In its first three years, the school was housed in many locations before returning to the original townhouse building on Courtland Street. In 1843, the City Council allocated $23,000 to acquire a building for the school at the northeastern corner of East Fayette and Holliday Streets, (across the street from the later Baltimore City Hall, constructed 1867–1875), and the site of the present War Memorial Plaza, constructed 1917–1925). The renovated new school building was the former old "Assembly Rooms", a Greek Revival architecture civic landmark, built in 1797 by architects Robert Cary Long, Sr. and Col. Nicholas Rogers (ancestor owner of the estate which became Druid Hill Park) to accommodate social events for Baltimore's social elite at the Baltimore Dancing Assembly, which had begun in the 1780s. and the site of the first private library company of Baltimore. The school was next door to the famous Holliday Street Theatre, where the poem "The Defence of Fort McHenry", now known as the ""Star Spangled Banner"" written by Frederick and Georgetown lawyer and amateur poet, Francis Scott Key, (1779-1843), was first performed on its stage in October and November 1814, following the Battle of Baltimore, with the British Royal Navy and Army attack on Baltimore during the War of 1812, (now known as "Defenders' Day") on September 12-13-14, 1814. Although it was not designed to house an academic institution, the school would occupy this building for 30 years.