James Lawrence Kernan

Who was James Lawrence Kernan?

James Lawrence Kernan was a theater manager and philanthropist based in Baltimore, Maryland.

He was born in Baltimore, Maryland at the southeast corner of Pratt and High streets, on July 29, 1838. He was educated at Loyola College in Maryland, Baltimore, and Mount St. Mary's College, Emmitsburg, Maryland. After working in the dry goods business and as a clerk in the transportation department of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company, he joined the Confederate army at the beginning of the Civil War. He was captured in October 1864 and held as a prisoner at Point Lookout until the close of the war. In February 1866, he founded the "Kernan Enterprises," a combination hotel and Rathskeller connected to the Maryland Theater and Auditorium Theater. During his lifetime he founded a hospital now known as the James Lawrence Kernan Hospital. Near the end of his life he operated a Yiddish theater in the building now known as the Hendler Creamery. He died at the Hotel Kernan in 1912.