St. Paul’s School for Boys
Brooklandwood, or Brookland Wood, was a historic home in the Brooklandville community of Baltimore County. It was built during the mid-1790s on land purchased by Charles Carroll of Carrollton, a delegate to the Continental Congress in 1776 and a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Brooklandwood became the country home of Carroll’s daughter, Mary Carroll Caton, and her husband Richard Caton. The estate was later owned by prominent banker George Brown, of Alexander Brown & Sons, and then Isaac Emerson, the inventor of Bromo-Seltzer. In 1952, the property was developed for the St. Paul’s School for Boys.
Historic Photo Courtesy of the Maryland Center for History and Culture
The Maryland Center for History and Culture (MCHC) collects, preserves and interprets the history, art and culture of Maryland. Originally founded as the Maryland Historical Society in 1844, MCHC offers a museum, library and education programs to inspire critical thinking, creativity and community. Visit in person at 610 Park Ave. in Baltimore, Wednesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., or online at mdhistory.org. View a selection of images
from MCHC’s collections, including more images of Brooklandwood, at mdhistory.org/digital-collections.
I attended St. Paul’s School for Boys back between 1958 and 1964 and graduated first in my class academically for the 4 years of high school. I found the place stifling. While nominally associated with The Episcopal Church they worshipped graven images: shiny varsity lacrosse team victory trophies. In 2001 they had a huge society scandal when one of their jocks videotaped himself having sex with a girl, showed it to the team and parents found out. Both myself and #2 in my class were rejected by Harvard (I went to Yale, him to MIT) but Harvard accepted a boy with mediocre academics and A+ lacrosse who worked a miracle and beat Princeton for the first time in 43 years. I heard from Head of the Board of Trustees Dr. Huang that their lacrosse team actually loses games these days. They no longer have a head master (this was after 1863 in USA): now they have a Head of School. It is far better now than when I was there in the Dark Age of in loco parentis.