Hall erected at the far east end on North Gay Street during the mid-1920s, since rededicated to commemorate all the war dead of the City and State in the century since. The old second major geographic site of Baltimore City College buildings is marked by a descriptive historical commemorative plaque also noting the first performance here at the old [[Holliday Street Theater]] of 1796 / 1812 (adjacent to the old Assembly Rooms 1797 building) in October 1814 after the [[Battle of Baltimore]] a month earlier during the [[War of 1812]] of the newly written poem and song by [[Francis Scott Key]], "[[The Star-spangled Banner]]", future national anthem<ref>Steiner (1894), p. 220.</ref>

The school's enrollment increased significantly during [[World War I]] and alumni began organizing a campaign to build a larger building with campus grounds during the early 1920s. In 1926, ground was broken for a massive [[Collegiate Gothic in North America|Collegiate Gothic]] stone structure designed by the architects Buckler and Fenhagen on "Collegian Hill". This new four-level structure dubbed "The Castle on the Hill" was designed to accommodate 2,500 students and cost almost $3 million, making it one of the most expensive school projects in America. The new school and grounds officially opened April 10, 1928.<ref>Leonhart (1939), p. 20.</ref> The main academic building featured arched windows, cornices, cloisters, gargoyles, stained glass, mahogany paneling, plaster arches, chandeliers, terra cotta tiles, and terrazzo floors with two courtyards and was designed to be expanded in the future with the addition of additional wings and buildings.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://mediawiki.feverous.co.uk/index.php/History_of_Baltimore_City_College|title=History of Baltimore City College - Wikipedia for FEVERv2}}</ref> Following the landmark Supreme Court ruling ''[[Brown v. Board of Education]]'' in May 1954, the school admitted its first Black students in September 1954 without incident.<ref>{{Cite book | author = Hlubb, Julius G. | title = An Analysis of Student Enrollment at the Baltimore City College | publisher = Diss. George Washington University | year = 1965| page=10}}</ref> Two years later, the first Black faculty members in school history were assigned to B.C.C.<ref name="Daneker 38">Daneker (1988), p. 38.</ref> Enrollment at the City College reached a record high of nearly 4,000 students by the mid-1960s, then began to decline in the late-1960s to mid-1970s due, in part, to the opening of newer high schools in the city the suburbs of [[Baltimore County]]. In addition to contending with declining enrollment, the school's academic standards also began to decline during the 1970s. The school's once-prestigious A-Course academic track was discontinued in 1973 and a single academic track was offered.<ref name="Katz-Stone">{{Cite news| first = Adam | last = Katz-Stone | title = School boundaries | work = Baltimore Business Journal | date = January 28, 2000| url = http://baltimore.bizjournals.com/baltimore/stories/2000/01/31/focus2.html | access-date = 2007-07-25 }}</ref> In 1978, at the urging of faculty and alumni, City College's landmark main academic building underwent its first-ever major renovations, requiring the school to temporarily relocate for two years. When the campus reopened, B.C.C. admitted female students for the first time in its then-139-year history following a controversial decision by the Baltimore City Public Schools to end City's long-standing tradition of single-sex education.<ref>Daneker (1988), p. 58.</ref>

The new City College building was constructed in an English [[Gothic revival]] style of brown brick, facing east on North Howard Street, south of the western end of West Centre Street meeting Druid Hill Avenue leading northwest to the new huge [[Druid Hill Park]], recently opened in 1860. The new high school was also adjacent to the south of the luxurious palatial Academy of Music auditorium and theater recently also completed and opened that same year, in the center of Baltimore's new theater / entertainment district in the late 19th century and early 20th century.

The school's academic decline continued into the 1980s until Principal Solomon Lausch in the early-1990s introduced a revamped curriculum, raised admissions standards, and secured increased funding and unique local autonomy from the Baltimore City School's board of commissioners. B.C.C.'s turn-around accelerated when Joseph Wilson, a former attorney, was hired in 1994 to lead the school following a nationwide search. Wilson strengthened academic standards by introducing the [[IB Diploma|International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Program]] in September 1998.<ref name="Ey">{{Cite news | first = Craig S. | last = Ey | title = City College shows that city schools can be good | work = Baltimore Business Journal | date = December 10, 1999| url = http://www.bizjournals.com/baltimore/stories/1999/12/13/editorial2.html?page=2 | access-date = 2007-07-25 }}</ref> By the early-2000s, City College was once again routinely counted amount the nation's best high schools. The school was recognized at the start of the 1999-2000 academic year by the [[U.S. Department of Education]] as a [[National Blue Ribbon School]].<ref name="Blueribbon">{{cite web|title=Blue Ribbon Schools Program: Schools Recognized 1982–1983 through 1999–2002 |publisher=[[U.S. Department of Education]] |url=http://www.ed.gov/programs/nclbbrs/list-1982.pdf |access-date=July 16, 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090326055622/http://www.ed.gov/programs/nclbbrs/list-1982.pdf |archive-date=March 26, 2009 |df=mdy }}</ref>▼

▲The new City College's buildingthird major academic structure then in its history, was dedicated on February 1, 1875.<ref>Steiner (1894), p. 221.</ref> The high school remained in its new building for only just 17 years when it was undermined in August 1892 by the underground construction of the [[Baltimore and Ohio Railroad]]'s Howard Street tunnel causing the B.C.C. structure to collapse, also damaging the Academy of Music edifice next door but which was later repaired.<ref>{{cite journal | title = A ninety-six ton electric locomotive | journal = Scientific American | date =August 10, 1895 | url = http://www.catskillarchive.com/rrextra/stbando.Html | access-date =July 13, 2007 | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20070607192655/http://www.catskillarchive.com/rrextra/stbando.Html| archive-date= June 7, 2007 | url-status= live}}</ref> ADelayed newover largerseven structure designed in the [[Romanesque Revival architecture|Romanesque Revival]] styleyears by theinter-party notedsquabbles localamid architectspolitical [[Baldwinchanges &at Pennington]]City wasHall erected onduring the samereforming site,1890s frontingand onwith thea southmajor sidenational ofeconomic Centrerecession St.hitting midwaythe betweenCity's Eutawcoffers andfollowing Howardthe Sts.disastrous Thisfinancial new[[Panic buildingof quickly1893]]. became overcrowded and an annex was established on 26th Street.

During these two periods of exile during 1873–1875, and later during the "Gay 90s", B.C.C. held classes further northwest in a converted school at Dolphin Street and Pennsylvania Avenue and also at northeast corner of North Paca and West Fayette Streets in another former elementary school building (still exists in the 2020s, now renovated as offices – oldest former City College structure still standing).

By the end of the decade, a new larger structure designed in the Italianate [[Romanesque Revival architecture|Romanesque Revival]] style of architecture of red brick with gray stone trim by the noted local architectural firm of [[Baldwin & Pennington]] (Ephraim Baldwin and Josias Pennington) who were also the "house architects" for the B. & O. Railroad and designed many of their stations and terminals plus other rail facilities. The new second high school building was erected on the same previous site, however was reoriented and turned to face its front to the north on the south side of West Centre Street, midway between Eutaw and Howard Streets, and facing the buildings to the north of the first downtown campus of 1876–1915 of [[Johns Hopkins University|The Johns Hopkins University]]. This new 1899 building however quickly became overcrowded in the first decades of the 20th century and soon an annex was established further north on East 26th Street in the Peabody Heights neighborhood (now renamed [[Charles Village, Baltimore|Charles Village]] since 1967) for underclassmen.

The school's enrollment increased significantly during [[World War I]] (1914/1917 to 1918) and loyal alumni began organizing a campaign to build a larger building with a modern surrounding campus grounds with a grass lawn during the early 1920s. In 1922, a nationwide architectural contest was held for various plans to be submitted for the future "capstone of the Baltimore and Maryland public education system". In 1926, ground was broken for a massive [[Collegiate Gothic in North America|Collegiate Gothic]] stone edifice designed by the local architects [[Ayers Saint Gross|Buckler and Fenhagen]] (one of whom was a City College graduate himself) on renamed "Collegian Hill" at the southwest corner of newly laid-out boulevards with park-like landscaped median strips at 33rd Street boulevard and The Alameda in the newly developing and recently annexed quadrant of [[Northeast Baltimore]].

This was the former hilltop site of a two twin wood-frame [[Victorian architecture|Victorian]] style mansions named "Abbottston" and "Woodlands" built in the 1870s off Gorsuch Avenue , and west of wealthy merchant / banker / philanthropist [[Johns Hopkins]] (1795–1873), of his summer / country estates of [[Clifton Park (Baltimore)|Clifton]] off the Harford Road and the nearby country village of Homestead (now the modern neighborhood of [[Coldstream-Homestead-Montebello, Baltimore|Coldstream-Homestead-Montebello]]. Later known as the "Gilman-Cate Estate", when acquired by the City from Abbott's two surviving daughters and married husbands, including the Gilman family of the legendary first president [[Daniel Coit Gilman]] of The Johns Hopkins University in 1876. But decades earlier, "Abbottston" was the summer country home and estate of [[Horace Abbott]] (1806–1887) originally from [[Massachusetts]], famous industrialist and owner of the Abbott Ironworks Foundry in the waterfront [[Canton, Baltimore|Canton]] industrial district of southeast Baltimore along the harborside Boston Street and the mouth / outlet for old Harris Creek stream (now underground Hudson Street).

Abbott purchased the foundry from the famous [[Peter Cooper]], who was an amazing inventor / entrepreneur and developed the first steam-powered locomotive "[[Tom Thumb (locomotive)|Tom Thumb]]" which staged the famous race between horse-pulled rail car and Cooper's steam engine on wheels between Baltimore and Ellicott City on the first track line laid of the [[Baltimore and Ohio Railroad]] in 1833, five years after construction began in 1827–1828 in America's first railroad. Cooper had many other projects including the waterfront real estate development for industry, commercial and residential in the [[Canton Company]] but he sold his Canton foundry plant to Abbott. Abbott also endowed an Abbott Memorial Presbyterian Church in the [[Highlandtown, Baltimore|Highlandtown]] neighborhood in southeast Baltimore.

Abbott's ironworkers reputedly fabricated and supplied iron plates for the construction in New York City for inventor [[John Ericsson]]"s famous revolutionary new warship known as an "[[ironclad]]" of the first one built of the [[USS Monitor]] for the [[United States Navy]] / [[Union Navy]]. Later all similar armored naval vessels were nicknamed "monitors". In March 1862 during the [[American Civil War]], its stand-off stalemate in the historic naval [[Battle of Hampton Roads]] in the bay/harbor of southeast [[Virginia]] at the southern mouth of the [[Chesapeake Bay]], (between [[Norfolk, Virginia|Norfolk]] and [[Portsmouth, Virginia|Portsmouth]] on the southside, and [[Hampton, Virginia|Hampton]] – [[Newport News, Virginia|Newport News]] in the north on the peninsula). With the also newly-constructed [[Confederate States Navy]] ironclad [[CSS Virginia]] (formerly the [[USS Merrimac]] wooden frigate raised at the captured Federal naval shipyard of [[Norfolk, Virginia]] in the previous year of May 1861. Abbott's iron foundry in Canton contributed to Baltimore's industrial might and reputation for several subsequent decades. Its site is marked by a descriptive historical commemorative plaque, now the site of the former American / Continental Can Company factory complex in the early 20th century and redeveloped during the 1980s into a shopping center.

So his northeast city hill-top mansion stood for a half-century on the site of the future fourth major City College building of Buckler and Fenhagen's "Cathedral of Learning" as the new four-level stone structure with 150-foot high clock / bell tower, dubbed in later years as "The Castle on the Hill" was designed to accommodate 2,500 students and cost then almost $3&nbsp;million dollars (equivalent to ${{formatprice|{{inflation|US-GDP|3000000|1928}}}} in {{inflation/year|US-GDP}}),{{inflation/fn|US-GDP}} making it one of the most expensive school projects in America up to that time. It won a regional architecture prize / medal as contributing to the Baltimore landscape in 1928. The new high school and campus grounds officially opened April 10, 1928.<ref>Leonhart (1939), p. 20.</ref>

The main academic rubble stone building with limestone trim, featured cornices, cloisters, carved gargoyles and sculpture, arched huge tall windows with colored stained glass leaded panes for the front / northeast side of the two-story high ceiling Library, Lecture Hall and center Trophy Hall (which were unfortunately removed during the 1977–1979 renovation project), mahogany wood paneling, stone block front entry foyer, plaster corridor arches, elaborate lighting chandeliers, terra cotta tiles, and polished terrazzo floors with two inside courtyards. The new "Castle" was designed by architects Buckler and Fenhagen to be expanded in the future with the addition of additional E-shaped similar stone Collegiate Gothic style wings / buildings on the northwest and northeast corners facing the Upper Campus planned for future B.C.C. expansion plus a possible companion junior high / middle school. A proposed clock and set of carillon bells system for the central landmark tower were left unfinished. Unfortunately fifteen years later during the early "black-out" years of [[World War II]] (1939/1941-1945), the beautiful multi-colored stained glass ceiling / skylight over the central auditorium with its wrap-around balcony was unfortunately covered / tarred over.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://mediawiki.feverous.co.uk/index.php/History_of_Baltimore_City_College|title=History of Baltimore City College – Wikipedia for FEVERv2}}</ref>

Following the landmark [[United States Supreme Court]] ruling in ''[[Brown v. Board of Education|Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas]]'' in May 1954, and the summer long deliberations of the progressive Board of School Commissioners resulted in the decision to racially integrate all Baltimore public schools at all levels that coming new school semester in the Autumn 1954, and not resist or delay as some others urged. So the City's premier academic public high school admitted its first Black / African American students in September 1954 peacefully without incident under Principal Chester H. Katenkamp and Vice Principal Henry T. Yost. following the longtime previous equal treatment policy of longtime legendary predecessor, the tenth principal, Dr. Phillip H. Edwards (1932–1948). In contrast to the earlier opening two years before following a local court and School Board case decision at the arch-rival [[Baltimore Polytechnic Institute]] ("Poly") with unfortunate harassment, hazing and insults to several new B.P.I, black students newly admitted in a widely publicized action in 1952, and unfortunately especially to the demonstrations by parents / students and outsiders on the sidewalks outside Patterson Park (in East Baltimore) and Southern High Schools (by Federal Hill in South Baltimore) that Fall of 1954. These however died down in a few weeks after a strong unified response from the School Board, Mayor [[Thomas J. D'Alesandro]] and the City Council members along with the Police leadership, citing the mature civilized attitudes of City College students written about in the daily newspapers and the responsibilities laid out by the B.C,C. leaders as to what was possible.

Two years later the [[Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association|Maryland Scholastic Association]] (M.S.A. – public / private high schools student athletic league co-founded by Dr. Edwards, which existed 1919–1993) integrated its sports competitions opening to formerly segregated black City high schools: Frederick Douglass, Paul Lawrence Dunbar and Carver Vo-Tech in 1956, unlike the resistance by the neighboring suburban [[Baltimore County]] high school athletic programs.<ref>{{Cite book | author = Hlubb, Julius G. | title = An Analysis of Student Enrollment at the Baltimore City College | publisher = Diss. George Washington University | year = 1965| page=10}}</ref>

Two years later, the first Black faculty members in 116 years of school history were assigned to the B.C.C., Mr. Pierre H. Davis to the Business Education and Mr. Eugene Parker to the Physical Education Departments (later became the longtime varsity basketball coach with numerous M.S.A. championships during the 1970s to 1990s). Mr. Davis returned 15 years later in September 1970, after his brief faculty time at the Castle during the 1950s, as the fifteenth and first Black principal of the City College, serving four years.<ref name="Daneker 38">Daneker (1988), p. 38.</ref>

Enrollment at the City College reached a record high of nearly 4,000 male students by the mid-1960s, mostly due to the post-World War II "baby boom" and the lack of additional high schools in the outer reaches of Baltimore City. Then following the construction / opening of Northern and Northwestern High Schools in 1964 and 1965, followed by three new secondary schools built and opened all in one year of September 1971 with Walbrook, Southwestern and the nearby huge Lake Clifton High Schools complex, then high school ages enrollment began to decline by the late-1960s to mid-1970s due, in part, to the opening of these newer, more modern buildings closer to future students' homes near me City/county line in the outer suburbs of [[Baltimore City]] and surrounding [[Baltimore County]].

After the crisis levels of overcrowding with the instigation of "split -shifts" during the previous decade to now contending with the reverse problems of declining enrollment which reached a low of about 1,500 students in 1973, the school's academic standards also began to decline despite the best efforts of the so-called "City Forever" movement and protest demonstrations outside School Board headquarters with the encouragement of thirteenth principal Dr. Julius G. Hlubb during 1965–1966, (doing an academic thesis study for the City College recent trends and the "[[magnet school]]" concept circulating around urban public schools systems in response to the issue of increasing "white flight " and resegregation of schools for his doctorate degree from [[George Washington University|The George Washington University]] and continued into the mid-1970s, as City College increased its humanities curriculum course offerings and initiated an active publicity and student recruitment program. The school's once-prestigious "A-Course" (Advanced College Preparatory Course) academic track since the 1920s was discontinued in 1973 and a single academic track was offered in 1973–76 in a misguided improvement proposal however without any additional funding for the additional curriculum or strict admissions standards.<ref name="Katz-Stone">{{Cite news| first = Adam | last = Katz-Stone | title = School boundaries | work = Baltimore Business Journal | date = January 28, 2000| url = http://baltimore.bizjournals.com/baltimore/stories/2000/01/31/focus2.html | access-date = July 25, 2007 }}</ref>

In 1978, at the urging of faculty led by Profs Frank Thomas, George Fisher and others in the influential acclaimed inter-disciplinary Humanities program begun in 1967 and newly organized full-fledged department (who threatened protest strikes and a public relations campaign similar to that used a decade before and along with influential alumni led by attorney Melvin Sykes, repeating his 1965–1966 leadership roles. Using a half-million dollars originally earmarked for a swimming pool renovation project and redirected as a starter agreement was made with the City and state-wide school construction program to advance additional funds pushed through by City alumnus in the Centennial Class of 1939 by Mayor (and future Maryland Governor and Comptroller) [[William Donald Schaefer]] for a major $10&nbsp;million dollars to a major school-wide renovation project City College's landmark main academic building underwent its first-ever major renovations and infrastructure renewal. It would require the school to temporarily relocate for two years, with one year spent at the Calvert Educational Center (the former old Baltimore Polytechnic Institute building at North Avenue and Calvert Street (occupied by "Poly" 1913–1967) and then the following year in the basement floor of nearby still all-girls Eastern High School, across Loch Raven Boulevard to the west from the Castle. When the "Collegian Hill" campus reopened after a subsequent simultaneous approval of a parallel 2-years long series of meetings, hearings, investigations and studies by a broad-based membership on a "New City College Task Force" of 15 members of B.C.P.S. school administrators, teachers, alumni, parents and students along with a few from the surrounding communities. The task force with its proposed academic reorganization program in mind with the long traditions of the old B.C.C. with a return to older stricter admissions standards, expanded curriculum offerings in the [[humanities]], liberal and social studies and Classical studies outlined by the broad-based group along with selecting new and old / former experienced faculty recruitment plus a nationwide search for a unique special principal and assistant administrators / deans to provide continuous academic leadership after the recent shuttle of brief principalships during the previous decade.

Now in 1979–1980, the B.C.C. admitted female students for the first time in its then-140-year history following a controversial decision by the Baltimore City Board of School Commissioners to approve all the New B.C.C. Task Force proposals except for the one to continue at least temporarily for a trial period of the all-male student body, thus ending City's long-standing tradition of single-sex education. Arch-rival Poly has co-educated five years earlier in 1974 although neighboring all-girls [[Western High School (Maryland)|Western High School]] remained so. Its sister twin [[Eastern High School (Baltimore, Maryland)|Eastern High]] and City College's neighbor since 1938 also facing 33rd Street across Loch Raven Boulevard was also slated to have its curriculum and admissions policy examined in the next few years by another task force but unfortunately was closed in 1984 after 140 years of girls education history. During the previous two decades, many famous all-male colleges / universities had o-educated followed by a few all-girls schools.<ref>Daneker (1988), p. 58.</ref>

The Castle's academic decline continued during the late 1970s, until under new hand-picked Principal Solomon Lausch celebrated the return of City College to its Castle in rededication ceremonies on the front upper campus highlighted by the appearance of a replica medieval-garbed "Black Knight" mascot (used since 1950) riding on a gray horse posing for photos in front of stone battlements once more occupied by "Collegians" after a two-year absence. Lausch's administration lasted over a decade giving stable direction and enforcing the academic goals and principles of the Task Force's recommendations from 1977–79 for a revived resurgent and especially resurgent proud "New Baltimore City College".

By the early 1990s, under Principal Joseph Antenson

▲Thesaw school'sa academicnew decline continued into the 1980s until Principal Solomon Lausch in the early-1990sprogram introduced a revamped curriculum, raised admissions standards, and secured increased funding and unique local autonomy from the [[Baltimore City SchoolPublic Schools]]'s boardBoard of commissionersSchool Commissioners oversight and direction. B.C.C.'s continued advancement and 15 years of a turn-around accelerated when Joseph Wilson, a former attorney-at-law, was hiredappointed after another national search headed by alumnus Robert Embry, jr., the President of the supporting [[Abell Foundation]] (from family and former publishers of the major local daily newspaper ''[[The Baltimore Sun]]'') in 1994 to lead the school. following a nationwide search.Principal Wilson strengthened academic standards by introducing the [[IB Diploma|International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Program]] in September 1998.<ref name="Ey">{{Cite news | first = Craig S. | last = Ey | title = City College shows that city schools can be good | work = Baltimore Business Journal | date = December 10, 1999| url = http://www.bizjournals.com/baltimore/stories/1999/12/13/editorial2.html?page=2 | access-date = 2007-07-July 25, 2007 }}</ref> By the early-2000s, the City College was once again routinely counted amount the state, region and nation's best public high schools. The schoolB.C.C. was recognized at the start of the 1999-20001999–2000 academic year by the [[U.S. Department of Education]] as a [[National Blue Ribbon School]].<ref name="Blueribbon">{{cite web|title=Blue Ribbon Schools Program: Schools Recognized 1982–1983 through 1999–2002 |publisher=[[U.S. Department of Education]] |url=http://www.ed.gov/programs/nclbbrs/list-1982.pdf |access-date=July 16, 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090326055622/http://www.ed.gov/programs/nclbbrs/list-1982.pdf |archive-date=March 26, 2009 |df=mdy }}</ref>

== Campus ==

[[File:BaltimoreCityCollege-winter.jpg|right|thumb|"The Castle on the Hill", on "Collegian Hill", at 33rd Street and The Alameda, built 1922–1928 as "The Baltimore City College", the third oldest public high school in America, winterfounded 2009-101839]]

The Baltimore City College stands on an expansive, tree-shaded 38-acre (153,781&nbsp;m²) hill-top campus in northeast Baltimore at the intersection of 33rd Street and the Alameda.<ref name="Leonhart 1939, p. 120"/> The campus consists of two&nbsp;buildings: the [[Collegiate Gothic architecture]]-style central / main edifice known locally as the "Castle on the Hill" which sits in the center of the landscaped with many trees on the hill-top campus, and the flanking power plant building also built 1926–1928, across a faculty parking lot, further east of the castleCastle. In addition to providing the building's utilities, the power plant building originally housed five workshops: an electrical shop, a mechanical shop, a metal shop, a printing shop, and a wood shop.<ref>Leonhart (1939), p. 124.</ref> It currently houses the [[Coldstream-Homestead-Montebello, Baltimore|Coldstream-Homestead-Montebello]] community corporation headquarters. Both buildings of 1926–1928 and a later similar matching style of a north expansion annex wing added in 1958 for the then additional music rooms were designed in a similar Gothic style architecture using red brick and limestone trim by the same architecture firm of Buckler and Fenhagen.<ref name="Baltimore City College">{{Cite web|url=https://explore.baltimoreheritage.org/items/show/28|title=Baltimore City College}}</ref>

The castle"Castle" features an iconic landmark 150-foot-tall gothicGothic style architecture central tower (designed originally to hold a set of clocks on its four facades plus a carillon bells system that were never installed after its 1928 opening due to "[[Great Depression]]" budget cutbacks after the famous October 1929 [[Stock Market Crash]]) that is visible from many locations throughout Baltimore. South of the main academic building is the renamed George Petrides Stadium at Alumni Field, which serves as home to the school's athletic teams, with a grandstand for especially football, with adjoining fields for baseball, soccer and tennis courts. During a major building renovation in 19781977–1979, a modern larger gymnasium was added to the southwest corner of the main building, replacing the old narrow gym (nicknamed "The Crackerbox") on the south side, used 1928 to 1977.{{Citation needed|date=January 2021}}

In June 2003, the current "Castle on the Hill" building was placed on the [[National Register of Historic Places]], besides also being listed as a "Baltimore City Landmark".<ref>{{cite web | title = Weekly List of Actions Taken on Properties: 6/30/03 through 7/05/03 | publisher = [[National Park Service]] | date = July 11, 2003 | url = http://www.nps.gov/history/nr/listings/20030711.htm | access-date =July 23, 2007 }}</ref> The listing of the building coincided with the structure's 75th anniversary.<ref>{{cite web | title = National Register of Historic Places | url = http://www.nationalregisterofhistoricplaces.com/MD/Baltimore/state.html | access-date =July 23, 2007| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20070713211430/http://www.nationalregisterofhistoricplaces.com/md/Baltimore/state.html| archive-date= July 13, 2007 | url-status= live}}</ref> On April 24, 2007, the building was also designated a "Baltimore City landmarkLandmark", which means that the building's exterior cannot be altered without approval of the city's Commission for Historical and Architectural Preservation.<ref>{{cite news|last=Janis |first=Stephen |title=Baltimore City College honored as official landmark |publisher=The Examiner |date=April 24, 2007 |access-date=May 22, 2007 |url=http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/baltimore-city-college-honored-as-official-landmark/article/62841}}</ref> On June 21, 2007, the school's Alumni Association received a historic preservation award from the presentation organization [[Baltimore Heritage]] for its leadership role in preserving the building as an historic Baltimore landmark.<ref name="Baltimore City College"/> In 2017, ''[[Architectural Digest]]'' magazine named the school the most beautiful public high school in the state of Maryland and on the list as one of the most beautiful in the nation, which was also noted in several local television station's news reports.<ref name="architecturaldigest.com">{{cite web|url=https://www.architecturaldigest.com/gallery/most-beautiful-public-high-schools-in-america|title=The Most Beautiful Public High School in Every State in America|date=September 12, 2017|work=Architectural Digest|access-date=June 10, 2022}}</ref>

===B.C.C. Center for Teaching and Learning===

City College launched in 2015 the [https://www.givecampus.com/schools/BaltimoreCityCollege/class-challenge-for-the-library#updates Torch Burning Bright campaign], a fundraising effort to modernize and rehab its library and student resource center.<ref name=sweeney>{{citation|last=Sweeney|first=Danielle|title=City College raising funds for new library|url=https://www.baltimorebrew.com/2015/01/19/city-college-raising-funds-for-new-library/|newspaper=Baltimore Brew|date=January 19, 2015|access-date=April 7, 2016}}</ref><ref name=hudson>{{citation|last=Hudson|first=Kathy|title=Funding new library at City College a step in right direction [Hudson's Corner]|url=http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-city/north-baltimore/ph-ms-hudsons-corner-1015-20151015-story.html|newspaper=Baltimore Sun|date=October 15, 2015|access-date=April 7, 2016}}</ref> The $2.2 &nbsp;million dollars project was designed by the local firm JRS Architects and added new spaces for resource stacks; new areas for studying and reading; The central Great Hall (formerly Trophy Hall( had its original polished slate floor which had been covered with carpeting in 1977–79 renovations, was restored and reconfigured as a large communal space and reading room; additional new classrooms, seminar spaces, and conference rooms, a new location for library special collections and school archives, a listening and viewing room for audio / visual material, and office space for school library staff.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.citycollegelibrary.org/why |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923204217/http://www.citycollegelibrary.org/why |url-status=dead |archive-date=September 23, 2015 |title=Why a Library – Torch Burning Bright: The BCC Library Campaign |publisher=Citycollegelibrary.org |access-date=March 20, 2016 }}</ref>

The B.C.C. Center for Teaching and Learning opened to students and faculty in January 2016 and is staffed by five full-time professionals, including the center director, the head librarian, and three staff coordinating each academic center.<ref name="4c6d6c14-5122-4df4-bc39-892a4457fb92.filesusr.com">{{Cite web |title=Forbidden |url=https://4c6d6c14-5122-4df4-bc39-892a4457fb92.filesusr.com/ugd/1ca4b9_c2973dd5060a44228e1ed85ae0f7b11e.pdf |access-date=February 23, 2024 |website=4c6d6c14-5122-4df4-bc39-892a4457fb92.filesusr.com}}</ref> In all, the Center for Teaching and Learning includes the following resources for students:<ref name="4c6d6c14-5122-4df4-bc39-892a4457fb92.filesusr.com"/>

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===19th-century curriculum: the five-year course era===

[[File:Nathan Covington Brooks.jpg|right|thumb|upright|Prof.Professor Nathan C. Brooks (1809–1898), first founding principal of "The High School", after 1844 known as "The Male High School" (after 1844 and now "Baltimore City College"]]

The creation of a male high school "in which the higher branches of English and classical literature should be taught exclusively" was authorized unanimously by the [[Baltimore City Council]] on March 7, 1839. The school opened its doors October 20, 1839, with 46 students.<ref name="Steiner207">Steiner (1894), p.207.</ref> Those enrolled were offered two academic tracks, a [[classical literature]] track and an [[English literature]] track. The sole instructor for both tracks was the educator and poet, [[Nathan C. Brooks]], who also served as [[Principal (school)|principal]].<ref name="Steiner207"/> To accommodate the two tracks, Brooks split the school day into two sections: one in the morning from 9&nbsp;a.m. to 12&nbsp;a.m., and another in the afternoon from 2&nbsp;p.m. to 5&nbsp;p.m. During the morning session, students studied either classics or English; however, the afternoon was devoted to English.<ref name="Steiner207"/> In 1849, after a decade of service, Prof. [[Nathan C. Brooks|Brooks]] resigned as principal of the school, which had now grown to include 232 students and 7 teachers, excluding Brooks.{{Citation needed|date=January 2021}}

Rev. Dr. [[Francis G. Waters]], who had been the president of the [[Washington College]], succeeded Brooks. The following year the city council renamed the school "The Central High School of Baltimore" and granted the commissioners of the public schools the right to confer certificates to the high school's graduates, a practice still in place today.<ref name="Steiner_209"/> By 1850, growing enrollment necessitated a reorganization of the school. Under the direction of Waters, the school day was divided into eight periods lasting forty-five minutes: four sessions were held in the morning and four in the afternoon. In addition to reorganizing the schedule, he divided the courses into seven different departments: [[Belles-Lettres|Belles-letters]] and history, [[mathematics]], [[natural sciences]], [[moral philosophy|moral]], [[mental philosophy|mental]], and [[political science]], [[Classical antiquity|ancient languages]], [[modern language]]s and music. Each of the seven instructors was assigned to a distinct department and received the title of "professor".<ref name="Steiner210-211">Steiner (1894), pp. 210–211.</ref>

In 1850, the [[Baltimore City Council]] granted the school the authority to present its graduates with certificates of completion.<ref name="Steiner_209">Steiner (1894), p. 209</ref> An effort to expand that academic power and allow the then-named "Central High School of Baltimore" to confer Bachelor of Arts degrees began in 1865, and continued the following year with the renaming of the institution as "The Baltimore City College" the retitling of its chief academic officer from "[[principal (academia)|principal]]" to "[[college president|president]]", along with an increase in the number of years of its course of study and the expansion of its courses. However, despite this early elevation effort, it ended unsuccessfully in 1869, although Baltimore City College continued for a number of years as a hybrid public high school and early form of [[junior college]] (later known as [[community college]]) which did not fully appear in America until the beginning of the 20th century. As the importance of college education increased toward the end of the 19th century, the school's priorities shifted to preparing students for college.<ref name="BCPSS1902p79">Board of Commissioners of Public Schools (1902), p. 79.</ref>

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Population decline in the city of Baltimore due to the migration of middle-class white populations to the suburbs during the 1950s and 1960s, coupled with the failure of [[Baltimore City Public Schools]] officials to address infrastructure improvements needed in the school's deteriorating, then-thirty-seven-year-old main academic building lead to a gradually declining public perception of the school's academic reputation.<ref>Leonhart (1939), p. 134.</ref> In response, school administrators and faculty developed the "City Forever" strategic plan in 1965–66. The [[performance improvement]] plan also served as a call to action for the school community, resulting in formal recommendations from the Alumni Association, a series of student-led demonstrations, newspaper articles and television news segments produced by alumni working as media professionals, letters-to-the-editors of local newspapers submitted by parents and teachers, and routine public comments in support of City College at School Board meetings. The public outcry stunned city leadership, which resulted in the district announcing a recommitment to Baltimore City College and its unique role as the selective flagship high school of Baltimore.<ref>Leonhart (1939), p. 137.</ref>

Over the next decade, the local school district failed to delivery on its pledge to adequately fund the revitalized Baltimore City College curriculum and enforce higher admissions standards.<ref>Leonhart (1939), p. 138.</ref> In 1975, City students, faculty, and influential alumni like then-Mayor of Baltimore [[William Donald Schaefer]] '39 and then-City Comptroller Hyman A. Pressman '33 again engaged in a series of coordinated campaigns, urging political leaders and members of the school board to provide the resources and enforce the high standards the school needs to succeed. As a result, the [[City of Baltimore]] announced its plan to advance funds to complete a $9 &nbsp;million renovation of the school's main building and earmarked funding for a comprehensive, two-year study (1977–79).<ref name="Leonhart_139">Leonhart (1939), p. 139.</ref> Subject matter experts in education and pedagogy, school faculty, parents, alumni, and other members of the school community formed the "New City College Task Force". The task force, which combed through two decades of previous improvement plans, academic proposals, and experimental curricula, recommended to the school board a plan that included stricter admissions and retention standards, a revitalized humanities- and liberal arts-based curriculum, and the autonomy to selectively recruit new, highly qualified faculty and administrators.<ref name="Leonhart_139"/>

The Baltimore City Board of School Commissioners ultimately accepted all but one of the task force's recommendations in 1979.<ref name="Leonhart_140">Leonhart (1939), p. 140.</ref> The group recommended maintaining the school's then-141-year-old tradition of all-male education. Citing concerns over conflicting federal and district court decisions which had not yet been resolved by the U.S. Supreme Court, the school board voted to make City a coeducational school. The board's action followed trends at the time at all-male colleges and universities like [[Harvard University]], [[Yale University]], and nearby [[Johns Hopkins University]], which admitted women during the 1970s.<ref name="Leonhart_140"/>

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===21st-century curriculum===

[[International Baccalaureate]] (IB) is a rigorous, internationally accepted academic program required of all 21st century Baltimore City College students. The IB Middle Years Program is intended to teach freshman and sophomore students to understand how core subjects are interrelated, how to master critical thinking processes, and to increase intercultural awareness. As juniors and seniors, students engage in the rigorous two-year IB Diploma curriculum that requires a comprehensive study of world topics, literature, languages, science, and math. City College's IB certificate and diploma programs provide upperclassmen access to thirty advanced studies courses, which often translate into credit hours at colleges and universities worldwide.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.baltimorecitycollege.us/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=52860&type=d |title=Baltimore City College |publisher=Baltimorecitycollege.us |date=December 31, 1999 |access-date=March 20, 2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150928170137/http://www.baltimorecitycollege.us/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=52860&type=d |archive-date=September 28, 2015 }}</ref>

Despite some concerns of the school's alumni association,<ref name="Elite_Program">{{cite news| last=Neufeld| first=Sara| title=Elite Program in Dispute| work=The Baltimore Sun| date=February 10, 2007 | page=Final Edition,1A| url=http://www.redorbit.com/news/education/837382/elite_program_in_dispute/index.html | access-date=August 1, 2007}}</ref> school administrators proceeded with plans to expand the City College IB Program by incorporating the [[IB Middle Years Program]] into the [[Ninth grade|9th]] and [[Tenth grade|10th grade]] curricula. In addition to the IB courses, the school's academic program offers a small selection of Advanced Placement courses.<ref name="epiconline1">{{cite web|url=https://apcourseaudit.epiconline.org/ledger/school.php |title=AP Course Ledger |publisher=Apcourseaudit.epiconline.org |access-date=March 20, 2016}}</ref>

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* Submit admission applications to a minimum of four colleges (including FAFSA submission)

* Take the SAT or ACT at least two times

* 75 hours of documented Service Learning activity<ref>{{Citationcite web needed|title=Graduation Requirements |url=https://www.baltimorecitycollege.us/graduation-requirements |website=www.baltimorecitycollege.us |access-date=JanuaryJune 202118, 2024 |language=en}}</ref>

==Admissions==

Admission to Baltimore City College is selective but is open to residents of Baltimore City and the surrounding counties in the metropolitan area, though non-Baltimore City residents must pay tuition. Applicants must meet all requirements for promotion to ninth grade, as determined by the [[Maryland State Department of Education]]. Additionally, applicants must earn a minimum composite score of 610, calculated by Baltimore City Public Schools.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.baltimorecitycollege.us/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=52860&type=d&termREC_ID=&pREC_ID=75373 |title=Baltimore City College |publisher=Baltimorecitycollege.us |date=December 31, 1999 |access-date=March 20, 2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923181845/http://www.baltimorecitycollege.us/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=52860&type=d&termREC_ID=&pREC_ID=75373 |archive-date=September 23, 2015 }}</ref> Generally, candidates for admission must have a 3.0 overall numeric grade average (B letter grade; 80 or better percentage grade), have at least a 3.0 average in both Mathematics and English, rank in the 65th percentile or better among all Maryland students in Math and English on the Maryland School Assessment (MSA), and have 90% or better attendance rate. Due to the highly competitive nature of the City College admissions process, successful applicants typically exceed the aforementioned minimums. J.D. Merrill, BCC '09, is the school's current Director of Admissions and Institutional Advancement.<ref name=faq>{{citation|title=Baltimore city College FAQs|url=http://www.baltimorecitycollege.us/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=52860&type=d&termREC_ID=&pREC_ID=195820|website=Baltimore City College|access-date=April 7, 2016|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923181843/http://www.baltimorecitycollege.us/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=52860&type=d&termREC_ID=&pREC_ID=195820|archive-date=September 23, 2015}}</ref>

== Enrollment ==

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==Athletics==

{{Main|Baltimore City College athletics}}

[[File:The bcc b.JPG|thumb|right|upright|The Baltimore City College varsity athletics orange with black trim, letter "B"]]▼

Interscholastic athletics at Baltimore City College date back over 120 years. Though varsity sports were not formally organized until 1895, interscholastic athletics became a fixture at the school earlier in the 19th century with some documentation of activity going back to the 1870s.<ref>Leonhart (1939), p. 198</ref> The annual traditions of a [[American football|football]] game with the upstart, less than six years old of the Baltimore Manual Training School, recently established by the Baltimore City Board of School Commissioners in 1883. The two schools were only separated by about five city blocks in the downtown area and oral tradition holds that a match was held between the B.C.C. "Collegians" and the B.M.T.S. "scrubs" in 1889 at a field in the newly municipal acquired [[Clifton Park (Baltimore)|Clifton Park]] on the old former [[Johns Hopkins]] (1785–1873) summer / country estate and mansion of "Clifton" adjacent to the Harford Road, and now was being frequently used for various sporting events, By 1893, the Manual Training " School itself was elevated and renamed as the "[[Baltimore Polytechnic Institute]]" (B.P.I. or "Poly"), and was then located up on Courtland Street

– now on the east side of the current terraced "Preston Gardens" (resulting from razed five square entire blocks of northern downtown with its early and mid-19th century townhouses – which now a hundred years later in the 2020s would be an architectural treasure trove!!) by Mayor [[James H. Preston]] and constructed c. 1919, at the end of his several long mayoral terms) along the now widened, rebuilt and renamed Saint Paul Place for the five blocks from north to south, between East Centre Street in the north running south to East Lexington Street – along Saint Paul Street. This area had by the late 1800s become home to numerous Black / African American professionals in the bi-racial city of lawyers, doctors, dentists, ministers and several significant cultural / educational and religious institutions. Mayor Preston was seeking to prevent the growth and movement of the so-called "undesirable colored elements" (his descriptive terms back then) further uphill towards the west to Charles Street and the [[Mount Vernon. Baltimore|Mount Vernon-Belvedere]] tomey neighborhood around the landmark [[Washington Monument (Baltimore)|Washington Monument]] with its numerous wealthy, prominent and white residents. So this is the hidden "back story" of Baltimore's first major "urban renewal" project during the early [[First World War]] era.

The first B.M.T.S. / old "Poly" building was on the east side of the narrow lane of Courtland Street (north of the new monumental "pile of granite and marble" of the [[Baltimore City Circuit Courthouses|Baltimore City Courthouse]] then being planned for construction by the late 1890s), and north, above East Saratoga Street in a renovated former grammar (elementary) school from the early days of the Public Schools system with an additional wing built on the north side for the new technical and trades high school.

This first "Poly" site was later occupied by the [[Mercy Medical Center (Baltimore, Maryland)|Mercy Medical Center]] (formerly Mercy Hospital), founded in the 1870s, which built a new modern high-rise McCauley Tower in 1962–1963 after razing the old B.M.T.S. / Poly buildings of the 19th and early 20th century, They had been used after the school moved in 1913 by the new Baltimore City Department of Public Welfare (later renamed Social Services in the 1960s) since the establishment of the agency during the "[[New Deal]]" programs of the presidential administration of [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] in the early 1930s. The Public Welfare Department remained there for almost three decades. Mercy expanded further on the block uphill to the west from its original buildings on parallel North Calvert Street by Saratoga. During B.P.I.'s Centennial celebration in 1983, a large commemorative descriptive historical bronze plaque was placed in the Mercy front entrance lobby noting the significant site of the original beginnings and first building occupied by the City of Baltimore's premier technical high school for its first three decades, from 1883 to 1913, prior to its move to its second structure at the old [[Maryland School for the Blind]] mansion facing old Boundary Avenue since the 1860s what later became East North Avenue and North Calvert Street. With additional flanking east and west wings constructed and the renovation of the old Blind School center mansion, serving the B.P.I., residing there for another 54 years from 1913 to 1967.

InterscholasticBy athleticsthe atearly Baltimore1890s, the City College datewas back over 120 years. Though varsity sports were not formally organized until 1895, interscholastic athletics became a fixture at the school earlierplaying in the 19thnewly century.<ref>Leonhart (1939), p. 198</ref> In the late-1890s, City competed in theorganized [[Maryland Intercollegiate Football Association]] (MIFAM.I.F.A.), a nine-member athletic league consisting of colleges and schools in Washington, D.C., and Maryland area.<ref>Kings of American Football: The University of Maryland, 1890–1952, p. 28, Columbia Publishing Co., 19521952ns".</ref> City College was the lone secondary school among the old MIFA membership. The B.C.C. 1895 football schedule included [[St. John's College (Annapolis/Santa Fe)|St. John's College]] of [[Annapolis, Maryland|Annapolis]], [[Swarthmore College]], the [[United States Naval Academy]] at [[Annapolis, Maryland|Annapolis]], the former Maryland Agriculture College, (which later became after a 1920 merger (with the older original [[University of Maryland, Baltimore|University of Maryland at CollegeBaltimore]] Park|campus since 1807) to become the [[University of Maryland at College Park]], and also the [[Washington College]] across the [[Chesapeake Bay]] in [[Chestertown, Maryland]] (on the [[Eastern Shore of Maryland]]).<ref name="leonhart200">Leonhart (1939), p. 200.</ref> Between 1894 and 1920, the City College "Collegians" regularly faced off also against their neighbors at Howard and Centre Streets of the [[Johns Hopkins Blue Jays men's lacrosse|Johns Hopkins University "Blue Jays"]] and the [[Navy Midshipmen men's lacrosse|Navy Midshipmen]] in our state's team sport of [[lacrosse]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/jhop/sports/m-basebl/auto_pdf/2012-13/misc_non_event/series-history.pdf|title=Series Records vs. All Opponents|publisher=Johns Hopkins Baseball Record Book|pages=29–44|access-date=March 8, 2014|archive-date=March 8, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140308233554/http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/jhop/sports/m-basebl/auto_pdf/2012-13/misc_non_event/series-history.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/navy/sports/m-lacros/auto_pdf/2012-13/misc_non_event/opponents.pdf|title=Allll-Time Series Records|publisher=navysports.com|page=31|access-date=March 8, 2014|archive-date=March 8, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140308220522/http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/navy/sports/m-lacros/auto_pdf/2012-13/misc_non_event/opponents.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref>▼

▲[[File:The bcc b.JPG|thumb|right|upright|The Baltimore City College varsity letter]]

The Baltimore City College began competing on a regular extensive program schedule against the then few other public high schools and the many more numerous private / independent or parochial secondary schools in 1919 when it was invited to join the [[Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association|Maryland Scholastic Association (M.S.A.)]] as a founding member institution, with its organizing co-founder and B.C.C. teacher / coach (and future 10th Principal) Dr. Philip H. Edwards leading to form the new public / private athletic league.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1992-11-17/news/1992322108_1_schmied-memorial-stadium-city-public-schools|title=Otto K. Schmied, 101, city school supervisor|date=November 17, 1992|work=The Baltimore Sun}}</ref> Unfortunately, after 74 years of governing Baltimore metro area boys' high school athletics, the old Maryland Scholastic Association dissolved in 1993 when its 15 public high school members from the [[Baltimore City Public Schools]] including City College and its traditional arch-rival of the Polytechnic Institute, withdrew from the notable and unique public / private schools athletic league (rare throughout the nation) after 74 years under instructions from a new Baltimore City Public Schools superintendent (who had transferred from a position and career formerly in the surrounding suburban [[Baltimore County]] public schools system) and require the City's high schools to join the larger and widespread state association of public secondary schools (excluding competition with its former opponents in the private / independent and Roman Catholic high schools who had long been respected rivals / competitors for three-quarters of a century). So now Baltimore City schools joining the [[Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association]] its own racial integration controversy in the mid 1950s as several predominantly white high schools in the surrounding rural and suburban counties in the state did not wish to compete or play against the three black secondary schools in Baltimore City or the one high school recently opened near the [[county seat]] of [[Towson, Maryland|Towson]] in [[Baltimore County]] or others in Washington, D.C. or the very few others scattered around the state. The M.P.S.S.A.A., organized later after the old M.S.A. of 1919, was formed in the post-[[World War II]] period in 1946. Unfortunately this newer state athletic conference failed in its responses and policies until much later during the nationwide Civil Rights Movement up into the 1960s.ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.capitalgazette.com/news/the-dissolution-of-the-maryland-scholastic-association-will/article_8a5db259-4572-5537-8ae2-372619a8a47b.html?mode=jqm |archive-url=https://archive.today/20140308231846/http://www.capitalgazette.com/news/the-dissolution-of-the-maryland-scholastic-association-will/article_8a5db259-4572-5537-8ae2-372619a8a47b.html?mode=jqm |url-status=dead |archive-date=March 8, 2014 |title=The dissolution of the Maryland Scholastic Association |author=Wagner, Bill |date=September 19, 1993 |publisher=Capital Gazette }}</ref>

▲Interscholastic athletics at Baltimore City College date back over 120 years. Though varsity sports were not formally organized until 1895, interscholastic athletics became a fixture at the school earlier in the 19th century.<ref>Leonhart (1939), p. 198</ref> In the late-1890s, City competed in the [[Maryland Intercollegiate Football Association]] (MIFA), a nine-member league consisting of colleges in Washington, D.C., and Maryland.<ref>Kings of American Football: The University of Maryland, 1890–1952, p. 28, Columbia Publishing Co., 1952.</ref> City College was the lone secondary school among MIFA membership. The 1895 football schedule included [[St. John's College (Annapolis/Santa Fe)|St. John's College]], [[Swarthmore College]], the [[United States Naval Academy]], [[University of Maryland at College Park|University of Maryland]], and [[Washington College]].<ref name="leonhart200">Leonhart (1939), p. 200.</ref> Between 1894 and 1920, City College regularly faced off against the [[Johns Hopkins Blue Jays men's lacrosse|Johns Hopkins Blue Jays]] and the [[Navy Midshipmen men's lacrosse|Navy Midshipmen]] in lacrosse.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/jhop/sports/m-basebl/auto_pdf/2012-13/misc_non_event/series-history.pdf|title=Series Records vs. All Opponents|publisher=Johns Hopkins Baseball Record Book|pages=29–44|access-date=March 8, 2014|archive-date=March 8, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140308233554/http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/jhop/sports/m-basebl/auto_pdf/2012-13/misc_non_event/series-history.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/navy/sports/m-lacros/auto_pdf/2012-13/misc_non_event/opponents.pdf|title=All-Time Series Records|publisher=navysports.com|page=31|access-date=March 8, 2014|archive-date=March 8, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140308220522/http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/navy/sports/m-lacros/auto_pdf/2012-13/misc_non_event/opponents.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref>

The "Black Knights" currently compete with other public secondary schools in the MPSSAA (Class 3A, North Region, District 9), more commonly referred to as the Baltimore City League (Division 1), Efforts are made to routinely or occasionally schedule contests against other old former adversaries of past decades with area private, independent and parochial high schools in various sports such as longtime opponents [[Loyola Blakefield|Loyola High School at Blakefield]] and its traditional arch-rival [[Calvert Hall College High School|Calvert Hall College (high school)]], which City had been playing against for over 125 years.{{Citation needed|date=January 2021}}

Baltimore City College began competing against other secondary schools in 1919 when it was invited to join the [[Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association|Maryland Scholastic Association (MSA)]] as a founding member.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1992-11-17/news/1992322108_1_schmied-memorial-stadium-city-public-schools|title=Otto K. Schmied, 101, city school supervisor|date=November 17, 1992|work=The Baltimore Sun}}</ref> After 75 years of governing Baltimore-metro area boys' high school athletics, the Maryland Scholastic Association dissolved in 1993 when its 15 public school members, including City College, withdrew from the league to join the [[Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association]] (MPSSAA).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.capitalgazette.com/news/the-dissolution-of-the-maryland-scholastic-association-will/article_8a5db259-4572-5537-8ae2-372619a8a47b.html?mode=jqm |archive-url=https://archive.today/20140308231846/http://www.capitalgazette.com/news/the-dissolution-of-the-maryland-scholastic-association-will/article_8a5db259-4572-5537-8ae2-372619a8a47b.html?mode=jqm |url-status=dead |archive-date=March 8, 2014 |title=The dissolution of the Maryland Scholastic Association |author=Wagner, Bill |date=September 19, 1993 |publisher=Capital Gazette }}</ref> The Knights currently compete with other public secondary schools in the MPSSAA (Class 3A, North Region, District 9), more commonly referred to as the Baltimore City League (Division 1), but routinely schedule contests against area private schools in various sports.{{Citation needed|date=January 2021}}

The current City College varsity athletic program consists of 18 sports: six for boys, seven for girls, and five coeducational teams. The boys' sports includes baseball, basketball, [[American football|football]], [[lacrosse]], soccer, and [[scholastic wrestling|wrestling]]. The girls' sports are badminton, basketball, [[women's lacrosse|lacrosse]], soccer, [[softball]], and volleyball. The five co-ed sports are [[cross country running|cross country]], indoor track and field, swimming, outdoor track and field, and tennis. Girls' sports were added to City's athletic department in the fall of 1978 when the reorganized "[[Magnet school|magnet high school]]" became coeducational for the first time in its then-139-year-old history.{{Citation needed|date=January 2021}}

===Basketball===

{{Main|Baltimore City College boys' basketball}}

Basketball has been played at Baltimore City College for more than a century and a quarter dating back to the introduction of the new sport in America in the 1890s. One of the earliest recorded results in program history is a one-point overtime road loss to the future [[Maryland Terrapins men's basketball|University of Maryland at College Park's "Terrapins"]] (then known as the Maryland Agricultural College "Aggies" or "Cadets") on January 25, 1913.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.lib.umd.edu/blogs/univarch_exhibits/?p=426|title=Archival Attractions at the University of Maryland > The Lost Season: 1912–1913 Men's Basketball|date=April 4, 2011|publisher=University Libraries, University of Maryland|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131229103645/http://www.lib.umd.edu/blogs/univarch_exhibits/?p=426|archive-date=December 29, 2013}}</ref>

Baltimore City College currently competes in District 9 (Baltimore City League) of the MPSSAA.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/high-school/varsity-letters/bal-undefeated-and-no-1-city-boys-basketball-has-to-hit-the-road-for-region-title-game-20140307,0,4136833.story|title=Undefeated and No. 1 City boys basketball has to hit the road for region title game|author=Graham, Glenn|date=March 7, 2014|work=The Baltimore Sun}}</ref>

=== Football ===

{{Main|Baltimore City College football}}

The Baltimore City College football program began in the mid-1870s, and has won more than 20 MSAM.S.A. "A-Conference" and MPSSAA championships in its history. The Knights primarily competed against are colleges and universities throughout the 1880s and 1890s because only a few secondary schools existed at the time.<ref name="leonhart200"/> The program began competing against other high schools at the beginning of the 20th century, especially after the 1919 organization of the old MSA and has held since 1941 the record for the longest streak of games played without a loss in MSA and MPSSAA history.<ref name="mpssaa1">{{cite web|url=http://www.mpssaa.org/assets/publications/FallRecordBook.pdf|title=MPSSAA 2014 Fall Record Book}}</ref> The Knights"Collegians" played 54 consecutive games without a loss between 1934 and 1941.<ref name="mpssaa1"/> Harry Lawrence, who guided the KnightsCastle footballers to a 38-game undefeated streak between 1936 and 1940 (including 35&nbsp;wins, three&nbsp;ties, and four MSA championships), remains City College's most successful head football coach.<ref>{{cite book | editor-last = Harris | editor-first =Murray | title = The 1940 Green Bag | publisher = The 1940 Senior Class | year = 1940| location =Baltimore}}</ref>

==== City–Poly rivalry (1889–present) ====

{{Main|City College-Polytechnic football rivalry}}

The City-Poly football rivalry is considered the oldest [[American football]] rivalry in Maryland, and one of the [[List of high school football rivalries|oldest public school football rivalries]] in the United States.<ref name="Patterson">{{cite book | last = Patterson | first = Ted | title = Football in Baltimore: History and Memorabilia | publisher = Johns Hopkins University Press | year = 2000 | location =Baltimore | page =7 | isbn = 0-8018-6424-0}}</ref> The rivalry began in 1889, when the City College met the then six-year old Baltimore Manual Training School (later renamed the [[Baltimore Polytechnic Institute]] ( - "Poly" after 1893) at the old [[Johns Hopkins]] country estate, (recently purchased by the City in 1894 for a park) at [[Clifton Park (Baltimore)|Clifton Park]] for a football scrimmage in which City's freshman team beat Polythe new B.M.T.S. from Courtland Street.<ref name="Patterson"/><ref>Leonhart (1939), p. 219.</ref> City remained undefeated in the growing series according to the records until 1908.<ref>Leonhart (1939), p. 221.</ref>

With City's most recent 44- to 6 win in 2023 they now lead the long-running athletic series with a record of 66-62-66–62, with 6 ties. 2023 marksmarked City's 11th straight win of the series<ref>{{cite webnews |last1=Graham |first1=Glenn |date=October 28, 2023 |title=City football claims dominant 44-644–6 win over Poly in 134th edition of rivalry: 'This game means everything for City' |url=https://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/high-school/bs-sp-va-city-poly-football-20231028-se6dleoc2nauhe4ihuv5vdadbq-story.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231031184713/https://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/high-school/bs-sp-va-city-poly-football-20231028-se6dleoc2nauhe4ihuv5vdadbq-story.html |archive-date=October 31, 2023 |access-date=October 31, 2023 |website=baltimoresun.com |publisherwork=[[Baltimore Sun]]}}</ref>

===Swimming===

On February 22, 2020, at the [[Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association]] 3A, 2A, 1A swimming and diving championships held in [[College Park, Maryland|College Park]], City's swim team finished in 14th place. City sophomore Taj Benton led the Knights, finishing 1st in the 100 -yard butterfly and 4th in the 200 -yard individual medley.<ref>{{cite web |title=MPSSAA_321AStateSwimChamps2020 -– 2/22/2020 |url=https://www.mpssaa.org/assets/1/6/SWM20_321A_Final_Results.pdf |website=mpssaa.org |publisher=Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association |access-date=February 25, 2020}}</ref> Benton is the first student from a [[Baltimore City Public Schools|Baltimore City public school]] to win a state championship in any statewide swimming event.{{Citation needed|date=January 2021}}

== Extracurricular activities ==

Baltimore City College offers more than 20 student clubs and organizations. These include chapters of national organizations such as the [[National Honor Society]] (established at the school in 1927) and [[Quill and Scroll]]. Service clubs include the [[Red Cross]] Club and Campus Improvement Association.<ref name="2007Greenbag">{{cite book | publisher = Baltimore City College | title = The 2007 Green Bag | year = 2007 | pages =16–19}}</ref> Other activities include the Drama Club, which produces an annual play, the Art Club, [[Model UN]], Band, Dance, and One City One Book, an organization that invites the entire school community to read one book selected by faculty and invites the author of the book for a reading, discussion, and question and answer period.<ref namerefname="2007Greenbag"/> In 2007, [[Pulitzer Prize]] winner, [[MacArthur Fellow]], and novelist [[Edward P. Jones]] discussed his book ''Lost in the City''. The school store is operated by students and managed by the [[Student Government]] Association. One of City College's most notable academic teams is the [[It's Academic]] team which participates on ''It's Academic'', a local version of the syndicated nationwide television show, broadcast originally when it begun in 1971 on [[WBAL-TV]] (Channel 11) and now seen on [[WJZ-TV]], (Channel 13), usually on Saturday mornings.<ref name="2007Greenbag"/>

=== Speech and debate/literary and debating societies ===

{{Main|Bancroft Literary Association and the Carrollton-Wight Literary Society}}

The Baltimore City College debate team has a long and storied tradition that dates back over 150 years. The speech and debate teams are formally referred to as the [[Bancroft Literary Association and Carrollton-Wight Literary Society|Bancroft and Carrollton-Wight Literary Societies]]. The school's first formal debate team within a student literary society was established in 1876 as the Bancroft Literary Association.<ref name="Leonhart_233">Leonhart (1939), p. 233.</ref> In 1878, a second competing rival society, the Carrollton Literary Society, was formed, named for Maryland's famous longest-living signer of the [[United States Declaration of Independence|Declaration of Independence]], the wealthiest man then in colonial era America and the only [[Roman Catholic]] member, / signer in the [[Second Continental Congress]] of [[Charles Carroll of Carrollton]] (1737–1832), representing Maryland.<ref name="Leonhart_233"/> That society was later renamed the "Carrollton-Wight Literary Society", in honor of the programgroup's first advisor, Professor Charles Wight, a celebrated faculty member during the 1870s, while the high school was then located in the first B.C.C. building of two on the site at Howard and Centre Streets, from 1875 to 1892, then 1899 to 1928.{{Citation needed|date=January 2021}}

Today, the speech and debate team competes in various speech events, Student Congress, Mock Trial, Lincoln-Douglas debate, and Policy Debate against teams throughout [[Maryland]] and routinely travels around the United States to compete on the national circuit. The team currently participates in four competitive debate leagues: the Baltimore Catholic Forensic League,<ref>{{cite web | title =About the BCFL | publisher = Baltimore Catholic Forensic League | url = http://bcfl.net/About.htm | access-date =July 13, 2007| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20070708183042/http://www.bcfl.net/About.htm| archive-date= July 8, 2007 | url-status= live}}</ref> the [[Baltimore Urban Debate League]],<ref>{{cite web | title =Baltimore City College High School | publisher = [[Baltimore Urban Debate League]] | url = http://budl.org/school?id=8&season=2006 | access-date =July 13, 2007|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070927011917/http://budl.org/school?id=8&season=2006 |archive-date = September 27, 2007|url-status=dead}}</ref> the Chesapeake region of the [[National Catholic Forensic League]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.baltimorecitycollege.us/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=52105&type=d |title=Baltimore City College |publisher=Baltimorecitycollege.us |date=December 31, 1999 |access-date=March 20, 2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923181840/http://www.baltimorecitycollege.us/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=52105&type=d |archive-date=September 23, 2015 }}</ref> and the [[National Forensic League]].<ref>{{cite web|title=School Profile |publisher=[[National Forensic League]] |url=http://www.nflonline.org/points_application/schoolprofile.php?id=5126 |access-date=July 13, 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927010553/http://www.nflonline.org/points_application/schoolprofile.php?id=5126 |archive-date=September 27, 2007 }}</ref> Several community partners, including the Abell Foundation and the [[Baltimore Community Foundation]], which endowed the Gilbert Sandler Fund for Speech and Debate in 2008, help provide financial support to the program.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bcf.org/tabid/168/default.aspx?c=SANDL|title=BCF 20 Minute Update|access-date=March 20, 2016}}</ref>

=== Bands and orchestra ===

[[File:CityPolyhalftime.jpg|thumb|upright|Baltimore City College Marching Knights' halftime show at [[M&T Bank Stadium,]] Novemberin 10,November 2007]]

The marching band at Baltimore City College was created in the late 1940s. At the time, the instrumental music program consisted of the orchestra, [[concert band]], and [[marching band]]. The director who brought the band to prominence was Dr. Donald Norton. In 1954, while on sabbatical, he was replaced by Professor Charles M. Stengstacke. The 65 member concert band doubled as a marching band in the fall. During halftime performances at home the band would form the shape of a heart or a car, but always ending the performance by forming the letters C-I-T-Y.<ref>Sirota (1954), p. 63.</ref>

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=== Choirs ===

[[File:Choir, Baltimore City College (2007).jpg|thumb|left|upright|TheBaltimore City College's choir performing the "[[Battle Hymn of the Republic]]" at the school's 2006 Hall of Fame Assembly]]

The Baltimore City College [[choir]] was founded in 1950 by Professor Donald Regier. Originally a co-curricular subject with only 18&nbsp;members, by 1954 it had developed into a major subject of study with 74&nbsp;students enrolled.<ref>Sirota (1954), p. 62.</ref>

Under the direction of Linda Hall, today's choir consists of four&nbsp;groups: the Mixed Chorus, the Concert Choir, the Singin'/Swingin' Knights, and the Knights and Daze Show Choir.<ref name="choir">{{cite web | last =Fahey | first =Richard | title =Mellifluous Melodies:City College High Choir continues to make sweet music | publisher = Baltimore City Public School System | year =2007 | url = http://www.bcps.k12.md.us/news/pdf/bced_Spr_2007_FINAL.pdf | access-date =July 26, 2007 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080410072514/http://www.bcps.k12.md.us/news/pdf/bced_Spr_2007_FINAL.pdf |archive-date = April 10, 2008|url-status=dead}}</ref>

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=== ''The Green Bag'' ===

''The Green Bag'' is the senior class and school annual / yearbook at theThe Baltimore City College. Published continuously since 1896, it is now approaching Volume 128 of publication. "The Bag" is the oldest publication still in existence and printed / issued usually annually at the school and is one of the oldest high school or college yearbooks in America.<ref>Leonhart (1939), p. 237.</ref> G. Warfield Hobbs Jr. (later anbecame a well-known [[Episcopal Church (United States)|Episcopal]] priest and academic doctor), president of the 1896 senior class and first editor-in-chief of ''The Green Bag'', gave the publication its longtime distinctive unique name in recognition of the role of City College graduates in political, and legal / judicial leadership. Historically, the famous green "[[carpet bag]]" in the 19th century containing the lists of political appointees (also known as "[[patronage]]") of the sitting [[Governor of Maryland]] to be approved by the [[Maryland General Assembly|General Assembly of Maryland]] has long been known as the "green bag" lists (and is still referred to as such by modern day local press journalists, thoughreporters and editors including the newer media of television and radio, although the derivation of the term is unknown. The term has already been researched into its origins by the staff at the [[Maryland State Archives]] / Hall of Records at the state capital of [[Annapolis, Maryland|Annapolis]], most recently in 2003. The term became synonymous with "good news" and "glad tidings", such as could be applied to the feelings that recent graduates felt when seeing and reading their new yearbooks published soon after their graduations.<ref>{{cite web | title= The History of Maryland's Green Bag | publisher=Maryland State Archives | year=2003 | url=http://speccol.mdarchives.state.md.us/msa/speccol/catalog/topics/html/green_bag.html |access-date=August 1, 2007| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20070624132741/http://speccol.mdarchives.state.md.us/msa/speccol/catalog/topics/html/green_bag.html| archive-date= June 24, 2007 | url-status= live}}</ref>

The first yearbooks contained sketches of faculty and seniors, and included recollections, anecdotes, stories, and quotes significant to the student body. Underclassmen were included for the first time with individual portraits in the growing student body in 1948. In 2007, ''The Green Bag'' released its first full-color edition, one of the most colorful since color printing of photographs was first introduced in ''The Bag'' in 1963 and again in 1967, repeated in 1972 under new publisher / printer of Josten's American Yearbook Company. For many years the annual was printed by the local well-known printer/publisher of H.G. Roebuck and Son, owned by a City alumnus up to 1970<ref>{{cite book | last = Baltimore City College | title = The 2007 Green Bag v. 111 | year = 2006 | page = 3}}</ref> The most controversial issue of ''The Green Bag'' was the so-called "Green Bag Affair" celebrated and described in the several local daily newspapers of the time and read by many turn-of-the-century Baltimoreans. Volume 5 of the still new concept of a school or class yearbook published in the millennial year of 1900 when members of the senior classClass of 1900, used the annual to make fun of their professors, printing a cartoon showing various faculty members (easily identifiable) as distinctive, unique and rare exhibited specimen animals in a group of cages as in a zoo!!. The Baltimore City Board of School Commissioners were not however greatly amused or tolerant feeling betrayed and insulted themselves by the young Collegians and attempted to censor the edition by requiring ''The Green Bag'' to be reviewed by then President / Principal Francis A. Soper. The yearbook had however already been printed, and in defiance of the schoolSchool boardBoard, the editors refused to have the edition censored, cutting out the offensive cartoon and reprinted. The schoolSchool boardBoard responded by withholding the treasured City College diplomas of six of the offending editors and the business manager and by preventing the City's premier high school from holding a public commencement ceremony. Onewhich were often attended by the general public in those days as one of only five secondary schools in the region or have the boys expelled, Clarence Keating Bowie, a quarter-century later even became a member of the schoolvery boardsame School Board himself in 1926. TheCoincidentally, the infamous cartoon was later printed for the first time in aan issue of ''"The Bag"'' in an opening feature segment with a B.C.C. chronology and historical photos / illustrations montage on Castle school history in 1972 in Volume 77.<ref>Leonhart (1939), p. 77.</ref>

<!-- Deleted image removed: [[File:The Collegian (Baltimore City College newspaper - front page, vol. 77 no. 1).jpg|thumb|left|''The Collegian'', Vol. 77.1]] -->

=== ''The Collegian'' ===

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== Alumni Association ==

[[File:2007 Hall of Fame ceremony (Baltimore City College).jpg|thumb|right|2007 Hall of Fame ceremony]]

The Baltimore City College Alumni Association Inc. (BCCAA) was established in 1866 as a support network for City College. The BCCAA holds an annual meeting at the school every November and its board of governors meets the first Monday of each month at the school.{{Citation needed|date=January 2021}}

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=== Trustees of the Baltimore City College Scholarship Funds ===

The Trustees of the Baltimore City College Scholarship Funds, Inc., was established and incorporated in 1983, and replaced a similar entity that was established in 1924. The Trustees manage endowments, most of which provide annual scholarships to graduating seniors based on criteria stipulated by the donors. Combined endowment assets are currently valued at or around $1.68 &nbsp;million (adjusted for inflation) covering thirty-four annual scholarships.<ref>{{Cite book| first =Jacob| last =Howard| title =Serving the BCC Community since 1866| year =2007| place =Baltimore| publisher =Baltimore City College Alumni Association| page=4}}</ref> To recognize the custodianship provided by the Trustees, the BCCAA has placed a bronze plaque in the main hall of the school which carries an individually cast nameplate for each of the thirty-four permanent endowments held by the Trustees.<ref>{{Cite book| first =Neil| last =Bernstein| title =BCCAA memo| year =2008| place =Baltimore| publisher =Baltimore City College Alumni Association| page=4}}</ref>

=== Baltimore City College Hall of Fame ===

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{{Main|List of Baltimore City College alumni}}

Many City College alumni have become civil servants, including three of the 10&nbsp;individuals currently representing the state of Maryland in the [[U.S. Congress]], Congressman [[Dutch Ruppersberger]] and Senators [[Ben Cardin]] and [[Chris Van Hollen]].<ref name=wjz>{{cite web|url=http://wjz.com/local/local_story_115213044.html |title=City College Designated A Baltimore Landmark |access-date=July 29, 2007 |date=April 25, 2007 |publisher=CBS Broadcasting Inc |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927195132/http://wjz.com/local/local_story_115213044.html |archive-date=September 27, 2007 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Among graduates with significant military service are two [[Commandant of the Coast Guard|Commandants of the U.S. Coast Guard]] – Rear Admiral [[Frederick C. Billard]]<ref name = "Leonhart_p274">Leonhart (1939), p. 274.</ref> and Admiral [[J. William Kime]],<ref>{{cite web | title=J. William Kime 1990–1994 | publisher=United States Coast Guard | url=http://www.uscg.mil/history/people/JWKimeBio.asp | access-date=January 25, 2012}}</ref> as well as 2nd Lieutenant Jason Kilar of the [[United States Marines|U.S. Army Marines]]<ref>Leonhart (1939), p. 303.</ref> the only individual to serve on both [[atomic bomb]] missions over Japan in 19441945. In addition, four City College alumni are also recipients of the congressional [[Medal of Honor]], the nation's highest military award.<ref>{{cite journal| last=Branch|first=Al|title=A Magnet School with Real Pull| journal=Curriculum Administrator|volume=36 |issue=11|pages=24–25|date=December 2000}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal| title=City College remembers three heroic alumni| last=Rasmussen| first=Frederick N.| date=November 10, 2007| access-date=December 2, 2007| journal=The Baltimore Sun| url=https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-2007-11-10-0711100177-story.html| archive-date=January 3, 2020| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200103161650/https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-2007-11-10-0711100177-story.html| url-status=dead}}</ref>

The list of BCC alumni also includes prominent scientists, notable writers and models, and successful businessmen.{{Citation needed|date=January 2021}}

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== Notable faculty members ==

{{alumni|people|date=August 2020}}

[[File:Coach Eugene Parker (1984).jpg|upright|thumb|Coach Eugene Parker, in 1984]]

* [[Ed Burns]], [[Edgar Award]]-winning writer for ''[[The Corner]]'' and ''[[The Wire (TV series)|The Wire]]''<ref>{{cite web | last=Simon | first=David| author-link=David Simon (writer) | title=A Letter from David Simon | publisher= Home Box Office, Inc | year=2007 | url=http://www.hbo.com/thewire/interviews/ed_burns_intro.shtml | access-date=December 12, 2007| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20080109070052/http://www.hbo.com/thewire/interviews/ed_burns_intro.shtml| archive-date= January 9, 2008 | url-status= live}}</ref>

* [[McFadden Newell]], first principal of [[Towson University]]<ref>{{cite web|publisher=Towson University| url=http://www.towson.edu/housing/prospective/halls/newell.asp|access-date=November 26, 2007|date= July 2, 2007|title=Newell Hall| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20080107012404/http://www.towson.edu/housing/prospective/halls/newell.asp| archive-date= January 7, 2008 | url-status= live}}</ref>

* [[ZZ Packer]], author, [[Guggenheim Fellowship|Guggenheim Fellow]]<ref>{{cite web|last=Skurnick |first=Lizzie |title=Being Famous Elsewhere: On the Road with ZZ Packer |publisher=Baltimore City Paper |date=April 23, 2003 |url=http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=5012 |access-date=December 12, 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070213003038/http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=5012 |archive-date=February 13, 2007 }}</ref>

* [[George L. P. Radcliffe]], U.S. Senator<ref>{{cite web|title=The George L. Radcliffe Papers|publisher=Maryland Historical Society| access-date=December 29, 2007| url=http://www.mdhs.org/library/Mss/ms002280.html}}</ref>

* [[Joel I. Seidman]] (1906–1977), professor and author of ''The [[Yellow dog contract|Yellow Dog Contract]]''

* [[Robert Herring Wright]], first president, [[East Carolina University]]<ref>{{cite web|last=Rives|first=Ralph Hardee|url=http://docsouth.unc.edu/wwi/wright/bio.html|access-date=October 29, 2007|title=Robert Herring Wright|publisher=University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill}}</ref>

* [[George Young (football executive)|George Young]], NFL executive, Generalgeneral Managermanager [[New York Giants]]<ref>{{cite news |last1=Thomas |first1=Robert McG. Jr. |author-link=Robert McG. Thomas |last2=Rogers |first2=Thomas |title=He Graded Out Well |work=New York Times | date= March 30, 1987 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/03/30/sports/sports-world-specials-he-graded-out-well.html | access-date=December 12, 2007}}</ref>

== Principals ==

[[File:Principal Cindy Harcum and student.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|PrincipalCurrent principal Cindy Harcum and the school's basketball team captain Bond at a ceremony recognizing the team's [[Maryland]] state championship inat the [[Maryland House of Delegates|House of Delegates]] in [[Annapolis, Maryland|Annapolis]], in 2014]]

{{mainlist| History of Baltimore City College#Principals}}

* [[Nathan C. Brooks]] (1839–1849), first principal of "The High School".

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* Joseph Elliott

* Francis A. Soper (1890–1911), longest serving tenured principal of 21 years<ref name="soperref">{{cite book |editor=Leonhart, James Chancellor

| title = One Hundred Years of The Baltimore City College, 1839 -– 1939 | url= https://books.google.com/books?id=2it-AAAAIAAJ&q=%22Francis+A.+Soper%22%2BBaltimore| access-date =June 1, 2010 | year=1939 | publisher=George W, Johns Hopkins University | page = 192}}</ref>

* Wilbur F. Smith (1911–1926)

* Dr. Frank R. Blake (1926–1932)

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* Dr. Jerome G. Denaburg (1967–1970)

* Pierre H. Davis, (1970–1974), first Black principal

* Dr. Solomon Lausch (1979-1979–?)

* Dr. Joseph Antenson

* Ms. Doris Johnson (acting)

* Dr. Joseph Wilson

* Cynthia (Cindy) Harcum (2010–present), one of the first female graduates of the City College, later became its first female principal.

{{Clear}}

==References==