The Canton branch of Baltimore’s Enoch Pratt Free Library, at Ellwood Avenue and O’Donnell Street, is the last surviving Pratt-operated structure of the library’s original four branches. All were designed in the same red brick, cottage-like Victorian style by local architect Charles L. Carson. Opened on February 15, 1886, the Canton Branch has served the Canton, Highlandtown and Brewers Hill neighborhoods for generations, and it is beloved by residents. Time, changing tastes and lack of funding led to the exterior brick to be painted by the 1970s, but neighbors eventually intervened to restore the structure. The Friends of the Canton Library, formed in 1993, helped organize a 125th birthday celebration for the branch in 2011, and they led the effort to raise $275,000 for a four-year, $2.9 million restoration that was completed in time for the building’s 130th anniversary in 2016.
