ANNOUNCER: This program was made by MPT, to enrich the diverse communities throughout our state.

And is made possible by the generous support of our members.

Thank you.

ELAINE RICE BACHMANN: What if your house was built at the time of the American Revolution?

What if your house hosted the first peaceful transfer of power in our country's history?

What if the rooms inside were filled with furniture and paintings made by some of the most important craftsmen and artists from America's past?

What if your house was topped by a dome that rose 181 feet into the air?

If you live in Maryland, your house is all of these things, and more.

Welcome to the Maryland State House, America's oldest state house in continuous legislative use.

I'm Elaine Rice Bachmann, Maryland's State Archivist and the Secretary of the State House Trust.

Join me on a tour of our state's most historic building, the heart of the city of Annapolis and Maryland government for 250 years.

ANNOUNCER: This Old State House was made possible by... Chesapeake Crossroads Heritage Area.

ELAINE: The year was 1694.

The Calvert family, who had long controlled the colony of Maryland, was ceding power to a new Governor, Francis Nicholson.

Appointed by the Crown, it was Nicholson who encouraged the legislature to relocate Maryland's capital away from St.

Mary's City in southern Maryland, where the first European colonists had landed over six decades earlier.

The spot they chose in 1695 was a more centralized Chesapeake Bay location on the Severn River.

Naming the town Annapolis after Princess Anne, the heir to the British throne, they chose the highest points on the land to build both their state house and place of worship.

Annapolis was designed like the capitals of Europe, with streets radiating from prominent circles.

Here, two were created when the town was laid out, one known as "State Circle", and the other, "Church Circle."

These civic and sacred plots of land represent the separation of church and state and the foundation of our government.

Church Circle is the location of St.

Anne's Episcopal Church, first built about 1700.

Since then, three state houses have been built on State Circle.

The first burned down in 1704.

The second that replaced it served Maryland for 60 years until it became too small to support the growing colonial government.

A new one again was needed.

With a design by Joseph Anderson and builder Charles Wallace, this third State House was constructed during the years of the Revolutionary War.

The only building remaining from that original complex is the Old Treasury Building, completed in 1737.

While the cornerstone laid by Maryland's last royal governor Robert Eden in 1772 has not been uncovered, it's likely located deep beneath the foundation of this southeast facade.

When the building was completed in 1779, it was presided over by Maryland's first popularly elected governor, Thomas Johnson, Jr.

Its construction spanned the years of the American Revolution, as Maryland went from being a colony to becoming a state.

Like the country, it's celebrating its 250th birthday.

But with age comes natural wear and tear.

Over the past decade, Mark Schneidman has overseen the program to preserve the building's historic architecture.

Mark, you've managed the restoration of the state house.

How does such a monumental task get accomplished?

MARK SCHNEIDMAN: Well, it certainly is a monumental task.

This was the most comprehensive restoration that's ever been undertaken in the history of this building.

In order to get it accomplished, we assemble a wide range of professionals to work on a project like this.

And I'm talking about architects, engineers, craftsmen, architectural historians, researchers.

We all have to collaborate together towards a common goal, which is to restore this building and to maintain its historic character.

ELAINE: What's the most challenging aspect of working in a National Historic Landmark?

MARK: I would say the most challenging thing is remaining true to the historic preservation principles that guide our work.

There's extensive effort that we make to work back and forth.

Any time that we start construction, all the hidden truths behind the walls are revealed.

And sometimes that turns our plans upside down, and that often causes us to go back and revisit what we've done, decisions that we've made, or to actually work around the historic fabric that we're now discovering and figuring out how to do that, while balancing the standards for historic preservation against every action that we do.

ELAINE: Should we expect buildings today to last 250 years?

MARK: Today we think of buildings as being much more disposable than we ever thought of in the past.

We think of buildings as lasting 50 to 100 years.

And the reason for that is because our technologies are changing so quickly, the way that we live, the way that we work, the way that we build is different today than it was in the past.

But the real strength of a building like this is the history, the history that this building represents, what it means to us as a people and the willingness that we have to maintain it, to keep it alive.

ELAINE: For state governments to operate, senators and representatives convene to debate bills, vote on legislation, and pass budgets.

Public hearings are conducted, governors work, and delegations meet.

And it all began two and half centuries ago.

This is the Old Senate Chamber, where the members of Maryland Senate first convened in November 1779, and continued to meet annually for legislative sessions until 1904.

In the late 19th century, this room had fallen into disrepair.

And in an effort to renovate it, sadly most of its 18th century architecture was lost.

What you see today is the result of an exhaustive archeological and technological restoration completed in 2015.

Where paint analysis revealed the original color of the walls, and an examination of the brick behind the plaster revealed the attachment of the various architectural elements.

But from November 1783 to August 1784 this room took on a role beyond state business.

This is where American history was made.

The Revolutionary War was over, and the Continental Congress needed a place to conduct business for the new nation.

That is when three of the most important events occurred in the State House.

Events so important to American history this building is designated a National Historic Landmark.

On December 23, 1783 George Washington, who had just led the Continental Army to victory over Great Britain, came into this room to resign his commission as commander in chief to Congress, giving over all of his military power to the civilian government.

He was returning after eight years of war, and he was very emotional when reading the speech before the assembled members and a room filled with spectators.

We know how dramatic the scene was thanks to a letter written by Annapolitan Molly Ridout.

When speaking of his family of officers, and imploring Congress to take care of them, she described how the general became so emotional, he was obliged to hold the paper with both hands.

That's the very moment depicted in the bronze statue commemorating Washington's historic act.

The first peaceful transfer of power in our history.

Then, in this room on January 14, 1784, the Treaty of Paris was ratified, officially ending the Revolutionary War, and making this State House the first peacetime capitol of the new United States.

And on May 7th, 1784 Thomas Jefferson appeared before Congress and was appointed minister plenipotentiary to France, making him the first official ambassador to a foreign country from the new United States.

And in what was once the Senate Committee Room, a display of portraits of people who played important roles in Maryland's colonial history including the last royal governor, Sir Robert Eden, who laid the cornerstone for this building, before having to flee during the years of the Revolution.

And this fellow is Major Mordecai Gist, who commanded the Maryland regiment, the famed "Maryland 400", at the Battle of Brooklyn who saved Washington from early defeat.

And here, the victorious general himself in a magnificent portrait painted by Charles Willson Peale and completed in 1784.

It was the first work of art commissioned by the Maryland legislature.

Washington is shown after the Battle of Yorktown and Peale includes the Marquis de Lafayette and his aide-de-camp, Marylander Tench Tilghman, who holds the British surrender.

This is called the Stairwell Room because here are recreated the 18th century staircases that once connected the building's first and second floors.

Across from me, the stairwell into the Senate gallery.

And here, the steps leading to the 2nd floor offices and the dome.

We know that future presidents Thomas Jefferson and James Madison came through this way in 1791 on their way up to the dome where they spent several hours gossiping about the town.

This room also contains images of paintings and documents related to early Annapolis history, and the period of the American Revolution, as well as images of important documentary links to the history of enslavement.

As Maryland's population and economy grew, so did the number of enslaved people brought here from Africa.

With me to discuss this is Chris Haley, director of research and the study of the Legacy of Slavery at the Maryland State Archives.

Chris, tell me about this image.

CHRIS HALEY: Elaine, this is the Lord Ligonier ad from the Maryland Gazette from September 29th, 1767.

This is the ad that my uncle found at the Maryland State Archives, which linked our ancestor, Kunta Kinte, from the Juffureh Village in Gambia to Annapolis, Maryland, and was basically the lynchpin for the book "Roots".

ELAINE: What is it like not only to be related to Alex Haley, who authored "Roots," but to be a descendant of Kunta Kinte, such a well-known enslaved African?

CHRIS: It's daunting.

Every time I look at this ad, every time I think about working at the archives, I think about this person, this incident and where we are today and how lucky I am.

But also, it's the fact that he persevered.

And because he persevered and my family persevered, I'm here today to talk to you at the Annapolis State House.

ELAINE: What do we know about other enslaved people who may have worked on the State House?

CHRIS: Well, unfortunately, we don't know that much because the people who were the builders did not necessarily list the people who they employed, whether they were enslaved or free.

So, we're going to keep looking in the primary source documents that we have, but it's going to be a challenging task.

ELAINE: Across the hall from the old Senate Chamber is the Old House of Delegates chamber, recreated to appear as it looked during the period of the 1870s.

In this room, many civil rights were gained for Marylanders through the passage of legislation to make our laws more inclusive.

In 1826, passage of a landmark bill enabling Marylanders of the Jewish faith to hold public office was advocated by Delegate Thomas Kennedy of Hagerstown.

And it was in this room, on November 1, 1864, that slavery was finally abolished in Maryland by the ratification of an amendment to the state's Constitution.

While most of the desks are reproductions of the originals, one of them, seen here, was in the room on that momentous day.

Maryland's enslaved population was not freed by President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation the year before, which only applied to states that seceded from the Union.

To abolish slavery in Maryland required an amendment to the state's constitution.

To honor that historic event, we have in this chamber statues of two native Marylanders.

Born enslaved, Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass both self-emancipated, then dedicated their lives to seeking freedom for enslaved people and rights for freed men and women.

And as Maryland's population grew, so did the members of the House, eventually requiring the building of a new, larger legislative chamber in 1904.

This small room decorated in the Victorian style, similar to the Old House of Delegates chamber next door, is called the State House Caucus Room.

It's where members of the Senate can come to meet when they need to leave the senate chamber to discuss legislation.

On either end of the table are armchairs once used by the legislature's presiding officers that have come into the state's collection as gifts of their descendants, that's how several works of art and historic furnishings have returned to the State House over the years.

On the walls are portraits of some of Maryland's governors, as well as portraits of Mary Risteau, the first woman to serve in both the Maryland House and Senate, first elected in 1921; and Senator Clarence Blount, the first African American to become majority leader of the Senate, in 1983.

But this room is usually referred to as "the silver room" for its display of this stunning 48 piece set of sterling silver.

Commissioned in 1905 for the U.S.S.

Maryland, it was made by Baltimore's renowned silversmiths, Samuel Kirk and Son.

Robin Gower is the curator of the Maryland Commission on Artistic Property.

Robin, most people only see the U.S.S.

Maryland silver service from inside a secure case.

But we have before us today one of its most elaborate pieces.

What are we looking at?

ROBIN GOWER: So today we are looking at, quite literally, the centerpiece of the U.S.S.

Maryland silver service.

This piece depicts Anne Arundel County.

It is one of many pieces in the service that depict a county.

And here, for Anne Arundel County, you would be remiss if you didn't notice this Maryland State House included prominently on the front of the piece.

And each piece also has unifying elements so that they don't feel like separate county histories.

To represent the federal government, our country, we have an eagle with its wings outstretched.

To represent Maryland, a wonderful depiction of our great state seal.

We have rope to bring in a nautical element.

Local flora and fauna, such as the oyster shells along the bottom.

And a depiction of the U.S.S.

Maryland.

ELAINE: You care for so many works of art that are in public buildings like this one.

Does that present any particular challenges for a curator versus art that is inside a museum?

ROBIN: Some of the challenges remain the same with considerations of light, temperature and humidity, but the State House is a little different in that it's 250 years old with an active legislature.

The joy really is to get these works on display for people to see them within the state of Maryland, to see their history before them, and to learn more about our state.

ELAINE: Connecting all of these rooms is the rotunda of the State House.

With its interior reaching 113 feet from the floor, it is capped by the magnificent dome, the largest wooden dome in the country.

Although the rotunda is part of the original portion of the state house built between 1772 and 1779, it looks far different than it did in the 18th century.

The marble floor and tall columns are all elements of a redecoration of the late 19th century.

Here, we display portraits of the Lords Baltimore, spanning the period of the colonization of Maryland through the American Revolution.

The centerpiece of the rotunda is this display of George Washington's original handwritten resignation speech delivered on December 23, 1783.

This single sheet of paper, written on both sides, is considered by historians to be the fourth most important document in American history, after the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights, because it establishes the authority of the civilian government over the military.

Above the rotunda, are hallways that lead to the offices of the Governor and the Lt.

Governor.

There are also offices in spaces once occupied by the Court of Appeals.

Because when the State House was originally built, it contained all three branches of government: executive, legislative, and judicial.

The Court of Appeals established its own building in 1904, when the annex to the original State House was constructed in order to make space for the growing legislature.

And it's this "new annex" now well over 100 years old, that we pass into as we walk over this line of black limestone... specifically chosen for the fossils you see here.

This is the Maryland Senate Chamber.

Behind me, the rostrum, presided over by the president of the Senate.

And all around, the desks of Maryland's 47 senators who meet here every year for the legislative session, which lasts 90 days, from January to April.

This chamber is part of the annex to the State House, designed by the Baltimore architectural firm Baldwin and Pennington.

Completed in 1904, it was meant to be modern and to blend with the building's original 18th century architecture.

To do this, they didn't just copy the colonial architecture, they innovated, employing the then contemporary Beaux-Arts style, which echoes some of the architectural elements of the Georgian style, like columns and classical pediments, but also incorporates elaborate details and color, including stained glass.

Inside this chamber, we honor Maryland's four signers of the Declaration of Independence: William Paca, Thomas Stone, Samuel Chase, and Charles Carroll of Carrollton, the oldest living signer of the Declaration of Independence and its only Catholic signer.

Other portraits in the room include Thomas V.

"Mike" Miller Jr., Maryland's longest serving Senate President, and Verda Welcome, the first African American woman elected to the Maryland Senate.

Here to tell us about the preservation of this building is Elizabeth Hughes, director of the Maryland Historical Trust.

What are some of the challenges?

ELIZABETH HUGHES: You know, Elaine, I think that the sort of preservation challenges we see in a building as grand and nationally significant as the Maryland State House aren't all that different from those we might see when it comes to preserving an early 20th century bungalow.

It's always about how do we incorporate modern systems into a building that we expect to allow us to maintain our quality of life, our use of the space.

In a public building like this, in particular, we have issues with how do we install fire suppression systems, communication systems or security to ensure that the space can be used effectively?

And the things that we consider in those cases are: we want to retain as much historic fabric as possible, we want to ensure any sort of alteration that we make is going to be reversible, we want the changes to be compatible.

And then fourth, what might be counterintuitive, is that we want to ensure that the work that we're doing today can still be understood in comparison to the historic fabric.

ELAINE: Is there a different philosophy to maintaining the 18th century portions of this building versus the 20th or the 21st?

ELIZABETH: We're always thinking about how do we repair first?

We want to repair the materials that are here.

Then, secondly, if we can't repair because materials have gone on beyond their useful life, how do we replace and replace in kind?

We want to respect all the different layers of history that the building can tell through the architecture.

But overall, we want to repair first and then if we replace, we do it in a way that's sympathetic with what's here already.

ELAINE: Why do you think it's important that the legislature continues to meet here and not build something new and modern?

ELIZABETH: You know, here we have the office of the governor, the office of the Lt.

Governor, the Maryland General Assembly... so, what we have in this place that continues to function as a seat of governance.

This has been happening for 250 years.

We have this continuous history of governance here in the Maryland State House.

When visitors come, they understand that this is not only a place where history has been made, but it's being made today as new laws are being enacted.

In that way, the Maryland State House is really a functional and physical manifestation of the birth of American democracy.

ELAINE: Maryland's larger legislative body is the House of Delegates.

I'm seated at one of the 141 desks that belong to the delegates who represent all of Maryland's 23 counties and the City of Baltimore.

This chamber, which mirrors the design of the Senate chamber across the hall, is the largest room in the state house.

The Italian marble used here was chosen for its colors, mimicking those of the Calvert family in the Maryland flag.

Displayed around the chamber are portraits of Maryland's former Speakers of the House.

Ascending the grand staircase to the second floor, the view is dominated by the monumental painting "Washington Resigning His Commission" by Edwin White.

Ordered by the legislature, it was completed in 1858, its gilded frame featuring the Great Seal of Maryland was carved in Baltimore by Samson Cariss.

Climbing the same stairs once used by Thomas Jefferson and his peers and the countless others over the last two centuries who have made their way to the top of the State House dome, provides us a chance to see its construction.

As you take the 117 steps, you'll notice the signatures of workers over the years who've cared for this enormous structure made of cypress beams and put together like a giant jigsaw puzzle.

Here you can see the architecture of the dome, an inner dome surrounded by an outer dome, and along the staircase that winds around, windows provide views out onto Annapolis Harbor, onto the Chesapeake Bay.

Finally, outside, the unparalleled 360-degree view of Annapolis.

A unique perspective enjoyed since the time of our nation's founding.

Here, beneath the acorn, a symbol of wisdom atop this dome, is where our past is held and our future is charted.

This old state house belongs to each and every one of us.

It's where every Marylander can find a piece of their own story, and where all who visit... can find Maryland's story.

I'm Elaine Rice Bachmann.

Thanks for joining us.

ANNOUNCER: This Old State House was made possible by... Chesapeake Crossroads Heritage Area.

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