Discovering Maryland's first city

About this book

"This report summarizes the results of recent archaeological explorations at the site of Maryland's 17th-century capital. Excavations focused upon the heart of this long buried city to locate key structures and permit the documentary and archaeological records to be linked. Among the sites discovered was the c. 1635 residence of the first governor, a building which later served as Maryland's first Statehouse. Findings from this site are presented along with data on a lawyer's lodging, private homes and the ruins of a public inn which only stood for eleven years before its destruction by fire in 1678. Significant new evidence is also reported on a 1645 fortification known as Pope's Fort, the first physical trace of the English Civil War found in America. Finally, the historical data and new archaeological findings are integrated to produce accurate maps of the city. Analysis of these maps reveals that St. Mary's was a planned settlement which employed sophisticated European concepts of urban design, despite an absence of evidence for any city planning in surviving documents. These discoveries are significantly expanding our knowledge of 17th-century Chesapeake life and revolutionizing our perceptions of this early American city, the first 'Metropolis of Maryland.'"--Abstract.