Towson University, Maryland’s metropolitan university, is nationally recognized for its excellent programs in the arts and sciences, communications, business, health professions, education, fine arts, and computer science. The university is located in Towson in Baltimore County, just eight miles north of downtown Baltimore. The university attracts its diverse student population (over 18,000 students in 2006) from 48 states and more than 100 countries. It also offers over 100 degree programs in the liberal arts and sciences and the applied professional fields.

Early History
What would become Towson University opened its doors on January 15, 1866, as the Maryland State Normal School (MSNS). Originally located in Red Men’s Hall, on North Paca Street in Baltimore City, MSNS was the first institution devoted exclusively to the preparation of teachers for the public schools of Maryland. McFadden Alexander Newell was the first principal (1866-1890) as well as the State Superintendent of Public Instruction (1868-1890). The school graduated its first class of 16 students in June 1866.

The Normal School rapidly outgrew its limited facilities on Paca and, in 1873, it moved to an old mansion (later known as the Athenaeum Club) at Franklin and Charles streets. This was to be a temporary home, for in 1874 the General Assembly appropriated money to construct a new building. In 1876, the ten-member faculty and 206 students of MSNS moved to its first building constructed specifically as a school. Located at Carrollton and Lafayette Avenues in West Baltimore, this new facility was used until 1915.

Expansion
By the early 1900s, the need for trained teachers was overwhelming. The Maryland Department of Education reported an annual need for 350 new teachers, but the Normal School was graduating fewer than 100 each year. The Carrollton Avenue facilities had become inadequate and antiquated. In 1910, Principal Sarah Richmond (1909-1917) began asking the school’s alumni and friends to join her campaign for a campus where Maryland’s future teachers could live and learn in a more appropriate environment.

During the 1912 General Assembly session, funds were authorized to purchase land and construct buildings, including dormitories. Sarah Richmond, a guiding force, played an instrumental role in the decision to locate the campus on an 80-acre site on York Road at the southern edge of Baltimore County. She also was involved in the planning and building phases of the project.

Next, construction began on the Administration Building (now Stephens Hall) in 1913. The architect, Douglas H. Thomas Jr., modeled the imposing Jacobean-style building on Blickling Hall, an English manor house once home to Anne Boleyn, the second of Henry VIII’s wives. Thomas also designed Baltimore’s Belvedere Hotel and the Johns Hopkins University Homewood campus. The new MSNS campus, comprising the Administration Building, Newell Hall dormitory, and the Power Plant, opened in September 1915.

Name Changes and New Requirements
The first of four name changes occurred in 1935 during the administration of Dr. Lida Lee Tall
(1920-1938). The state now required new public school teachers to have baccalaureate degrees instead of two-year teaching certificates. By 1935, the institution had established the Bachelor of Science degree in education and changed its name to Maryland State Teachers College at Towson.

Until 1946, the College confined itself to the single purpose of educating teachers. That year it established a junior college to offer two years of college work on a transfer basis. This was the foundation for the later development of the arts and sciences program. In 1960, the college expanded the junior college program into a four-year program in the arts and sciences leading to a bachelor’s degree. This change in focus was reflected in another name change, in 1963, to Towson State College. It offered its first graduate program, a program leading to the Master of Education degree in 1958.

The baby boom generation began to flock to college campuses in 1964, and during the next decade Towson State’s enrollment leaped from 3,537 to 13,399. The 1960s and 1970s saw the construction of new dormitories, the Center for the Arts, University Union, new classroom buildings, the Towson Center, Cook Library, and Minnegan Stadium.

Under the energetic leadership of President James L. Fisher, course offerings and programs at the undergraduate and graduate level expanded to meet the demands of a growing student population. In recognition of its development into a comprehensive university, Towson State College became Towson State University on July 1, 1976.

In July 1988, Towson State University joined the newly-established University System of Maryland. In 1997, another name change—to Towson University—reflected its evolution from a state-supported to a state-assisted institution during the administration of President Hoke L. Smith. From its unpretentious beginnings as a tiny school for teachers in downtown Baltimore, Towson University has grown to become Maryland’s second-largest public institution of higher education.

State Teachers College at Towson. Seventy-five Years of Teacher Education. Towson, Md.: The Alumni Association, 1941.