Biography
Born in North Middleborough, Massachusetts to Isaac and Naomi (née Keith) Pratt, and educated at the Bridgewater Academy in neighboring Bridgewater.
Enoch Pratt clerked in a Boston hardware firm before moving to Baltimore in 1831 to launch his own wholesale hardware business on South Charles Street.
Pratt married Maria Louisa Hyde (1818–1913), daughter of Samuel G. and Catherine Hyde, on August 1, 1837.
He became a capitalist and a friend of Andrew Carnegie. He learned ironmaking as a trade. He arrived in Baltimore in 1831 with $150, and went on to make his fortune. His involvement in corporations include the E. Pratt & Brothers of 23-25 S. Charles St., Baltimore; Maryland Steamboat Co., Director; Susquehanna Canal Co., 27 years; Vice-President of the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad; and director for three other railroads. He was a contemporary and associate of philanthropist Thomas Kelso. They served together on the board of the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad company. He built and donated a public library system to the City of Baltimore.
In 1851 Pratt and his partner invested in western Maryland coal mines and iron yards in the Baltimore neighborhood of Canton. They made their own merchandise, thereby ending their dependence on northern manufacturers.
From 1860 until his death, he was the president of the National Farmers' and Planters' Bank of Baltimore. Pratt also became president of the Baltimore Clearing House and the Maryland Bankers' Association, in addition to establishing a role in several transportation companies.
Pratt and his wife had no children. Pratt gave much of his time and wealth to Baltimore’s cultural and charitable institutions. He served as a trustee of the Peabody Institute as well as treasurer and chairman of its library committee. He founded the House of Reformation and Instruction for Colored Children at Cheltenham, and the Maryland School for the Deaf and Dumb at Frederick. In 1865, he donated a free school and public library to his hometown in Massachusetts.
In January 1882 construction began of an imposing white marble structure on Baltimore's Mulberry Street that opened five years later as the Enoch Pratt Free Circulating Library. The main branch of the library is now located on Cathedral Street in downtown Baltimore. After building a free central library and four branch libraries, he granted the city $833,333.31 to assure that the library that he gave the city would always be free to all citizens. Today twenty-three branches of the library serve patrons throughout Baltimore.
Pratt, upon his death in 1896 at his summer residence Tivoli, stipulated that his bequest be used to complete construction of the Sheppard Asylum, enlarge the facility to house 200 additional patients, serve the indigent, and that the name of the institution be changed to The Sheppard and Enoch Pratt Hospital. All of his conditions were met and The Sheppard and Enoch Pratt Hospital remains in operation today as the hospital component of the behavioral health provider, Sheppard Pratt Health System.
He is buried at the Greenmount Cemetery in Baltimore, Maryland.
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