The site selected when the University was opened in the heart of
Baltimore, near the corner of Howard and Monument streets, has proved so
convenient, that from time to time additional property in that
neighborhood has been secured and the buildings thus purchased have
either been modified so as to meet the academic needs, or have given
place to new and commodious edifices.
The principal buildings now in use are these:
(1). A central administration building, in which are the class-rooms for
classical and oriental studies.
(2). A library building, in which are also rooms devoted especially to
history and political science.
(3). A chemical laboratory well equipped for the service of more than a
hundred workers.
(4). A biological laboratory, with excellent arrangements for
physiological and morphological investigations.
(5). A physical laboratory--the latest and best of the
laboratories--with excellent accommodations for physical research and
instruction.
(6). A gymnasium for bodily exercise.
(7). Two dwelling houses, appropriated to the collections in mineralogy
and geology until a suitable museum and laboratory can be constructed.
(8). Levering Hall, constructed for the uses of the Young Men's
Christian Association, and containing a large hall which may be used for
general purpeses.
(9). Smaller buildings used for the smaller classes.
(10). An official residence of the President, which came to the
University as a part of the bequest of the late John W. McCoy, Esq.
The library of the university numbers nearly 45,000 well selected
volumes,--including "the McCoy library" not yet incorporated with the
other books, and numbering 8,000 volumes. Not far from 1,000 periodicals
are received, from every part of the civilized world. Quite near to the
university is the Library of the Peabody Institute, a large,
well-chosen, well-arranged, and well-catalogued collection. It numbers
more than one hundred thousand volumes.
The university has extensive collections of minerals and fossils, a
select zoological and botanical museum, a valuable collection of ancient
coins, a remarkable collection of Egyptian antiquities (formed by Col.
Mendes I. Cohen, of Baltimore), a bureau of maps and charts, a number of
noteworthy autographs and literary manuscripts of modern date, and a
large amount of the latest and best scientific apparatus--astronomical,
physical, chemical, biological, photographical, and petrographical.