**PRESS RELEASE**

For Immediate Release:
Thursday, August 10, 2006

Contact:
Matt Losak, 301-431-5453

MERCANTILE FUND DONATES $500,000 TO NATIONAL LABOR COLLEGE BUILDING FUND

Silver Spring, Md.- The Mercantile Fund, the corporate foundation of Baltimore-based Mercantile Bankshares Corporation, donated $500,000 to the National Labor College (NLC) in support of the college's building fund. The announcement and the presentation of the check were made at a reception in celebration of labor education that included 200 labor leaders from around Illinois, the NLC announced today.

"Mercantile is a strong supporter of worker education, " said Edward J. “Ned” Kelly III, Chairman, President and CEO of Mercantile Bankshares Corporation.  "Because it is more important than ever for union members and their families to get a college education, we can think of no better way to demonstrate the strength of our support for working Americans than by contributing to construction of the NLC's newest state-of-the-art teaching, learning and conference facility right here in Maryland."

The NLC is in the final stages of a multi-phase building and refurbishment campaign that will culminate in the completion of the Lane Kirkland Center (LKC) this fall.  The college has refurbished its housing facilities, conference and class rooms.

"Mercantile's gift is helping to make possible the dream of thousands of workers to complete their college education," said Susan J. Schurman, NLC president. "A high school diploma just isn't completive in today's global, modern economy. If industry is to thrive, we must have workers with skills commensurate with the needs of the modern workplace. Mercantile knows this and we thank them for stepping up to help."

At a meeting of union members and leaders held Monday in Chicago, Michael M. Paese, Chief Administrative Officer and Deputy General Counsel of Mercantile Bankshares Corporation, presented NLC Board of Trustees Chairman John J. Sweeney with a check before a grateful crowd of union leadership gathered in Chicago for its regular Executive Council meeting.

Mercantile Bankshares Corporation (NASDAQ: MRBK), with more than $17 billion in assets, is a regional multibank financial holding company headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland. It serves the mid-Atlantic region through its lead bank, Baltimore-based Mercantile-Safe Deposit and Trust Company, 10 community banks, a mortgage banking company, a significant Investment & Wealth Management business and a brokerage company.

Established as a training center by AFL-CIO in 1969 to strengthen union member education and organizing skills, the NLC is now the nation’s only accredited higher education institution devoted exclusively to educating union leaders, members and activists. The NLC became a degree granting college in 1997. The college is accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, an independent, regional accrediting body recognized by the U.S. Department of Education.

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