On May 23, 1865, the Baltimore Association opened a school at Havre de Grace under the leadership of Miss Mary J.C. Anderson. During that first year, Anderson managed up to 70 students entirely on her own, suggesting that the town’s children were hungry to learn after a prolonged drought of educational opportunities. By October of that same year, although attendance had “sadly decreased,” Anderson reported that the students “still manifest[ed] quite a decided interest in the school.” The children’s parents, too, seemed “pleased and satisfied, and [did] all they [could] to aid the [school’s] Trustees.” Even so, Anderson stated, the community “had abandoned the idea of building [a schoolhouse], at least for the present.” Records show that, as early as 1867, Anderson and her students instead rented a room from the local African Methodist Episcopal Church, Mt. Zion.
