Annapolis, Maryland
Annapolis is the capital of
Maryland, which is a
state of the
United States of America, and the
county seat of
Anne Arundel County. It is a
city with a population of 36,217 according to the 2004 census. The city is a part of the
Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area, It is situated on the
Severn River about 2 miles from its entrance into
Chesapeake Bay, 26 miles South by East from
Baltimore and about the same distance East by North from
Washington D.C. It is also home to the
United States Naval Academy and
St. John's College.
Pre-Colonial
Colonial & early United States (1649-1808)
A settlement named Providence was founded on the north shore of the
Severn River in 1649 by
Puritan exiles from
Virginia, led by William Stone. The settlers moved to a better-protected harbor on the south shore and the town bore in succession the names of Town at Proctor's, Town at the Severn,
Anne Arundel's Towne after the wife of
Lord Baltimore who died soon afterwards.The city became very wealthy through the slave-trade. It was only in 1694 when Sir
Francis Nicholson moved the
capital of the royal
colony there, soon after the overthrow of the Catholic government of the lord proprietor, that the town received the name which is holds today, Annapolis, named for
Princess Anne, soon to be the
monarch of
Great Britain; but it was not until 1708 that it was incorporated as a city. From the middle of the 18th century until the War of Independence, Annapolis was noted for its wealthy and cultivated society. The
Maryland Gazette, which became an important weekly journal, was founded by
Jonas Green in 1745; in 1769 a theatre was opened; during this period also the commerce was considerable, but declined rapidly after Baltimore, in 1780, was made a port of entry, and
oyster-packing became the city's only important industry. Currently Annapolis is home to a large number of recreational boats that have largely replaced the seafood industry in the city.
Annapolis became the temporary capital of the
United States after the signing of the
Treaty of Paris in 1783. Congress was in session in the state house here from
November 26,
1783 to
June 3, 1784, and it was here on
December 23,
1783 that General Washington resigned his commission as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army. In 1786 a convention, to which delegates from all the states of the Union were invited, was called to meet in Annapolis to consider measures for the better regulation of commerce; but delegates came from only five states (
New York,
Pennsylvania,
Virginia,
New Jersey, and
Delaware), and the convention without proceeding to the business for which it had met, passed a resolution calling for another convention to meet at
Philadelphia in the following year to amend the Articles of Confederation. By this Philadelphia convention, the present Constitution of the United States was framed.In 1808 the importation of slaves was prohibited by the Congress.(The ancestors of Alex Haley were deported from Gambia to Annapolis.)
Civil War era (1849-late 1800s)
During this period, a Parole Camp was set up in Annapolis. As the war continued, the camp expanded to a larger location just outside of the city. The area is still referred to as Parole.
The city was also the location of a major hospital where wounded Union (and captured Confederate) soldiers could be brought by ship to be treated.
Contemporary (1900s to present)
|
View of Annapolis from the State House dome, 1911 |
To the north of the state house is a monument to
Thurgood Marshall, the first black justice of the
US Supreme Court and formerly a Maryland lawyer who won many important
civil rights cases.
Close by are the state treasury building, erected late in the 17th century for the House of Delegates; Saint Anne's Protestant Episcopal church, in later colonial days a state church, a statue of
Roger B. Taney (by W.H. Rinehart), and a statue of Baron
Johann de Kalb.
There are a number of residences of 18th century architecture, and the names of several of the streetsrecall the colonial days. The United States Naval Academy was founded here in 1845. Annapolis is the seat of
St. John's College, a non-sectarian private college that was once supported by the state; it was opened in 1789 as the successor of King William's School, which was founded by an act of the Maryland legislature in 1696 and was opened in 1701. Its principal building, McDowell Hall, was originally intended for a governor's mansion; although £4000 current money was appropriated for its erection in 1742, it was not completed until after the War of Independence.
On
September 26th to
27th,
2003,
Hurricane Isabel created the largest storm surge in Annapolis history, cresting at 7.58 feet, which easily surpassed the prior record from the 1933 hurricane of 6.35 and the 5.5 feet recorded during
Hurricane Hazel in 1954. As a result, much of downtown Annapolis was flooded and many businesses and homes in outlying areas were damaged.[
1]
The State House
The
Maryland State House is the oldest in continuous legislative use in the United States. Construction started in 1772, and the Maryland legislature first met there in 1779. It is topped by the largest wooden dome built without nails in the nation. The Maryland state house housed the workings of the government from
November 26 1783 to
August 13 1784, and the Treaty of Paris was ratified there on
January 14,
1784, so Annapolis became the first peacetime capital of the US.
It was in the Maryland state house that
George Washington famously resigned his commission before the
Continental Congress on
December 23 1783. George Washington, who had argued vigorously for Annapolis to become the permanent home to the United States Capitol, had a strong attachment to the Maryland state house and instructed
Pierre L'Enfant to model the dome of the
Capitol building in
Washington DC after it.
United States Naval Academy
[[Image:bfc_annapolis_md_usna_bancroft_hall_01w.jpg|thumb|right|US Naval Academy. Bancroft Hall. Photo early 1900's.
Boris Feldblyum Collection]]
*The
United States Naval Academy was founded in 1845 on the site of
Fort Severn, and now occupies an area of land
reclaimed from the
Severn River next to the
Chesapeake Bay.
Theatre
Annapolis has a thriving community theatre scene which includes two venues in the historic district. On East St. is
Colonial Players, a company that produces approximately six shows a year on its small theatre-in-the-round stage. During the warmer months,
Annapolis Summer Garden Theatre presents three shows on its stage, which is visible from the City Dock. All shows put on by King Williams Players, the student theatre group at
St. John's College, are free and open to the public.
Other
The Annapolis area was the home of a
VLF-transmitter called
NSS Annapolis, used by the United States Navy to communiate with its Atlantic submarine fleet.
Annapolis is located at (38.972945, -76.501157), 28 miles east of Washington DC, and is the closest state capital to the national capital,
Washington, DC.
According to the
United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 19.7
km² (7.6
mi²). 17.4 km² (6.7 mi²) of it is land and 2.3 km² (0.9 mi²) of it (11.70%) is water.
The city is a part of the
Atlantic Coastal Plain, and is relatively flat. The climate is a warm
temperate climate, with hot summers and chilly winters.
 |
Main Street in downtown Annapolis |
As of the
census of 2000, there were 35,838 people, 15,303 households, and 8,676 families residing in the city. The
population density was 2,056.0/km² (5,326.0/mi²). There were 16,165 housing units at an average density of 927.4/km² (2,402.3/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was 62.66%
White, 31.44%
Black or
African American, 0.17%
Native American, 1.81%
Asian, 0.03%
Pacific Islander, 2.22% from
other races, and 1.67% from two or more races. 6.42% of the population were
Hispanic or
Latino of any race.
There were 15,303 households out of which 24.5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 36.6% were
married couples living together, 16.3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 43.3% were non-families. 32.9% of all households were made up of individuals and 9.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.30 and the average family size was 2.93.
In the city the population was spread out with 21.7% under the age of 18, 9.3% from 18 to 24, 33.4% from 25 to 44, 23.7% from 45 to 64, and 11.9% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36 years. For every 100 females there were 90.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 86.8 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $49,243, and the median income for a family was $56,984. Males had a median income of $39,548 versus $30,741 for females. The
per capita income for the city was $27,180. About 9.5% of families and 12.7% of the population were below the
poverty line, including 20.8% of those under age 18 and 10.4% of those age 65 or over.
*The center of Annapolis is the city dock, developed as a port for the
tobacco trade in the 17th and 18th century. The city claims to have more
18th century buildings than any other city in the US.
*The city's
African-American heritage is celebrated by the
Banneker-Douglass Museum, dedicated to
Benjamin Banneker and
Frederick Douglass, and memorials to
Alex Haley, author of
Roots, and his ancestor,
Kunta Kinte, who arrived in Annapolis on the
slave ship Lord Ligonier in 1767. (The Kunta Kinte plaque was stolen within 48 hours after its installation in 1981, allegedly by the
Ku Klux Klan. The plaque was never recovered, but it was replaced within two months.)
*Annapolis has had Jewish residents since at least 1746, when a Jewish servant, Henry Hart, lived in the city. An organized Jewish community was established in 1896, when a group of Eastern European Jewish immigrants formed the Annapolis Hebrew Association, which was formally chartered in 1906 as the Kneseth Israel Congregation (Orthodox). In 1961, a Reform congregation, Beth Shalom, was founded in nearby Arnold, MD, and in 1978 Annapolis became home to a third Jewish congregation, Kol Ami (Conservative).
*There are 5 Monuments in the city: Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court
Roger Taney, Revolutionary War General
Johann deKalb, Supreme Court Justice
Thurgood Marshall, longtime civil servant
Louis Goldstein, and Author
Alex Haley.
* John Henry Alexander (1812-1867), noted scientist, businessman, and author
* John Beale Bordley (1727-1804), noted government official, farmer, and author
*
James M. Cain,
journalist and
crime writer*
Charles Carroll (1723-1783),
Continental Congressman from Maryland
*
Charles Carroll of Carrollton (1737-1832),
United States Senator and signer of
United States Declaration of Independence*John Beale Davidge (1768-1829), doctor associated with the development of several surgeries, author, co-founder of
University of Maryland, and professor there
*
Henry Winter Davis (1817-1865),
United States Representative from Maryland
*
Robert Duvall, actor, lived in downtown Annapolis
*
Bruce Farr, yacht designer
*
Gavin Floyd,
baseball pitcher*
Barbara Kingsolver,
fiction writer (born in Annapolis, but raised in
Kentucky)
*
Ronald Damien Malfi, novelist
*
Debbie Meyer,
Olympic swimmer*
Travis Pastrana,
motorcycle racing champion
Annapolis is a
sister city of these municipalities[https://www.capitalonline.com/cgi-bin/read/2005/07_17-40/TOP]:
*
Tallinn,
Estonia*
Newport,
South Wales,
UK*
Music of Annapolis*
WRNR*
The Capital*
See D. Ridgely,
Annals of Annapolis from 1649 until the War of 1812 (Baltimore, 1841); S. A. Shafer, "Annapolis, Ye Ancient City," in L. P. Powell's
Historic Towns of the Southern States (New York, 1900); W. Eddis,
Letters from America (London, 1792); Eric L. Goldstein,
Traders and Transports: The Jews of Colonial Maryland (Baltimore: Jewish Historical Society of Maryland, 1993).
*
Annapolis Maryland Online Business Directory*
Annapolis official website*
Historic images of Annapolis
