St Mary's City, Maryland | |
|---|---|
!["The State House", a reconstruction of the original 1676 Maryland Statehouse, Maryland's first capitol building and also the home of the Maryland colonial assembly, which stands near the original site.[1]](view_image.php?q=St._Mary's_City,_Maryland&sq=Envato&lang=en&file=File:St._Mary%27s_State_House,_Maryland.jpg) "The State House", a reconstruction of the original 1676 Maryland Statehouse, Maryland's first capitol building and also the home of the Maryland colonial assembly, which stands near the original site.[1] | |
  St Mary's City, Maryland Location within the U.S. state of Maryland  St Mary's City, Maryland St Mary's City, Maryland (the United States) | |
| Coordinates: 38°11′21″N 76°25′56″W / 38.18917°N 76.43222°W | |
| Country |  United States |
| State |  Maryland |
| County |  St. Mary's |
| Founded | March 27, 1634 |
| Founded by | Leonard Calvert |
| Area | |
• Total | 1.20000 sq mi (3.10799 km2) |
| • Land | 1.10000 sq mi (2.84899 km2) |
| • Water | 0.100000 sq mi (0.258999 km2) |
| Population (2010) | |
• Total | 933 year round residents[2] plus about 1,400 student residents during spring and fall semesters |
| Time zone | Eastern (EST) |
| • Summer (DST) | eastern (Americas) |
| ZIP code | 20686 |
Birthplace of religious freedom in North America with the passage of the Maryland Act of Toleration in 1649. The first place where a (possibly) African American person, Mathias De Sousa, served in an assembly as a voting legislator and first place where a woman, Margaret Brent, petitioned (unsuccessfully) for the right to vote. | |
St. Mary's City Historic District | |
 St. Mary's City Historic District: Reconstructed 1667 Catholic Church, built on site of the original Jesuit mission church in the St. Mary's City colonial settlement, Maryland's first colony. HSMC, July 2009 | |
| Nearest city | St. Mary's City, Maryland |
| Built | c. 1667. Rebuilt 2009. |
| NRHP reference No. | 69000310[3] |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | August 4, 1969 |
| Designated NHLD | August 4, 1969[4] |
St. Mary's City (also known as Historic St. Mary's City) is a former colonial town that was founded in March 1634, as Maryland's first European settlement and capital.[5] It is now a state-run historic area, which includes a reconstruction of the original colonial settlement and a designated living history venue and museum complex. Half the area is occupied by the campus of St. Mary's College of Maryland. The entire area contains a community of about 933 permanent residents and some 1,400 students living in campus dorms and apartments.[6]
The city is an unincorporated community under Maryland state law and is located in southern St. Mary's County, which occupies the southernmost tip of the state on the western shore of Chesapeake Bay.[7] The community is bordered by the St. Mary's River, a short, brackish-water tidal tributary of the Potomac River, near where it empties into the Chesapeake.
St. Mary's City is the historic site of the founding of the Colony of Maryland—then called the Province of Maryland—where it served as the colonial capital from 1634 until 1695.[8][9] The original settlement is the fourth oldest permanent English settlement in the United States.[10]
Notably, St. Mary's City is the earliest site of religious freedom being established in the United States,[11] as it is the first North American colonial settlement established with a specific mandate of providing haven for people of both Catholic and Protestant Christian faiths.[12][13]
It is also an internationally recognized archaeological research area and training center for archaeologists, and is home to the Historical Archaeology Field School.[14] There have been over 200 archeological digs in St. Mary's City over the last 30 years.[5] Archaeological research continues in the city.[15]
- ^ "St. Mary's County, Maryland - Historical Chronology". msa.maryland.gov.
- ^ "20686 Zip Code (Maryland) Profile - homes, apartments, schools, population, income, averages, housing, demographics, location, statistics, sex offenders, residents and real estate info". www.city-data.com.
- ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. April 15, 2008.
- ^ "St. Mary's City Historic District". National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. Archived from the original on October 11, 2012. Retrieved June 12, 2008.
- ^ a b "Unearthing early American life in St. Mary's City". The Darkroom: Exploring visual journalism from the Baltimore Sun. Archived from the original on February 17, 2018. Retrieved March 21, 2014.
- ^ "St. Marys: A When-Did Timeline", pages 6 through 27, by Janet Butler Haugaard, Executive Editor and writer, St. Mary's College of Maryland with Susan G. Wilkinson, Director of Marketing and Communications, Historic St. Mary's City Commission and Julia A. King, Associate Professor of Anthropology, St. Mary's College of Maryland Archives "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on February 21, 2014. Retrieved March 20, 2014.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^ U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: St. Mary's City, Maryland
- ^ Hartsock, John; Times, New York (February 5, 1989). "Vanished Colonial Town Yields Baroque Surprise". The New York Times.
- ^ Roylance, Frank D. "They're unearthing more than a chapel at St. Mary's site BURIED PAST". The Baltimore Sun. Archived from the original on December 6, 2019. Retrieved February 12, 2023.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) - ^ "Fodor's Virginia And Maryland", edited by John D. Rambow, p. 313, Random House LLC
- ^ Greenwell, Megan (August 21, 2008). "Religious Freedom Byway Would Recognize Maryland's Historic Role". The Washington Post.
- ^ "Religious Toleration in Maryland - Introduction". msa.maryland.gov.
- ^ Cecilius Calvert, "Instructions to the Colonists by Lord Baltimore, (1633)" in Clayton Coleman Hall, ed., Narratives of Early Maryland, 1633-1684 (NY: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1910), 11-23.
- ^ "Historic St. Mary's City Wins Archaeology Award", Baynet, Baltimore, MD - 1/23/2012, "Historic St. Mary's City Wins Archaeology Award - Southern Maryland News". Archived from the original on March 22, 2014. Retrieved March 23, 2014.
- ^ "Discovering the Past", See History section HSMC (Historic St. Mary's City) official website, [1]