The creation of a male high school "in which the higher branches of English and classical literature should be taught exclusively" was authorized unanimously by the Baltimore City Council on March 7, 1839. A townhouse of probably two stories with a sloped roof and dormer window structure on what was then known as Courtland Street (now east side of "Preston Gardens", built in the late 1910s with terraced and bermed flower beds with shrubs and monumental staircases along St. Paul Street and St. Paul Place, of five square blocks between East Centre Street in the north and East Lexington Street to the south, as Baltimore's first downtown "urban renewal" project, which unfortunately resulted in the razing of hundreds of beautiful, but run-down, then neglected Federal, Georgian, and Greek Revival architecture-styled townhomes and classical business structures that would be considered to be saved under the "historic preservation" standards today) was acquired to serve as the home of the new high school. The school opened its doors that Fall on October 20, 1839 with 46 students. Enrollment was restricted to white, male students of Baltimore City who had completed grammar school and passed an entrance exam. Additional student applicants from the surrounding rural (and later suburban) Baltimore County and Anne Arundel County were considered upon payment of tuition to the Baltimore City Public Schools system Those enrolled were offered two academic tracks, a classical literature track and an English literature track. The sole instructor for both tracks was the educator and poet, Nathan C. Brooks, who also served as principal. To accommodate the two tracks, Brooks split the school day into two sections: one in the morning from 9 am to 12 am, and another in the afternoon from 2 pm to 5 pm. During the morning session, students studied either classics or English; however, the afternoon was devoted to English.