Maryland State House

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - Cite This Source

The Maryland State House is the state capitol of Maryland, and is located in Annapolis. It houses the Maryland General Assembly and 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.

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 lightning rod's original inventor, Benjamin Franklin.

The Maryland State House is administered by the State House Trust, which was created in 1969.

The dome of the statehouse is depicted on the Maryland state quarter.

Photo Gallery

References

External links

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia © 2001-2006 Wikipedia contributors (Disclaimer)
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Last updated on Monday March 10, 2008 at 13:22:58 PDT (GMT -0700)
View this article at Wikipedia.org - Edit this article at Wikipedia.org - Donate to the Wikimedia Foundation