Baltimore Polytechnic Institute history

In the 1890's the school’s name was changed to the Baltimore Polytechnic Institute.

The official name of the school was changed in the 1893 to "The Baltimore Polytechnic Institute" by the Baltimore City Board of School Commissioners.

The steady growth of the school population resulted in the school's relocation to North Avenue and Calvert Street in 1913.

The subsequent trial began on June 16, 1952.

The first of those students to graduate from Poly was Doctor Carl O. Clark in 1955.

Food for thought: First, when the “new” Poly campus opened in September 1967, all Poly boys took swimming as part of the physical education program.

By June 18, 1970, the official graduation date of the Class of 1970, approximately six hundred soon to be graduates would gather in the Baltimore Civic Center for their commencement exercise, dressed in white dinner jackets, and demonstrating their pride in their years of perseverance and hard work.

In 1974, Poly officially became coeducational when it began admitting female students.

Doctor Clark went on to become the first African-American to graduate from the University of South Carolina with a degree in physics in 1976.

Williams worked her way through the Poly ranks from student (Class of 1981), to teacher, then department head, to assistant principal, and to dean of students, before appointment to her current position as director.

In August 2010, assistant principal Matthew Woolston, was appointed interim director.