The land on which the Johns Hopkins University campus is located was originally owned by the Maryland Historical Society, and it was used as a location for a variety of events and activities. The land was donated to the university by Baltimore businessman Johns Hopkins in 1867, with the express purpose of establishing a university and research institution. Following this, the construction of the university’s first building, Gilman Hall, began in 1876 and opened in 1879. Before that, several other private estates and public institutions such as Asylum for the Insane, Baltimore city orphan house, Maryland Agricultural college etc are located there but no one lived there.
