Enoch Pratt

Enoch Pratt (1808 - 1896) was an American businessman in Baltimore, a Unitarian, and a philanthropist.

Born in North Middleborough, Massachusetts, and educated at the Bridgewater Academy there, 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.

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. E. Pratt & Brothers, 23-25 S. Charles St., Baltimore. Maryland Steamboat Co., Director, Susquehanna Canal Co., 27 years. Vice-President of Philadelphia, Wilmington, & Baltimore Railroad, director of three other Railroads. 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 1881 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. Today twenty-two branches serve patrons throughout Baltimore.

Pratt, upon his death in 1896, 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.

Pratt Street, named in his honor, is one of the busiest streets in Baltimore,adjacent to the popular Inner Harbor area, and is a major east-west downtown thoroughfare.