Maryland State House

The Maryland State House was constructed from 1772 to 1779. It briefly served as the nation's capitol in 1783 and 1784. General George Washington came here to resign as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army on December 23, 1783. The Treaty of Paris, officially ending the American War for Independence, was ratified here on January 14, 1784. In May, Congress sent Thomas Jefferson to France as a diplomat. The building then became the State Capitol for Maryland and is the oldest legislative building still in use in the United States.

Maryland State House

Currently, the Maryland General Assembly meets from January to April to conduct the business of the state. We visited in January but the houses were not in session while we were there. We started our self-guided tour in the basement where they have an old-fashioned shoe-shine station.

The shoe-shiner wasn't there either

The main building has two parts, the 18th century state house and the annex that was added in the 20th century. The older part of the building has smaller meeting rooms and displays about Maryland's history.

We first visited the State House Caucus Room. It was used as a meeting room apart. On display is the silver service from the USS Maryland, a cruiser that served from 1903 to 1929. The silver has pieces named after the various counties in Maryland. 

State House Caucus Room

USS Maryland silver

The Howard County serving plate (our home county!)

A bit more of the room

Next to the Caucus Room is the Old House of Delegates Chamber. The room has been restored to its appearance in the late 1800s. The room features two bronze statues of Maryland natives Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman. They were born as slaves on the Eastern Shore and devoted themselves to freeing other slaves.

Old House of Delegates Chamber

Frederick Douglass

Harriet Tubman

There is also a painting of The Burning of the Peggy Stewart. Local patriots objected to the Peggy Stewart's owner paying the British tea tax and they forced him to burn his ship at the Annapolis docks in 1774.

The Burning of the Peggy Stewart

Across the hall is the Old Senate Chamber. It has been restored to its 1780s appearance when the United States Congress was in session. This room is where George Washington resigned from the army. His original speech is on display in the hallway. The event was especially significant because it showed that the army was subservient to the governing body.

The Old Senate Chamber

Posing with Washington

His copy of the speech

The room has a balcony for observers. A bronze statue of Molly Ridout is up there. Women were not allowed on the Senate floor back in the 1700s. Molly Ridout's account of Washington's resignation gives us a lot of the details.

Molly Ridout keeps an eye on things

The Senate Committee Room (next to the Old Senate Chamber) has a wall of portraits from the 1700s of men involved in the state and country governments.

Many early Americans

A side display has some of the historical furnishings of the Senate Chamber.

A desk from the 1790s

Charles Wilson Peale (head of the Peale family of painters) made Washington, Lafayette and Tilghman at Yorktown, a portrait of the three men from 1784. It has hung in the Maryland State House since the 1700s.

Washington, Lafayette and Tilghman at Yorktown

The Stairwell Room recreates the stairs that led up to the Senate balcony and the rotunda dome.

Balcony stairs

Stairs to the rotunda

The rotunda

The original dome was small, so much so that many commented on how it looked disproportionate and unimpressive. It also leaked, so Joseph Clark was hired to fix the roof and make a new dome. The dome is noteworthy because it is made all of wood (some of the decorations outside and the lightening rod (designed according to specifications from Ben Franklin) are metal). The exterior was finished in 1788. Plasterer Thomas Dance fell to his death while working on the dome in 1793. Clark left the project and his foreman, John Shaw, finished it in 1797.

Model of the rotunda/dome

Exterior view of the dome

The main hall has several portraits of the Lords Baltimore, the family that was given a charter by the King of England to found the Maryland colony. Their rule ended in 1776 with the revolution.

Charles Calvert, Third Lord of Baltimore

A plaque commemorates Matthew Alexander Henson, a member of Admiral Perry's expedition to the North Pole in 1909. The plaque was dedicated in 1961 and is the first state-funded memorial for an African-American.

Matthew Henson, explorer

One of the display cases has a statue of Thurgood Marshall, born in Baltimore. He was a lawyer who served in the United States Supreme Court from 1967 to 1991.

Thurgood Marshall

This bust of Benjamin Franklin was commissioned by Franklin himself in Paris. He had many copies made and gave them out as gifts!

Benjamin Franklin

The Grand Staircase is part of the 1906 addition to the state house and leads up to the offices of the Governor and Lieutenant Governor, as well as the observation galleries for the current Senate and House of Delegates Chambers.

Grand Staircase (too grand for visitors, apparently)

The House of Delegates Chamber is the meeting place for elected officials from across the state. The Tiffany skylight (from the original construction) was restored in the 1990s. 

House of Delegate Chamber

The fancy skylight

As high tech as the desks get

Rear Admiral Winfield Scott Schley served in the United States Navy and was a hero of the Spanish-American War in the late 1800s. He was born in Frederick, Maryland, and went to the Naval Academy in Annapolis. His statue stands just outside the chamber.

Winfield Scott Schley memorial

Across the hall from the House of Delegates is the Senate Chamber. The skylight is also from Tiffany and Company.

The Senate Chamber

Tiffany skylight and observation balcony

Senators listed

The sign above said the next meeting of the Senate would be 8 p.m. on the day we visited. I guess we should have come later. I am not so sure the kids want to visit again but maybe when they are older.