The Baltimore Polytechnic Institute, colloquially referred to as BPI, Poly, and The Institute, is a U.S. public high school founded in 1883. Established as an all-male manual trade / vocational school by the Baltimore City Council and the Baltimore City Public Schools, it is now a coeducational academic institution that emphasizes sciences, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). It is located on a 53-acre (21 ha) tract of land in North Baltimore on the east bank of the Jones Falls stream. BPI and the adjacent Western High School are located on the same campus.
Baltimore Polytechnic Institute on the 200 block of East North Avenue, 1913–1967. Later renamed and served as the Calvert Educational Center until partially razed and renovated in the mid-1980s as the BCPS Alice Pinderhughes administrative headquarters (nicknamed "North Avenue")
Baltimore Polytechnic Institute's campus right: Dehuff Hall academic building
Auditorium, shared by Poly and Western students
Poly's Lumsden-Scott Stadium
H. L. Mencken
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Henry Louis Mencken was an American journalist, essayist, satirist, cultural critic, and scholar of American English. He commented widely on the social scene, literature, music, prominent politicians, and contemporary movements. His satirical reporting on the Scopes Trial, which he dubbed the "Monkey Trial", also gained him attention. The term Menckenian has entered multiple dictionaries to describe anything of or pertaining to Mencken, including his combative rhetorical and prose style.
Sara Haardt Mencken
Mencken photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1932
Mencken is fictionalized in the play Inherit the Wind (a fictionalized version of the Scopes Monkey Trial of 1925) as the cynical sarcastic atheist E. K. Hornbeck (right), seen here as played by Gene Kelly in the Hollywood film version. On the left is Henry Drummond, based on Clarence Darrow and portrayed by Spencer Tracy.