My grandfather, Mark Schatz ‘47, graduated from Calvert Hall 70 years ago when the school was on Mulberry Street in downtown Baltimore. The campus itself was only one building that had a bowling alley in the basement and was near a lot of infrastructure that dealt with preparations for war: “During that time, World War Two was still going on, and school would let out early because of the threat of a bomb; times were different then.”
Nowadays at The Hall on your way to the dining hall, you can talk to your friends, but 70 years ago you had to be quiet as a mouse and would get in trouble if you were talking in school. The dress code was the same except that you had to wear your junior ring to school every day once you got it. As for teachers, they were all brothers; no lay people taught at the time. Many of the brothers were strict: “We had this one history teacher whose name was Br. Henry. He would always have a ruler in his hand and only use it to hit hands of students he didn’t like. It was a fun class because I wasn’t a troublemaker, so I just sat back and saw people get surprised.”
There were not many extracurricular activities aside from sports. My grandfather was on the rowing team junior and senior year: “We didn’t win a lot. We tipped over a lot, but it was the funniest thing ever.” Getting to and from games was different, too: “The transit system was a necessary mode of transportation; you would take the number 6 street car and get off on Baltimore Street. That got many students to the school and home.”
The two best football players were the Cerato brothers: “Joe Cerato was a back and a pretty good one. He would run over you and run around the guy next to you in a heartbeat; he was that fast. His brother Lou was a lineman who was tough as nails.” The basketball team was very good in the 1940s and won multiple championships.
After high school, my grandfather went to Loyola College and felt like Calvert Hall had prepared him well “for college and beyond.” He excelled in college, winning the Whitford gold medal for a history essay and graduating a year early: “I think they were just trying to make room for the soldiers coming back from war.”
After college, my grandfather went to work in the National Archives and co-authored Between North and South: A Maryland Journalist Views the Civil War with Bayly Marks. He said that Calvert Hall “taught [him] how to be an adult in a world where war was on your mind 24 hours a day.” He offered the following advice for all students: “Don’t overlook how important high school is for your future. Apply yourself to your studies in high school; it helps you later in life as an adult.”