Enoch Pratt (September 10, 1808 – September 17, 1896) was an American businessman in Baltimore, Maryland. Pratt was a Unitarian and philanthropist. He is best known for his donations to establish the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore and expanding the former Sheppard Asylum to become The Sheppard and Enoch Pratt Hospital, located north of the city in western Towson, county seat of Baltimore County. Born and raised in Massachusetts, he moved south to the Chesapeake Bay area and became devoted to the civic interests of the city of Baltimore. He earned his fortune as an owner of business interests beginning in the 1830s originally as a hardware wholesaler, and later expanding into railroads, banking and finance, iron works, and steamship lines and other transportation companies.
Early life
Born in Middleborough, Massachusetts, Enoch Pratt was the second of eight children born to Naomi (née Keith) and Isaac Pratt. A successful businessman, Isaac Pratt managed several businesses, including a sawmill, general store, wholesale hardware. The young Enoch was educated at the former Bridgewater Academy in the neighboring town of Bridgewater, Massachusetts's Town Common. The business proved successful, and six years later, Pratt married Maria Louisa Hyde (1818–1913), the daughter of Samuel G. and Catherine Hyde, whom he met at his church, on August 1, 1837. They did not have children.
Philanthropy
During his early years as a businessman, Pratt's philanthropy started with donations to his church, the First Independent Church of Baltimore (later the First Unitarian Church (Unitarian and Universalist), at North Charles and West Franklin Streets, where he served as a trustee for over 40 years. He paid off several of the congregation's large debts, bought a new organ, and financed significant remodeling of the church in the 1890s. Other early philanthropy included his patronage of the artist Edward Sheffield Bartholomew, Pratt commissioned many public sculptures and memorials throughout Baltimore, including the statue of George Washington erected in Druid Hill Park. He was buried in Green Mount Cemetery.
Enoch Pratt Free Library
thumb|right|The interior of the [[Enoch Pratt Free Library]]
Pratt is best known for his establishment of the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore. Many residents of the city in late 1881 speculated what was being planned for the excavations going on in the north side of West Mulberry Street, by Cathedral Street, near the old Baltimore Cathedral in the tony Mount Vernon-Belvedere-Mount Royal neighborhood, north of the business district on Cathedral Hill. The mystery was explained when on January 21, 1882, in a letter addressed to the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore, Pratt offered a gift of a central library, four branch libraries (with two additional ones to be constructed shortly thereafter), and a financial endowment of . Further, he requested that to Mayor William Pinkney Whyte and the City Council continue an annual appropriation to the new library system 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 1857 endowment of the original founder, Moses Sheppard. "They are the only Board of Trustees in Baltimore", said Pratt, "who have carried out exactly the directions of the founder". A research library, archives, and underground storage stacks were constructed in the following decade at the southern rear of the mansion replacing the former carriage house.
Legacy
Industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie described Pratt as a pioneer to himself. He praised Pratt's devotion to the free library movement and described him as the "ideal disciple of the gospel of wealth".