St. Mary's College of Maryland Preservation Master Plan

St. Mary’s College of MarylandPreservation Master PlanHistoric St. Mary’s City February 2008survive to the present day. The historical, archeological,and geographical interconnectedness of St. Mary’s Collegeof Maryland, Trinity Church, and Historic St. Mary’s Citymakes it impossible to separate them, and together theycreate a collection of resources that fulfills the visions ofthose who once longed for a suitable commemoration ofMaryland’s origins.Throughout its history, St. Mary’s City and its residentseminary and church have been more or less aware of theircolonial-era past, although recognition from the outsideworld was slow in coming. Recognition of the historicimportance of this isolated peninsula has ebbed and flowedover time, although it was long venerated by Catholicsas the birthplace of American Catholicism (King 2007).Increased development pressure after World War II, andnationwide recognition that important historic sites neededto be documented and protected, led to careful study andpreservation planning in St. Mary’s City and the formationof Historic St. Mary’s City as a means to interpret, preserve,and study the archeological remains of Maryland’s firstEnglish settlement. By the late twentieth century, historicaldesignation had been secured for a number of land areas.In August 1969, St. Mary’s City was recognized as a NationalHistoric Landmark (Carr [1984]). In 1975, the St. Mary’sCity Historic District was listed in the National Register ofHistoric Places (NRHP 1975). This large district, whichis the same for both the National Historic Landmark andNational Register documentation, is bounded on the westby the St. Mary’s River, on the south and southeast by St.Inigoes Creek and Broom Creek, and its east boundary runsnorth across Mattapany Road to a boundary line north ofand parallel to Fisherman’s Creek, which runs southwestto the St. Mary’s River. This district thus includes theentire original sector of the St. Mary’s College campus,Trinity Church and its adjacent landholdings, and otherprivate properties lying within the historic boundary of the1,500-acre St. Mary’s City Town Lands and Pope’s Freehold.Additional documentation, mostly pertaining to historic landpatents and archeological finds on multiple sites within thedistrict, was approved for the St. Mary’s City Historic Districtin 1993 (NRHP 1993). The National Historic Landmark andthe St. Mary’s City Historic District both focus primarily onthe colonial-period archeological context of the area. TheState House, as a modern replica building, and the extantbuildings belonging to Trinity Church and St. Mary’s Collegeof Maryland are not considered to be contributing resourcesin the landmark or the district.At St. Mary’s College, plans to renovate Kent Hall in theearly 1990s prompted a Maryland Historical Trust (MHT)View of Rectory from Calvert Hall, 1947 (Courtesyof SMCM Archives).Trinity Church ca. 1962, as seen through 1934gates (Trinity Church Archives).Page 3-9