From 1878-1889, the Peale was part of the new public school system being developed in Baltimore to provide free education to African Americans in the city. Known as “Male and Female Colored School Number 1,” the building was the site of one of the first grammar schools in Baltimore’s Colored School system, and the first High School available to people of color in the State of Maryland.

Understanding the historic context from which Baltimore’s schools have been formed has never had greater urgency and importance for the Baltimore community. Up until now, the story of the ‘colored’ school system and education in Baltimore has never been comprehensively researched and presented in a way that invites public engagement.

The early history of Colored School No.1 (Male and Female) begins with the Baltimore Association for the Moral and Intellectual Improvement of the Negro. What would become Colored School No. 1 was the largest school operated by the Association from 1864 to 1867, the period that they were responsible for the operation of the schools for colored children in Baltimore. When they turned over the schools under their control to the Board of School Commissioners in 1867, that school disbanded. It was centrally located in a building on Calvert and Saratoga streets.