Editing Enoch Pratt Free Library (section)

==Central Library building ==

===Original (1886&ndash;2015)===
[[File:Old Landmark Baptist Church-Former Branch No. 5 – Enoch Pratt Free Library, 818 N. Broadway, Baltimore, MD 21205 (33645642565).jpg|thumb|left|Former branch number 5, now a church.]]
The merchant and financier [[Enoch Pratt]], in a letter to the [[Baltimore City Council]] on January 21, 1882, offered to donate and construct a free public library with several neighborhood branches open to all the citizens of the City of [[Baltimore]] (and its surrounding environs). After some debate and discussion which was also widely reported in the local newspapers,<ref>{{Cite news |date=January 23, 1882 |title=Enoch Pratt's Gift |work=The Sun}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=January 25, 1882 |title=Enoch Pratt's Gift |work=The Sun}}</ref> the mayor and council accepted the gift and the terms of its conditions later that year, which were subsequently approved by the citizens in a referendum held during an election that October, 1882.  Pratt’s donation consisted of $250,000 for land and building for the central library; $50,000 for land and building for four branch libraries; and $833,333 in cash for an endowment whose estimated annual return of $50,000, he anticipated, would finance expenses for management of the library system.<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Enoch Pratt Free Library of Baltimore City: Letters and Documents relating to its foundation and organization. |publisher=Enoch Pratt Free Library |year=1886 |edition=1886 |location=Baltimore |pages=49}}</ref> Construction of the Central Library began 1882; it opened on January 5, 1886 .  The first four branches also opened in 1886. Subsequently, Pratt gave funds for the construction of two more branches; one opened 1888 and the other in 1896. In 1899, [[Robert Poole (industrialist)|Robert Poole]], a Baltimore industrialist, built and gave to the City of Baltimore, a seventh branch located in Hampden.<ref>{{Cite news |date=August 2, 1899 |title="Woodberry Library. Mr. Robert Poole Gives The Site and Buildings. Seventh Pratt Branch" |work=The Sun}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Swett |first=Steven C. |author-link=Steven C. Swett |title=The Metalworkers |date=30 June 2022 |publisher=Baltimore Museum of Industry |isbn=978-0-578-28250-3 |pages=341–348}}</ref> In 1905, steel-maker and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie gave $500,000 for the construction of twenty more branches.<ref>{{Cite web |title=History of the Enoch Pratt Free Library |url=https://www.prattlibrary.org/about-us/history |access-date=May 1, 2023 |website=Enoch Pratt Free Library}}</ref> Because of closings, relocations, and reallocation of space, the Pratt system now has twenty-two active branches.

Designed by [[Charles L. Carson]], "Old Central" occupied a fraction of the same plot of land as its successor 47 years later, facing West Mulberry Street near the corner of [[Cathedral Street (Baltimore)|Cathedral Street]]. The structure's elaborate [[Romanesque Revival architecture]] became a target of criticism from journalists during  final years of existence: [[H. L. Mencken]] of ''[[The Baltimore Sun]]'', a frequent and prolific user of the branch at Calhoun and Hollins Streets, judged it "so infernally hideous that it ought to be pulled down by the common hangman".<ref name="mkzajacstylebal">However, later architectural historians come to a greater appreciation of the [[Victorian architecture|Victorian-era styles of architecture]].[http://www.baltimorestyle.com/index.php/style/baltimore/baltimore_a_cathedral_of_books_so11/ Zajac, Mary K. "A cathedral of books," ''Style Magazine'' (Baltimore), September-October 2011.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120221053642/http://www.baltimorestyle.com/index.php/style/baltimore/baltimore_a_cathedral_of_books_so11/ |date=2012-02-21 }}</ref>

===Current===
By the late 1920s, Old Central could no longer hold the library's continually expanding collection, even though an annex had been added at the rear.<ref name="eguntstbs">{{Cite web|url=http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2003-11-02/entertainment/0311030438_1_central-library-enoch-pratt-pratt-free-library|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130117193151/http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2003-11-02/entertainment/0311030438_1_central-library-enoch-pratt-pratt-free-library|url-status=dead|archive-date=January 17, 2013|title=Gunts, Edward. "A new chapter is opening for the Pratt Library," ''The Baltimore Sun'', Sunday, November 2, 2003.|date=2 November 2003 }}</ref> Baltimore City voters approved a loan for $3 million by an almost 3-to-1 margin on May 3, 1927. The Central Pratt Library's staff, services and 400,000 volumes were relocated to temporary quarters at the old Rouse-Hempstone Building at West Redwood Street and Hopkins Place (now the site of the [[Royal Farms Arena]] for a two-year stay during 1931–1933. At this temporary location, the Central Pratt was able to reorganize and plan for its future arrangements of departments and try out its soon-to-be famous "department store windows" displays<ref name="epflhistory"/>  It was razed in 1931, along with several townhouses facing Cathedral Street, including a significant one formerly owned by [[Robert Goodloe Harper]].

The replacement structure occupies the entire block facing the Old [[Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary|Baltimore Cathedral]].<ref name="mkzajacstylebal"/> Construction began in June 1931, during the darkest, most difficult days of the financial [[Great Depression]] and along with other major construction projects occurring at that time with the building of a new U.S. Courthouse and Post Office at [[Battle Monument]] Square at North Calvert and East Lexington-Fayette Streets, and the new Municipal Office Building on Holliday Street, across from the old [[Baltimore City Hall]] and the new Federal Courthouse/Post Office, offered an important source of desperately needed employment to the hundreds of out-of-work citizens of the city.<ref name="epflhistory"/>

The architects were C. and N. Friz, with consulting architects [[Edward Lippincott Tilton|Tilton & Githens]] from New York.<ref>{{cite web|title=Enoch Pratt Free Library NRHP Nomination Form|url=https://mht.maryland.gov/secure/medusa/PDF/Baltimore%20City/B-2068.pdf|website=State of Maryland|access-date=30 April 2018}}</ref>  The building was completed in January 1933, and opened to the public on February 3, with a record of not one day of suspended service since the original beginnings of "Enoch Pratt's Folly" on January 5, 1886.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.prattlibrary.org/uploadedFiles/www/services/meeting_rooms/CENTRALHALLwithmap.pdf|title=Information about the Central Library and its Central Hall&nbsp;– Enoch Pratt Free Library.|access-date=26 January 2018}}</ref> In Spring of 2016, ground was broken on a $115 million restoration of the historic Central Library. The building remained open to the public. February 11–19, the Central Library closed to the public to relocate departments to the newly renovated upper floors, and to begin renovation of the lower levels.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://baltimorefishbowl.com/stories/pratt-central-library-shut-9-days-first-floor-renovations/|title = Baltimore Fishbowl &#124; Pratt Central Library to Shut Down for 9 Days for First-Floor Renovations -|date = February 2018}}</ref> The restoration was completed in Fall of 2019. A Grand Reopening block party drew a crowd of 9,000 people.

In 2020, the Senator [[Barbara Mikulski|Barbara A. Mikulski]] Room, with mementos and Mikulski's [[Presidential Medal of Freedom]], was opened in the Central Library.<ref name="auto">{{Cite web|url=https://www.baltimoresun.com/politics/bs-md-pol-mikulski-capitol-20220608-clg3oiiixvaknd5glpvse2clxa-story.html|title=Out of 540 U.S. Capitol rooms, two now are named for female senators. One of them is Maryland's Barbara Mikulski.|website=Baltimore Sun|date=8 June 2022 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.prattlibrary.org/locations/central/mikulski-room|title=Senator Barbara A. Mikulski Room|website=Enoch Pratt Free Library}}</ref>

===Maryland Department===

The Maryland Department, located on the second floor of the 2004 Annex, contains many of the library's prized collections.  These include 275,000 mounted documents (mostly newspaper articles), 2100 maps, 6000 pieces of ephemera, and 24,000 photographs, all relevant to [[Maryland]] and [[History of Maryland|Maryland history]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Maryland Department: About the Collection|url=https://www.prattlibrary.org/locations/maryland/index.aspx?id=4860|access-date=3 December 2019|author=Enoch Pratt Free Library}}</ref> The Maryland Department also has a room full of books pertaining to Maryland, with an emphasis on [[Baltimore]].

Most materials in the Maryland Department are non-circulating but available for patrons to examine.