ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND: THE STATE HOUSE

I'M SO CONFUSED. You know the building where the governor has his office? What is it called? "The Capitol," you say? Not in Maryland, and not in Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Rhode Island, South Carolina, or Vermont. They all have State Houses.  And then there is Ohio, which, just to be difficult, has a Statehouse. Not to be outdone, Delaware has a Legislative Hall. Geesh.

The Maryland State House is not your typical capitol in spite of the columns out front and the long portico. There is a small, stacked dome rather than the typical massive white one. This building looks like it was built in a different era than most of the capitols we've seen, as indeed it was. Constructed in 1772, it is the oldest state house (and I'm assuming that means oldest capitol building too) in the nation still in legislative use. George Washington himself walked these halls. The treaty that ended the Revolutionary War was ratified here.  For nine months between November 26, 1783, and August 13, 1784, this building even served as the capitol building for the United States, so I guess they can call it what they want, right?

We were impressed by the flora and fauna on the well-manicured grounds. 

One of the first things we want to see in most state capitols houses is the inside of the dome. Soaring 113 feet above the floor, this one is simple but elegant in its own way:

The next thing I noticed was this unusual "waist-up" statue of Winfield Scott Schley, a Rear Admiral in the U.S. Navy and a hero of the Battle of Santiago de Cuba in the Spanish-America War, 1898. (Annapolis is such a navy town.) I think it's the first time I've seen a statue of a man holding binoculars:

The legislative rooms are stunning. The House of Delegates Chamber is the largest room in the State House and has a 40-foot-square Tiffany skylight:

The Senate Chamber is the second largest room in the State House and also has a Tiffany skylight that looks a lot like the one in the House of Delegates Chamber:

This State House Caucus Room, part of the original building, is full of displays from the State House's past: 

. . . including several cabinets full of the 1906 silver service and china used on two of the four USS Maryland ships: 

Another opulent meeting room, this used to the be House of Delegates Chamber until it got to small to house the state's growing number of delegates.

A portrait of the young Marquis de Lafayette hangs in the State House. At age 20 he sailed from France to the colonies to join the American Revolution. He quickly became a close friend of George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, and Thomas Jefferson. Here he is in his Napoleon Bonaparte pose:

Perhaps the most important event that occurred in the Maryland State House took place in the Old Senate Chamber on December 21, 1783, when General George Washington resigned as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army. The iconic painting of the event hangs in the State House:

Here is the room in that painting as it appears today. Note the arched niche that is in both pictures. It looks like windows have been added at some point in the last 230+ years:

Washington didn't sit in that niche. Thomas Miflin, the President of Congress, sat here to receive Washington's military commision as he resigned it:

Here is a side view and a front view of the Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army (who was not yet President):

I really like the info provided about the event. Washington was perhaps the most beloved and influential man in America, and he could easily have capitalized on that popularity, but instead he chose to relinquish power and return to being a regular citizen.

Hey, George! You're my hero!

Looking back at George after walking further into the room, we noticed a woman's figure on the balcony. It can't be Martha. She is back at Mt. Vernon.

Turns out it is Molly Ridout, a socialite of the first order (the daughter of one Maryland governor and sister of another), who had come to watch the proceedings.

An artist's  rendering gives an idea of what the event would have looked like:

Notice anything interesting about this portrait gallery of 17 men, all painted by Charles Wilson Peale? They're not all men. One of them is a woman! On the middle row, far right, is Anne Catharine Hoof Green, a Dutch immigrant who bore 14 children, only 6 of which lived, and then took over her husband's print shop when he died so that she could support her family. She was an astute businesswoman and had all her husband's debts paid off in three years, and then went on to publish many important documents for the new nation.

I must confess that I have to snicker at this picture of Washington, Lafayette, and Tench Tilghman (an officer in the Continental Army) at Yorktown. Washington's head is so small in relation to his body, and he looks a bit odd in the Napoleon pose. (Did EVERYONE pose that way during the Revolutionary War?) The other two men look like they are talking about him behind his back: "What's with George? Does he have indigestion?"

There is a nice memorial to the four Marylanders who signed the Declaration of Independence. The last one, Samuel Chase, became a Supreme Court Justice:

And what is that inside the temperature-controlled glass case? It's Washington's hand-written resignation speech. Very cool.

Look at that exquisite handwriting!

There are two conflicting monuments outside the State House. The first is a statue of Roger Brooke Taney, the fifth Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, who is best known for authoring the majority opinion in the Dred Scott Case. That case is considered the worst United States Supreme Court decision ever made. He sits on his pedestal in front of one of the entrances to the State House, surrounded by beautiful landscaping:

So why is Taney's statue in a place of prominence on the Maryland State House grounds? Well, it's not anymore. It was removed in the middle of the night on August 18th, just a few weeks ago, after white nationalists in Charlottesville used a statue of Robert E. Lee as a rallying point and slave era statues became very unpopular.

In contrast, on the other side of the building is a statue of Thurgood Marshall, a Supreme Court Justice from 1967 to 1991 who fought tirelessly for civil rights:

Marshall wanted to attend the University of Maryland School of Law but could not because of its segregation policy, so instead he attended Howard University Law School and graduated first in his class in 1933. The statue of a young man seated on a bench and looking at Marshall is Donald G. Murray, a black man who sued for admittance to the segregated University of Maryland Law School in 1935--and won:

Also looking at their hero, Justice Marshall, are two African-American children who represent all the children in Brown v. Board of Education, a case tried in Topeka in 1954 which led to the desegregation of schools there, and eventually throughout the South. Guess who argued for the plaintiffs? Mr. Marshall, chief counsel for the NAACP at that time.

The Thurgood Marshall Monument dominates the view of this entrance to the State House, a poignant reminder of how far Maryland has come since the Justice Taney days.