Maryland State House
 |
The Maryland State House |
The
Maryland State House, located in
Annapolis, Maryland, is the meeting place of the
Maryland General Assembly, the state's
legislature. Begun in
1772, it is the oldest
state house in continuous legislative use in the
United States and it is 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 state house to stand on the site.
From
November 26,
1783 to
June 3,
1784, Annapolis served as the United States capital and the
Continental Congress met in the Maryland state house. (Annapolis was a candidate to become the new nation's permanent capital before
Washington, D.C. was built). It was in the old senate chamber[
1] 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
Treaty of Paris, which ended the
Revolutionary War, was ratified by Congress on
January 14,
1784.
Though construction began in 1772, due to the Revolutionary War, the structure was not completed until
1779. The state house was designed by Joseph Horatio Anderson, a noted architect of the time, and the large dome is topped by a
lightning rod [
2] that was constructed and grounded to
Benjamin Franklin's specifications.
The State House is administered by the State House Trust, which was created in
1969 and is currently chaired by
Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele. The dome of the statehouse is depicted on the
Maryland quarter.
*
Information from the Maryland Archives*
The Maryland State House Trust*
Information and short history of the state house (
archive link, was
dead)
