and support it in the years to come to supplement the interest and benefits accumulating from the principal of his bequest. His intention was to establish a library that "shall be for all, rich and poor without distinction of race or color, who, when properly accredited, can take out the books if they will handle them carefully and return them." The grant was accepted by the municipal government, approved by the General Assembly of Maryland with some enabling legislation, and approved by the city voters later that year in an election/referendum on October 25, 1882. After four years of plans, construction and the hiring of staff with the purchasing of many books, the new library was ready to be opened in January 1886 with some appropriate addresses at ceremonies at the nearby luxurious auditorium of the Academy of Music on North Howard Street (between West Centre and West Franklin Streets), and opened to new patrons and business at the beginning of February 1886. Sheppard Asylum Pratt left the vast majority of his wealth ($2 million of his $2.5 million) to supplement the earlier endowment of The Sheppard and Enoch Pratt Hospital, (as it was later renamed, today it is titled "Sheppard Pratt Health System," giving equal weight to both generous co-founders). Pratt was impressed by the trustees' frugal handling of the original founder's - Moses Sheppard, (1771/1773?-1857), endowment from 1857. "They are the only Board of Trustees in Baltimore," said Pratt, "who have carried out exactly the directions of the founder." Pratt's bequest was used to complete construction of the old Moses Sheppard Asylum, enlarge the facility to house 200 additional patients at its country campus in western Towson, further north of the city off (North) Charles Street Avenue in suburban Baltimore County, at the old "Mount Airy Farm" of Baltimore merchant Thomas Poultney, which they purchased in 1858 and began construction two years later, however not opening until 1891, trying to remain faithful to the original directions to serve the indigent. Enoch Pratt Mansion / Maryland Historical Society Enoch Pratt's city townhouse/mansion located at 201 West Monument Street (southwest corner with Park Avenue in Mount Vernon-Belvedere, purchased in 1847). The Pratt mansion was occupied by his wife Maria Louisa Hyde Pratt until her death in 1913. In 1919, the West Monument Street townhouse/mansion was gifted to the Historical Society by Mary Washington Keyser, whose husband was a longtime Md.H.S.