
We’re moving out of Baltimore today and into Baltimore County. If you are from out of state, you should know that those are two completely distinct jurisdictions. The city of Baltimore is not a part of Baltimore county or of any other county. This building was originally built in 1872 as the third alms house for Baltimore county, the first two being just down the road a bit. Today it houses the county historical society.
I used to remember this place as where my mother would go when she needed to identify an unknown kind of plant. This sounds strange, but the reason why you would bring your plants here is because it was also home to the horticultural extension, (now just called the University of Maryland Extension) which is a community outreach program allowing citizens of the state to use the agricultural knowledge base of the school.
One more interesting piece of information about this building is that it was made from stone quarried on the premises. That sounds strange too. However, less than a mile from this place is a productive stone quarry that still operates to this day.