Old Catonsville High School
By 1909, a Black-owned blacksmith shop on this site was razed to make way for a school for Catonsville's white students, who could no longer fit in their building at the intersection of Winters Lane and Melrose Avenue. Controversy arose, however, with some residents wanting to lease the former school to the African American community, and others arguing for its renovation for a larger white student body. After intense debate, construction began for the new school building here, and the former building was ultimately sold to St. Mark’s.
Designed by a local Catonsvillian to mimic the 1893 Chicago World's Fair's architectural styles, Catonsville High School was completed in 1910. In contrast, Black elementary schoolers continued to be confined to the Catonsville “Colored School” at 100 Edmondson Avenue, which had no running water and limited space, and African American high schoolers were forced to travel to segregated schools in Baltimore City and pay tuition if they wanted secondary education. After years of being denied a larger school, Banneker High School was built in 1923 for Black students on the corner of Main and Wesley Avenue, where it served as an important center for the African American community until Catonsville's schools integrated in the 1960s.
In 1925, white high school students again outgrew the building and were moved from Frederick Road to 106 Bloomsbury Avenue, while the building was converted into an elementary school. In 2016, the elementary school moved to a renovated building, also on Bloomsbury Avenue, and the Frederick Road building was decommissioned as a school. Two years later, the school district converted it into a multipurpose space.
Catonsville Elementary School, circa 1926. Courtesy of Baltimore County Public Library.
“Before coming to Catonsville in the 90s, one of my colleagues at my school in North Baltimore said, ‘You don’t want to work in the same neighborhood where you live, because you never get away from the students.’ And I said, ‘I think it’ll be fine.’ And I loved it. I would walk to school in the morning and people would say hello.” Rebekah Kaufman, former elementary school librarian.
“I was in this beautiful building from 1998 to 2016, when the school moved to Bloomsbury. The library was on the right-hand side in the back. I have a zillion memories, we had author visits, literature nights, we would put on plays and act out stories. Storytelling was the best. There were lots of opportunities for me to have fun. It was wonderful introducing kids to new books and old books. We read and we discover characters, and very often the character will be someone who speaks to you. I never go anywhere without a book because you never know when you're going to have time to read.”