Thomas J. D'Alesandro, Jr. Papers

Thomas J. D’Alesandro, Jr. (August 1, 1903 - August 23, 1987) served as a member of the Maryland General Assembly, the U.S. Congress, and Mayor of Baltimore. D’Alesandro was elected to the Maryland House of Delegates in 1925 and served in the General Assembly until appointed General Deputy Collector of Internal Revenue in 1933. Elected to the Baltimore City Council in 1935, he left that body after his election to the United States Congress in 1938. D’Alesandro served in Congress through World War II and was reelected for a fifth time in 1946. He entered the Baltimore mayoral race during his fifth term in Congress, and after success at the polls, resigned his seat in Congress May 16, 1947 to become Mayor of Baltimore.

In the 1950s, Mayor D’Alesandro’s activities included an extensive building campaign. In 1955, he broke ground in Wyman Municipal Park for two new wings of the Baltimore Museum of Art. He also broke ground or laid cornerstones for over 50 public schools throughout the City, as well as for numerous recreation facilities, firehouses, hospital additions, and public pools. Mayor D’Alessandro unsuccessfully challenged Republican J. Glenn Beall in 1958 for the U.S. Senate and lost the Mayor’s race to J. Harold Grady the following spring. Despite these defeats, he continued to be active politically, serving as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention between 1944 and 1968. He also served on a Presidential Commission during the tenure of President John F. Kennedy.