Maryland's State House, finished in 1676, originally stood just north of this site on a bluff now occupied by the cemetery of Trinity Episcopal Church. In that brick building, the Maryland Assembly and courts of law met for nearly twenty years, until the capital moved to Annapolis in 1695. The reconstructed building matches its predecessor at two and a half stories tall, with a large main-floor chamber for the Assembly and Provincial Court, a second-floor committee room for joint business of the Lower House and the Proprietor's Council, the Council meeting room, and the Secretary's office, while fire-arms and gunpowder for public defense were stored under lock and key in the attic. The present building was constructed as the centerpiece of Maryland's Tercentenary Celebration in 1934, marking the three hundredth anniversary of the colony's founding.
