It was not until 1873, when a fire spread from the Holliday Street Theatre to the "Assembly Rooms," that the city council finally decided to expend the resources to erect a new building for the school. The city council acquired a lot on Howard Street opposite Centre Street and allocated $150,000 for the construction of the new building. During the construction, City College was housed in a building of the Baltimore Female College, where it remained until its new English Gothic revival-style building was dedicated on February 1, 1875. While at the Baltimore Female College, the five-year course was reintroduced and the four-year track was eliminated. That allowed students to pursue advanced courses, which included calculus, political economy, logic and higher-level language courses, which were emphasized in the curriculum. Students were expected to learn Latin, French, and German; and Greek was offered as an optional course.