"…once the Metropolis"

St. Mary's City served as Maryland's capital from 1634 until 1695. Although Lord Baltimore wanted a typical European-style town with closely placed dwellings, in its early years it was only a small cluster of houses and taverns, and the first legislature met in private homes, including Governor Leonard Calvert's nearby house and the St. John's plantation of colony secretary John Lewger. No map of Maryland's first capital survives, but archaeology suggests that in the late 1600s a formal plan, possibly created by the colony's surveyor Jerome White, guided the city's design. In that plan, the main roads formed two triangles with principal streets meeting in the town center, while the brick State House built in 1676 and the Catholic chapel built in 1667 stood at the far ends of town at equal distances from the center. The plan also directed attention to significant buildings and extended toward the city's main entry points, the river landing and the mill dam crossing over Mill Creek. In 1685, surviving city bylaws recorded concern over Sunday drinking, gaming, and swearing, leading to a ban on gaming and the sale of strong liquors on Sundays. Residents of the 17th-century city used white clay pipes made in Europe, now among the most common artifacts found at colonial sites in Maryland, and taverns used Staffordshire-style slipware mugs. The city was incorporated in 1668, endured upheavals that included Ingle's Revolt in 1645 and the Protestant Rebellion in Maryland in 1689, and its capital status ended when the capitol moved to Annapolis in 1695.

Maryland · United States