Existing comment:
State House Square
This square is named to commemorate the 200th anniversary on December 12, 1978, of the Court of Appeals of Maryland, the state's highest court. It encompasses Lawyers Street, shown on the earliest map of Annapolis (1718) connecting Publick Circle (now State Circle) with Tabernacle Street (now College Avenue).
The Maryland General Assembly, acting under the provisions of the state's first constitution (1776), named the initial judges of the court on December 12, 1778 and, with Governor Thomas Johnson, issued commissions on December 22, 1778
The court first convened October 1, 1780 in the Revenue Office on Duke of Gloucester Street in the City of Annapolis and continued to hold its sessions there until ca. 1789 when it moved to the State House in 1903. The court began sitting in its own building on the site of this marker, designed by the Baltimore architectural firm of Baldwin and Pennington. The Courthouse included elegant Tiffany studio windows, depicting the state seal and a domed Tiffany studio skylight.
In 1972 the court moved approximately one mile northwest of this marker to its present home on Roscoe Rowe Boulevard. The courtroom of the 1903 structure with its uniquely carved mahogany paneling and sculptured plaster ceiling has been reconstructed in the new building.
In 1976 the old courthouse was replaced by the Legislative Services building to the left of this marker, in which the Tiffany windows and dome of the earlier building are incorporated. |