Historic Annapolis Hike

Inspired by AMC's Best Day Hikes Near Washington, D.C., we went for a historic hike in downtown Annapolis. The city was founded in 1649 and a lot of the buildings from the 1700s are still around. The city is Maryland's capital but it is not a skyscraper-stuffed metropolis. It has a small-town feel, with narrow and occasionally twisting roads and a lot of local businesses.

Our first sight was John Callahan's House. He was registrar for land records on the Chesapeake's western shore during the American Revolution. It seemed like it is still a residence (hopefully not for ghosts!).

Callahan House

Across the street is the location of Mann's Tavern, famous for being where delegates met in 1786 to call for a constitutional convention. With the failings of the Articles of Confederation, a new solution would soon be crafted.

Sadly, no longer a tavern

The town has lots of cool and interesting houses that are not necessarily historic. I took photos of places I thought were picture-worthy, like this narrow house with a lot of windows.

Bay-window house?

Some places are being rebuilt. 

Adding a new interior

I liked the bridge between these two houses. 

Upstairs connection between two houses!

We walked up Duke of Gloucester Street to one of the two main traffic circles in Annapolis. In the middle of this circle is Saint Anne's Church, an Episcopalian church. The congregation dates back to 1704 but the current building is from 1859. It replaced a previous church that had burned down. The church was not open for touring.

St. Anne's Church

The church graveyard

On the way to the other traffic circle, we saw the governor's mansion, called the Government House of Maryland. 

Governor's mansion

The gate marker

At the next traffic circle is Maryland's State House. It has been in use since the late 1700s and is the only state house to serve (briefly) as the United States Capitol.

One side of the State Capitol

State House steps

On our way to the campus of St. John's College we saw this fun shingled house.

Lots of character

St. John's College started out in 1696 as King William's School. It was a prep school that changed into the college in 1784.

At the entrance

The seal of the college

The clearly punny motto is roughly translated as "I make free men out of children by means of books and balance."

The first thing we saw on campus was the Greenfield Library, so they definitely have the book part down.

Greenfield Library

The campus was very quiet, a consequence of visiting over Thanksgiving weekend. We walked by the other famous campus in Annapolis--the Naval Academy.

Naval Academy Chapel dome sticking up

The Hammond-Harwood House was originally built for Matthias Hammond who never lived there. He was a tobacco farmer and stayed close by the farm. At one point, the house was home to the fine arts program of St. John's. Now it is a museum available for touring, though it wasn't open the day we visited.

Hammond-Harwood House

Across the street is the Chase-Lloyd House, which was owned by Samuel Chase, one of the Maryland signers of the Declaration of Independence. It was built in 1774 and has tours and was also closed on that day. Our kids really lucked out in not being dragged through historic houses like we usually do.

Chase-Lloyd House

By this point in the hike we were getting chilly. We searched for a place to get hot chocolate. We settled on Galway Bay Irish Restaurant and Pub, which was ready for some Christmas celebrating.

Galway Bay Pub

Fun pub sign

After warming up with some hot beverages and some yummy snacks, we headed back to the car. On the way, we saw the Capitol's dome.

State House again!

One street had "over the street" Christmas lights out. Since it was daytime, it's not as impressive as it could be.

Christmas lights!

My eldest son noticed that the street signs have the dates when the streets were first established, sometimes even the original names. 

How old is your street?

It was a fun visit. Maybe we'll go back to see the historic houses from the inside!