The University of Baltimore: Law and Business Classes after Work

The University of Baltimore began classes at 625 Saint Paul Street in Baltimore, Maryland, on October 1, 1925. Initially a private evening school, it offered law and business education to working men and women. Its first prospectus placed its central-city location and service to employed people together on the cover. Near Mount Vernon Square, it used space in an urban residence rather than beginning with a large suburban campus.

The university’s history dates incorporation to August 8 and identifies nine founders led by Maynard Clemens, including P. Lewis Kaye, R. Loran Lansdale, Howell King and Clarence Miles. They brought both educational and professional backgrounds. Opening enrollment comprised 62 law students and 114 business-administration students. Legal incorporation and the start of teaching were separate stages within the same year.

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The first prospectus scheduled law classes from 5:40 to 7:40 p.m., with second- and third-year moot courts after 8 p.m. Business courses mainly occupied two evening periods on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, ending at 9:50 p.m. These hours allowed employed people to continue studying, while committing their weekday evenings to a sustained course.

Business admission offered several routes. High-school graduates or applicants with equivalent attainment could enroll for degrees. Mature applicants without completed high-school education could study as special students but had to meet entrance requirements before transferring to degree status. People seeking only one or two subjects could register for individual courses. Students lacking mathematics or English preparation had to take non-credit remedial instruction. Wider entry routes accompanied continuing academic requirements.

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The prospectus named Charles Heuisler as the law school’s first dean. Teachers included federal prosecutor Amos Woodcock, assistant state prosecutor Eugene Edgett and practicing lawyers. Miles taught domestic relations. The curriculum linked basic subjects such as contracts, criminal law and property with evidence, corporations, bankruptcy and procedure, arranging knowledge with legal practice in view.

The prospectus advocated combining textbooks, lectures, discussion, tests and illustrative cases around legal principles. It expressed reservations about directly applying a full-time law school’s case method to evening education. This was the founders’ teaching judgment within limited class hours. Degree arrangements also relied partly on another institution: under cooperation with National University in Washington, that university would temporarily recognize the work and award bachelor-of-laws degrees to graduates of the three-year law course.

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Business education extended beyond bookkeeping and office procedures. The program began with two common years including English, government, economic resources, psychology, economic history and principles of economics. The following two years divided into accounting, banking and finance, and general business. Accounting included taxation, cost accounting, auditing and certified-public-accountant problems; finance added investments, foreign exchange and corporate financing.

Teachers came from both education and urban professional networks. Kaye taught economics, Lansdale appeared as the head of an advertising company, and accountants taught accounting and auditing. The prospectus also planned a political-science track and electives in languages, literature and journalism, placing professional instruction on a broader foundation.

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The 1925–1926 fee schedule gives concrete dimensions of the school’s operation. Regular and special students paid a ten-dollar registration fee; law tuition was 150 dollars per academic year. One two-credit business course cost twenty dollars for a semester or thirty-five dollars for both semesters. A diploma or certificate carried a further ten-dollar fee. Course-based charging helped students pace their studies, though evening education still required money and time.

Publishing courses, fees and evening schedules together let students plan their studies and founders organize staff and rooms around enrollment. The city’s professions supplied teachers and practical cases, which the school assembled into continuing programs. Working people gained a route to legal and business education alongside their professional lives.

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