62 Board of Public Works

board's function, however, was soon to change dramatically. In the decade after the
Civil War the country, and the state, entered the Industrial Age in earnest. The rapid
development of an industrial society, and all of its attendant economic and social
problems, caused new demands to be made upon state government. People looked to
the state for more and a greater variety of public services—education, public safety,
regulating the excesses of a capitalist system. These responsibilities, in turn, meant
an expansion of state government—new bureaus and offices, new public institutions—
that required public financing. It was not long before the General Assembly looked
to this unique body composed of the three ranking executive officials as a handy and
responsible agency to superintend the provision of these new services and the raising
of capital necessary to put them into place. And so, gradually, the Board of Public
Works began to manage not only state investments in a few private companies but
the acquisition and construction of considerable amounts and types of public property
and the basic fiscal affairs of the state as well.

One of the precursors of this new role of the Board of Public Works occurred in
1866 when the General Assembly, by Acts of 1866, chapter 46, authorized the board
to sell the governor's mansion to the U.S. government for an addition to the Naval
Academy. With the proceeds from the sale and such other money appropriated by law
the board was authorized to "procure, by purchase or otherwise, in the name of the
State of Maryland, a lot or parcel of ground in Annapolis, as a site for the future
residence of the governor of Maryland, and by erecting buildings and improvements
thereon, provide a suitable Mansion and Appurtenances for that purpose." If the board
carried out these duties, its minutes, normally quite detailed, do not reflect it.

Aside from the replacement of the governor's mansion, it took several years for
new duties to be thrust upon the board, and, for the most part, its focus remained on
the internal improvement companies until 1871. Beginning in May of that year the
board began to receive a number of offers for the exchange of state bonds for B & O
preferred stock, and most of its meetings throughout the next year and a half were
devoted to considering and approving these offers. These offers to exchange bonds for
railroad stock continued sporadically into 1876, and a sizable amount of preferred
stock of the B & O was sold in this manner—most of it through Robert Garrett and
Company.⁶ In addition to accepting the exchange offers, the board appointed railroad
and canal directors, but the total volume of its official business was not very great.
From January 1872 until May 1876, in fact, the board dispensed with a secretary, the
treasurer acting as secretary pro tern and keeping the handwritten minutes.

In 1875 the Board of Public Works began to get more involved in the construction
business. In its 1874 biennial session the General Assembly authorized two large
public projects—$250,000 for the House of Correction at Jessup (still in use) and
$100,000 for a state normal school (now Towson State University). In each case the
board was not only involved in the issuance of the bonds to pay for the projects but
charged with purchasing the land and constructing the necessary buildings.⁷