Patapsco Female Institute (PFI) is a former girls' boarding school, now a partially rebuilt historical site, located on Church Road in Ellicott City, Maryland, United States.

The grounds are home to outdoor theatrical performances by The Chesapeake Shakespeare Company.

The Protestant Episcopal Bishop of Maryland, William R. Whittingham, had a personal interest in education and became involved in both schools.

Alfred Holmead transferred from Baltimore County to run Rock Hill and Bishop Whittingham, personally interviewed Almira Hart Lincoln Phelps to become the principal of the PFI.

John Phelps was listed as head of the family; in practice he was the business manager, taking care of the accounts, the grounds and buildings.

Maryland law stipulated that once the PFI had earned $15,000 from the lottery, the $800 annual state payment would cease.

Sometimes, after being away gaining teaching experience and earning some money, a girl would return to the PFI to finish her education.

[11] A condition of Phelps’s employment as principal of PFI was that she had to have an Episcopal priest on staff as chaplain.

After she left in 1856, the chaplains at PFI were usually the rectors of the local Episcopal Church, St Peter’s.

There was a much greater deep south representation in Mr. Archer’s student body in his school in Baltimore, which would continue at the PFI.

[17] The PFI remained closed for a year as the board spent $10,000 on improvements in the physical plant.

After her seven year lease expired in 1885, Sarah Randolph moved to Baltimore and ran a school there.

Fourteen years later, in 1905, it was purchased by a Miss Lilly Tyson and turned into a private home.

[20] The guests of the Burg Alnick Hotel used the grounds for shooting clay pigeons.

Howard county made a demand of the owner to remove all wood from the structure to prevent fires, including the roof, floors and paneling leaving the institute in a permanent state of ruins.

[22][23] In 1966, the County considered buying the eight acre property again as parkland from the University of Cincinnati using a news transfer tax for school and park projects.

[25] Since 1966 the building has been under the care of the 'Friends of the Patapsco Institute'; it has been stabilized and partially restored, and the grounds fenced in to limit public access.

[5] The county finance director declared the building unrestorable, but budgeted $1.7 million to convert the area around it to a park.