The Tome School for Boys, originally located on Main Street in Port Deposit, Maryland, in Cecil County, on the east bank of the Susquehanna River was founded by Jacob Tome (1810-1898), as a nonsectarian college preparatory school for boys. It opened for boarders and received its first students in 1894. It was part of a system of schools collectively known as the Jacob Tome Institute that began with kindergarten and extended through high school. Situated in the northeast corner of the state, the Tome School was immediately popular, attracting almost all the students from the town of Port Deposit and many from outside, throughout Maryland, Pennsylvania and neighboring states.