History of the University of Maryland, College Park facts for kids
The history of the University of Maryland, College Park started in 1856. That's when the school, then called the Maryland Agricultural College, was officially created. The state of Maryland took full control of the school in 1916, and it was renamed Maryland State College. Later, in 1988, the school became the main campus of the new University of Maryland System and was formally named University of Maryland, College Park.
How it All Began
On March 6, 1856, the school we know today as the University of Maryland was founded as the Maryland Agricultural College. Two years later, Charles Benedict Calvert, a farmer and a future U.S. Congressman, bought 420 acres (about 1.7 square kilometers) of land in College Park. He believed strongly in teaching about farming. Calvert started the school that same year using money from selling special certificates.
On October 5, 1859, the first 34 students began their studies at the Maryland Agricultural College. Four of them were Charles Calvert's own sons. The main speaker on opening day was Joseph Henry, who was the first leader of the Smithsonian Institution.
In July 1862, the Maryland Agricultural College gave out its first degrees. In the same month, President Lincoln signed a law called the Morrill Land Grant Act. This law gave federal money to schools that taught farming, engineering, or military training. The Maryland legislature approved this law in February 1864, and the school became a land grant college. This meant it would receive federal support for these important subjects.
During the Civil War
Just a few months after becoming a land grant college, the Maryland Agricultural College became an important spot during the American Civil War. In April 1864, General Ambrose E. Burnside and 6,000 Union soldiers camped on the campus. They were on their way to help General Ulysses S. Grant's forces in Virginia.
Later that summer, about 400 Confederate soldiers, led by General Bradley Tyler Johnson, stayed on the campus. They were getting ready for a raid against Washington. A local story says that the university's president, Henry Onderdonk, who supported the Confederacy, welcomed the soldiers warmly. The story even claims they had a party on campus, nicknamed "The Old South Ball." The next morning, the soldiers rode off to cut communication lines between Washington and Baltimore.
The war caused big money problems for the college. Administrators had to sell off 200 acres of land. Fewer and fewer students enrolled, and the Maryland Agricultural College went bankrupt. For the next two years, the campus was used as a school for boys.
After the Civil War, the Maryland government helped the college get out of bankruptcy. In February 1866, the state took half ownership of the school. This made the college partly a state institution. George Washington Custis Lee, the son of Confederate General Robert E. Lee, was chosen to be president, but he turned down the job because of public protests.
By October 1867, the school reopened with 11 students. Over the next six years, more students joined, and the school's debt was finally paid off. Twenty years later, the school began to be known for its research when the federally funded Agricultural Experiment Station was created there. During this time, state laws also gave the college power to control farm diseases, inspect feed, and set up a state weather office and a geology survey.
In 1888, the college started its first official baseball games against other schools like St. John's College and the United States Naval Academy. However, baseball had been played at the college for many years before these official games. The first student club, called Phi Sigma Kappa, was started in 1897. The next year, Morrill Hall, which is the oldest teaching building still in use on campus, was built.
The Big Fire of 1912
On November 29, 1912, around 10:30 PM, a fire started in the attic of the newest administration building. It was probably caused by bad electrical wires. A Thanksgiving dance was happening there. About 80 students safely left the building. Then, they tried to put out the fire by forming a line and passing buckets of water. Fire departments from nearby Hyattsville and Washington, D.C., arrived too late.
A strong wind made the fire spread quickly. It destroyed the student dorms, all the school's records, and most of the academic buildings. Only Morrill Hall was left untouched. The damage was estimated at $250,000 (which would be about $5.8 million today). Luckily, no one was hurt or died. The damage was so bad that many people thought the university would never open again. University President Richard Silvester was so sad that he resigned.
However, the students didn't give up. All but two students came back after the break and insisted that classes continue as usual. Families in nearby towns housed the students until new dorms could be built. A new administration building wasn't built until the 1940s.
Today, a large brick and concrete compass is set into the ground on campus. It marks the old center of the campus from 1912. Lines on the compass point to each building that was destroyed in the Thanksgiving Day fire. The spot where these lines meet on the compass is called "The Point of Failure." A well-known campus story says that any student who walks on "The Point of Failure" will not graduate from the University of Maryland in four years.
Modern Times
The state took full control of the school in 1916, and it was renamed Maryland State College. That same year, the first female students enrolled at the school. On April 9, 1920, the college became part of the larger University of Maryland. It replaced St. John's College, Annapolis as the main campus for undergraduate students. In the same year, the graduate school in College Park gave out its first PhD degrees, and the university had 500 students. By 1925, the university was officially recognized by the Association of American Universities.
During World War II, Maryland was one of many colleges that took part in the V-12 Navy College Training Program. This program helped students join the Navy as officers.
By 1951, when the first black students enrolled at the university, there were nearly 10,000 students. About 4,000 of them were women. Elaine J. Coates was the first African American student to graduate from the University of Maryland in 1959.
In 1957, President Wilson H. Elkins worked to make academic standards higher at the university. His efforts led to one of the first Academic Probation Plans. In the first year of this plan, 1,550 students (18% of all students) faced being expelled. Since then, the school's academic standards have continued to improve. Because of these improvements, a respected academic honor society called Phi Beta Kappa started a chapter at the university in 1964. In 1969, the university was chosen to join the Association of American Universities. The school kept growing, and by the fall of 1985, it had 38,679 students. Like many colleges during the Vietnam War, the university saw student protests, and sometimes the National Guard had to enforce curfews.
In 1970, the Maryland General Assembly created a network of five University of Maryland campuses. These included University of Maryland at Baltimore, University of Maryland Baltimore County, University of Maryland, College Park, University of Maryland Eastern Shore, and the University of Maryland University College.
In 1988, there was a big change in the state's higher education system. The College Park school was chosen as the main campus of the new University of Maryland System (which later became the University System of Maryland in 1997). It was officially named University of Maryland, College Park. All five campuses in the old network became separate campuses in this new system. However, in 1997, the Maryland General Assembly passed a law allowing the University of Maryland, College Park, to be known simply as the University of Maryland. This recognized its role as the leading institution in the University System of Maryland.
The other University System of Maryland schools with "University of Maryland" in their name are not smaller branches of College Park. For example, the University of Maryland, Baltimore is the only other school allowed to give out certain degrees from the "University of Maryland." This is because the Baltimore school mainly offers advanced degrees in fields not taught in College Park, such as nursing, dentistry, law, and medicine.
In 1994, the National Archives at College Park finished building and opened on land next to the campus. The University of Maryland donated this land. This happened after efforts by President William Kirwan and government leaders to encourage teamwork between the university and the Archives.
The 21st Century
On September 24, 2001, a tornado hit the College Park campus. It sadly killed two female students and caused $15 million in damage to 12 buildings. That same year, the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center opened. It was the largest single building ever built by the State of Maryland and became the main arts center on campus.
In 2004, the university began building the 150-acre "M Square Research Park." This is the largest research park inside the Capital Beltway (a highway around Washington D.C.). It includes facilities connected to the U.S. Department of Defense, the Food and Drug Administration, and a new center for weather and climate prediction, linked with The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
In 2006, the university started a 7-year campaign called "Great Expectations" to raise $1 billion from private donations. In 2008, the university shared a new 10-year plan. This plan included ideas for the East Campus Redevelopment Project. This project would bring, among other things, housing for graduate students on campus and a modern music and entertainment center.
In May 2010, construction began on a new $128-million, 158,068 square foot Physical Science Complex. This complex includes an advanced quantum science laboratory, funded by the ARRA. The university hopes this will be the best facility in the world for this type of research.
The university's leaders have recently been involved in discussions about building a light-rail line through campus. This would give the University another way to connect to the Washington Metro system. On August 16, 2010, Wallace Loh, who was the Provost of the University of Iowa, was named President of the University, starting on November 1.
