Perched at Ellicott City’s highest point, the Patapsco Female Institute offered a revolutionary curriculum to young women from 1837-1891. The school earned a national reputation for its inclusion of botany, chemistry, languages, literature, math, and music in an effort to mold elegant young ladies into engaged, active citizens. Since the school’s closure at the end of the 19th century, the site has hosted a hotel, a Summer Theater, and briefly, a nursing home. The ruins of this grand example of Greek-revival architecture were stabilized and restored in 1993.Thanks to a recently discovered 1840’s student journal that contained pressed flowers and details about the original PFI gardens, the Mary Jerdone Coleman Garden was planted in June of 2022.
Explore a slice of the Victorian Era by taking a tour or attending an educational program at this breezy, hilltop historic park. On June and July weekends, enjoy Shakespeare in the Park by the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company.
