Bowie State University is the oldest Historically black colleges and universities (HBCU) in Maryland It was founded in 1865 by the Baltimore Association for the Moral and Educational Improvement of Colored People as a teaching school. The school first used space at the African Baptist Church at Calvert Street and Sarasota Street, in Baltimore, Maryland. In 1867, a dedicated facility was purchased nearby at Sarasota Street and Courtland Street, and the school was formally named the Baltimore Normal School for Colored Teachers. After being reorganized in 1883 as the Baltimore Normal School, it educated African Americans to be teachers for African American students until 1908. At that time, the school became a state institution of teaching under the Maryland State Department of Education and was redesignated as a Normal School No. 3.