Maryland State House
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Maryland State House is the state capitol of Maryland, and is located in Annapolis. The building is the oldest state capitol in continuous legislative use, dating to 1772. It also has the distinction of being topped by the largest wooden dome built without nails in the nation. The current building, which was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1968, is the third statehouse to stand on the site.
From November 26, 1783 to June 3, 1784, Annapolis served as the United States capital. The Congress of the Confederation (United States in Congress Assembled) met in the Maryland State House, and Annapolis was a candidate to become the new permanent national capital before Washington, D.C. was built.
It was in the Old Senate Chamber that George Washington famously resigned his commission as commander in chief of the Continental Army on December 23, 1783. It was also there that the 1783 Treaty of Paris, which ended the Revolutionary War, was ratified by Congress on January 14, 1784. [1]
Though construction began in 1772 the structure was not completed until 1779 due to the Revolutionary War. The statehouse was designed by Joseph Horatio Anderson, a noted architect of the time, and the large dome is topped by a lightning rod that was constructed and grounded to the specifications of the lightening rod's original inventor, Benjamin Franklin [2]
The Maryland State House is administered by the State House Trust, which was created in 1969 and is currently chaired by Maryland Lieutenant Governor Michael S. Steele.
The dome of the statehouse is depicted on the Maryland state quarter.
[edit] External links
- Information from the Maryland Archives
- The Maryland State House Trust
- Information and short history of the state house
- Maps and aerial photos
- Street map from Google Maps or Yahoo! Maps
- Topographic map from TopoZone
- Aerial image or topographic map from TerraServer-USA
- Satellite image from Google Maps or Microsoft Virtual Earth
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