Who Was Michael A. Jenkins?

Who was Michael Jenkins, the man who donated so much of his personal money to the building and beautification of Corpus Christi Jenkins-Memorial Church? 

He was born December 27, 1842, the youngest son of Thomas Courtney Jenkins and Louisa Carrell.  As his father and his older brothers, he was educated at Mount Saint Mary’s College, located in Emmitsburg, Maryland, graduating in the class of 1862.  Returning to Baltimore, he joined his father and brothers George and Joseph in the commercial firm Poland, Jenkins & Co. (later Jenkins, Staylor & Co., and, by 1880, Jenkins Brothers).

On October 2, 1866, he married his 2^nd cousin Mary Isabella Plowder Jenkins (1844-1911), the daughter of his father’s paternal cousin, Austin Jenkins (1806-1888).  For a few years, Michael and Mary Isabella resided in the home of Michael’s parents at 167 St. Paul Street.  By 1868 however they had moved to a house at 130 Park Avenue.  After the death of Mary Isabella’s father, Austin, in 1888, the couple moved to Mary’s ancestral home at 616 Park Avenue.  This house remained their city residence until Michael’s death in 1915. 

Meanwhile, Michael became a leading financier involving himself in many business and civic activities. In 1896 he was elected president of the Merchants and Miners Transportation Company, resigning in 1907 to become Chairman of the Board of Directors. He was made president of the Safe Deposit and Trust Company in 1901 and of the Atlantic Coast Line Company in 1906. He was also vice president of the Northern Central Railway Company, director of the Metropolitan Savings Bank, a trustee of the Baltimore Cathedral, and treasurer of the Peabody Institute. He was one of the founders of The Catholic University of America, serving as a trustee from 1885 and as a treasurer from 1905 until his death.  While Michael Jenkins did not play an active role in Baltimore politics, he was instrumental in bringing the 1912 Democratic Convention to Baltimore. 

As devout Catholics, Michael and Mary Isabella Jenkins were important benefactors to many charitable institutions.  As the Sun mentioned in 1915 “practically every charitable institution, orphanage and hospital under the patronage of the Catholic Church has enjoyed his beneficence.[1]”  Michael was a trustee of the Cathedral in Baltimore and a very close friend of Cardinal James Gibbons.  They frequently spent time together at each other’s homes and Cardinal Gibbons consulted Michael on many archdiocesan financial matters.  In recognition for all the things he had done for the cause of Catholicism in the United States, Pope Pius X ennobled Mr. and Mrs. Jenkins in May 1903 as the Duke and Duchess of Llewellyn of the Holy Roman Empire.  Finally, in 1904, Michael Jenkins donated the land next to Corpus Christi to MICA after their building downtown was destroyed in the 1904 fire, land which he had purchased for the sole purpose of protecting the property. 

Like many well-to-do Baltimoreans, Michael and Mary Isabella Jenkins also owned a country villa outside the city, in very close proximity to the estates that belonged to his older siblings.  In 1881, his older brother Joseph had purchased a beautiful estate, called “Windy Gates,” which stretched the length of Lake Avenue between Falls Road and Roland Avenue and featured gardens designed by the famed Olmsted Brothers[2]. Three years later, in 1884, Joseph bought “Edgewood” (911 West Lake) for his unmarried sisters, Eliza and Ellen[3].  In 1895 Michael followed suit and bought an old farmhouse on Lake Avenue, not far from “Windy Gates,” and named it “Llewellyn”[4].  Likewise, his brother George Jenkins built “Seven Oaks” in 1904, a large Georgian revival house designed by Joseph Evans Sperry, on nearby Valley Road[5]. 

Michael Jenkins' old country villa now the Boy's Latin Upper School main building.

Michael and Mary Isabella Jenkins never had children.  When Mary Isabella died on March 5, 1911 she was buried in the St. Thomas Chapel of Corpus Christi and, as a memorial to her, Michael Jenkins financed extensive renovations for the church in her memory. The church was repainted and mosaic flooring was laid in the vestibules and nave, consisting of white marble with centerpieces and borders of grape clusters and shades of wheat.  In the sanctuary, the candlesticks were re-gilded, and the circular surrounding wall was covered with figured gold above a rich wainscoting of marble.  The arched ceilings of the St. Mary and Sacred Heart Chapels were overlaid with gold, as were the organ pipes and the iron gates in front of the sanctuary.  The vestibules of both entrances received marble wainscoting, radiators were concealed and gas was replaced by electricity.  In 1912 the old tower was removed and work on a new steeple was begun.  A huge clock was installed with dials visible of a wide territory and four new bells were added so that chimes would ring the hours and half-hours.   That same year, the original Stations of the Cross, which were small oil paintings, were replaced by relief mosaics.  Finally, in 1914, two mosaics representing the Eucharistic Christ were installed, one on each side of the sanctuary, the walls surrounding the Altar of the Blessed Virgin were marbleized, and a gold mosaic ceiling was formed above the high altar.

Exactly one hundred years ago last week, on Monday, September 7 1915, Michael A. Jenkins died of pneumonia in the home of his sister Eliza on Lake Avenue.  Had he lived a few more weeks until the end of the month he would have been 73 years old.  According to the Baltimore Sun, the city reacted shocked, flags were half-masted, Henry Walters, “deeply grieved,” returned from New York, and Archbishop Gibbons, “completely crushed,” contemplated breaking his retreat for the first time in his life. [6]  Even Mr. and Mrs. W. Vanderbilt traveled to Baltimore to pay their respects.[7] 

A Requiem Mass was celebrated on September 10^th at the Cathedral.  The liturgy was presided over by the Archbishop and attended by several bishops and many priests, nuns and prelates of the Catholic Church, as well as numerous prominent businessmen and politicians.  Afterwards his relatives and closest friends attended his burial in the crypt at Corpus Christi Church.[8]  

Michael Jenkins’ wealth at the time of his death was estimated to be at least $15,000,000, but the Baltimore Sun had to announce a week later that the financier’s estate was far smaller than expected, only $3,500,000.  He left no will, perhaps to the disappointment of many, and thus his fortune was distributed among his three nearest relatives, his siblings George, Joseph, and Eliza.[9]

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[1] "Michael Jenkins, Financier, Dies." Sun [Baltimore] 8 Sept. 2015: 14+. ProQuest Historical Newspapers [ProQuest]. Web. 9 Sept. 2015.

[2] In the early 1980s Windy Gates was developed into Devon Hill Condominiums.

[3] Edgewood is now owned by the Josephite Fathers.

[4] Llewellyn is now the main building on the campus of Baltimore's Boy’s Latin School.

[5] In 1947 the School Sisters of Notre Dame founded Villa Julie College at “Seven Oaks.”

[6] "Michael Jenkins, Financier, Dies." Sun [Baltimore] 8 Sept. 2015: 14+. ProQuest Historical Newspapers [ProQuest]. Web. 9 Sept. 2015.

[7] "W.K. Vanderbilt Here." Sun [Baltimore] 9 Sept. 1915: 12. ProQuest Historical Newspapers [ProQuest]. Web. 9 Sept. 2015.

[8] "Cardinal Extols Him." Sun [Baltimore] 12 Sept. 1915: 4. ProQuest Historical Newspapers [ProQuest]. Web. 9 Sept. 2015.

[9] "Jenkins Left $3,500,000." Sun [Baltimore] 17 Sept. 1915: 7. ProQuest Historical Newspapers [ProQuest]. Web. 9 Sept. 2015.