Jacob Tome School for Boys

 This school was founded in 1889 by the state of Maryland, with Jacob Tome as it’s founder and it was located on South Main Street in Port Deposit, MD. Due to its rigorous academics, the school became instantly popular and attracted students for Kindergarten through 12th grade from across the state. 

Once Tome passed away in 1898, he left the school an endowment of 3 million dollars, which in today’s money would be worth 85.7 million. Tome’s now widow took this money and made a more official campus for the school. The new school was built on more than 200 acres of land and the buildings were designed by William Boring and Edward L. Tilton who most recently had designed and completed the main buildings for Ellis Island in New York. Between 1900 and 1905, beautiful beaux art-style buildings were built all over the property.

The school remained popular, until the depression hit, and it was forced to close its doors in 1941. In 1942, by congressional order, the property was taken over and used as a Naval Training Grounds, which was in use during World War II, the Vietnam War, the Korean War, and the Cold War. The Navy operated out of this base until 1976, and it claimed to have over 500,000 graduates.

Walking through the ruins of the campus, you get an eerie feeling seeing these incredible works of architectural beauty swallowed up by nature and graffiti. On the main campus, 13 of the original buildings survive: Memorial Hall, the Monroe Gymnasium, 4 dormitories (one fitted with a cafeteria), the directors residence, and six master’s cottages.