The Patapsco Female Institute, located on Church Road overlooking Ellicott City, was one of the most famous and prestigious schools for girls in 19th century America. It opened in 1837 under Reverend J. H. Tyng with a curriculum of English, the classics, foreign language, and natural and abstract sciences. In 1838, Mary Norris became principal and added modern history, chemistry, botany, and classes in piano, painting, and guitar, though enrollment grew slowly. In 1841, Bishop Whittingham of the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland persuaded Almira Hart Lincoln Phelps, a nationally known educator and author of Lincoln's Botany, to lead the struggling school. Under Phelps, the institute flourished from 1842 through 1856 as attendance rose, the curriculum expanded, and the school became financially successful. She and her husband contributed significant funds to improve the facilities, and the institute gained a national reputation for high academic standards in natural history, mathematics, and the sciences. It was the first institution to teach mathematics to girls and for many of those years enrolled more than 100 students, an impressive number at the time. After Phelps retired in 1856 following her daughter's death, Robert Archer became principal, and the school remained successful until the Civil War. Enrollment then fell quickly and did not recover after the war, possibly in part because southern students who had once attended in significant numbers no longer felt safe at a northern school. The institute stayed open, with Mary Ringgold Archer becoming principal after her husband retired in 1872 and Sarah Randolph, a descendant of Thomas Jefferson, taking over in 1878, but continued declining enrollment forced its closure in 1891. In 1955, nearly 100 years later, the abandoned ruins were stabilized in recognition of the school's important role in educating young women. The Patapsco Female Institute is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and the Women's Heritage Trail for both its educational significance and its historic structures.