St. Mary's College of Maryland Preservation Master Plan

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St. Mary’s College of MarylandPreservation Master PlanHistoric St. Mary’s City February 2008Only six years after its construction in 1676, the buildingwas described as being in “ruinous” condition and needingrepairs. Just six years later, in 1688, it again was decayingand more repairs were authorized, to the point where theporch side was demolished and rebuilt. By 1694, it haddeteriorated to a condition described as “dangerous,”with the walls of the stair tower leaning out far enough torequire shoring up. In the same year the colony capital wasmoved to Annapolis, the State House became the countycourthouse (Forman 1938:287-291).After it was abandoned first as the colony capital in 1695,and then as the county courthouse sometime between 1697and 1708, the State House suffered from neglect and wasapparently in poor repair by 1720, when the governmentconveyed it to the Vestry of William and Mary Parish touse as an Anglican chapel of ease (Hammett 1990:45;Maryland General Assembly 1720; Maryland State Archives2006:131-133). The parish made alterations to the buildingby moving the primary entrance and enclosing the “porch” tocreate a space for the altar (Innis 1971). The State Housesurvived until 1829, when it was in such bad condition thatthe church, by a bare majority, voted to tear it down and usethe bricks to build a new Trinity Church nearby. This actwas reportedly controversial at the time, indicating that therewas considerable awareness of the historic significance ofthe State House. However, taking the building down andharvesting its bricks may have been seen by those in chargeas a means of preserving its historic materials, and thusintended as an act of historic preservation (Fletcher 1992;Wollon 1993:1-2).The Tercentenary CommissionSt. Mary’s City at this time was a remote, inaccessibleplace, far distant from the state capital at Annapolis. Thebicentennial of Maryland’s founding in 1834 passed withno acknowledgement of the role of St. Mary’s City and itsenvirons as the site of the earliest English settlement. In1838, however, this changed when John Pendleton Kennedypublished a bestselling novel, Rob of the Bowl: A Legendof St. Inigoe’s, which focused attention on St. Mary’s City.Kennedy’s fictional account of life in the colonial capital,drawing on rare historic documents, generated considerableinterest statewide in the St. Mary’s City site and what littleremained of the first city. This led to the founding of St.Mary’s Seminary as a public “monument school” to honorthe historic first capital city. (Fausz 1990:28-29).Increasing awareness of Maryland’s historic roots andthe significance of old St. Mary’s City prompted the stateto form a Tercentenary Commission to plan the festivitiesPage 2-35
St. Mary’s College of MarylandPreservation Master PlanHistoric St. Mary’s City February 2008surrounding the 300 th anniversary of the founding of Marylandin 1934. In 1929, the Maryland General Assembly, with theGovernor’s support, passed an Act to establish the MarylandTercentenary Commission. A committee of citizens wasappointed to consider ideas on how to commemorate theanniversary, and submitted a report on its recommendationsto the General Assembly in 1931. The General Assemblythen authorized the Commission to direct the celebration.Numerous means of commemoration were developed,including: placement of a bronze tablet at Cowes on the Isleof Wight in England to mark the origins of the Ark and Dovevoyage; placement of a memorial on St. Clement’s Island tomark the location of the colonists’ first landing in Maryland;acquisition of land in St. Mary’s City at the site of the originalMonument at original State House site, Trinity State House; building of a tercentenary memorial at St.Church Cemetery, photographed by CharlesMary’s City; establishment of a permanent governmentFenwick, 1953 (Courtesy of St. Mary’s CountyHistorical Society).commission to have custody of the memorial sites at St.Clement’s Island and St. Mary’s City; and the constructionof a memorial Hall of Records at Annapolis (Maryland StateArchives 1997).The Replica State HouseOn June 22, 1933, Susette Brome Bennett and her husbandJames Bennett, and Susette’s sister Jeannette BromeHoward and her husband J. Spence Howard, formallyconveyed a 1.18 acre parcel to the State of Maryland foruse as the site of the replica State House. This donation,made in the spirit of patriotism, came from lands inheritedfrom their father, John Thomas Brome. The Bennetts andHowards retained ownership of the adjacent Brome-HowardHouse, where the Howards continued to reside. Althoughthe original State House site was still part of the TrinityChurch cemetery, the Brome parcel was within view andmade a fine substitute. The original State House site wasactually not appropriate for construction of the memorialreplica, given the adjacent burials encroaching on the oldfoundation and the need to preserve the archeologicalremains (Forman 1938:286).Drawing and plans of Replica State House(Forman 1938).Page 2-36It was decided that the replica State House would closelyfollow the specifications set out for the original in the 1674Act which authorized its construction. Further archeologicalresearch of the foundation site in early 1933 and the useof historic building fragments, such as an old newel postpreserved from the first State House and a roof tile fromthe Governor’s Castle archeological site in St. Mary’sCity, were used to make reproduction materials. Someof these materials were provided by J. Spence Howard,a member of the Tercentenary Commission, who had an
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