William Buckland's Annapolis

For those of you who are desperate for a sneak preview of the Old Senate Chamber, you may be surprised to find that hints are all around you! Our architectural historians have conducted months of research on interiors in many colonial structures in the Annapolis area, and the architects who created them.

One man in particular had a long-standing association with the Old Senate Chamber that merited attention. We encourage anyone who is paying a visit to Maryland’s capital this holiday weekend to keep a special eye out for the works of Virginia and Maryland architect, William Buckland.

Portrait of William Buckland by Charles Willson Peale, 1774 and 1789, completed thirteen years after Buckland's death. Before Buckland is the floor plan to his masterpiece, Hammond-Harwood House in Annapolis. Image courtesy of the Yale University Art Gallery.

The Evolution of the Niche

Of all the architectural features of the Old Senate Chamber, one of the most remarkable is the niche, a crescent-shaped indent in the wall situated opposite the entrance. While almost every other point in the room will be recreated to resemble its eighteenth-century appearance, the niche has miraculously survived centuries of makeovers and is one of the only original features of the room. Which of course, begs the question, how did the niche, where Thomas Mifflin once sat to famously receive Washington’s commission, survive?

Elevation drawing of the niche by J. Appleton Wilson, c. 1905. Image courtesy of the Maryland Historical Society.

The niche was first conceived during the construction of the third (and current) State House between 1772-1779 as a location for the President of the Senate. The room, constructed in the Palladian style popular at the time, emphasized symmetry above all else. The door that led to the Senate Committee Room, for instance, was balanced out with a fake door on the opposite side of the fireplace. Likewise, the main entrance to the room was mirrored by a niche, situated on top of a platform known as the dais. The spot was intended for the President of the Senate to sit and preside over meetings of the legislature, ironically creating an elevated space that resembled a throne.

The Desecration of the Old Senate Chamber

Readers of last week’s blog entry may have noticed an event in the Old Senate Chamber’s history that forever left its mark on the appearance of the room. Known to some historians today as “the desecration,” the phrase was used in Elihu Samuel Riley's 1905 work, A History of the General Assembly of Maryland. Calling the renovations, "an act of historic sacrilege," Riley supposedly, "stood in the midst of the Chamber, when the desecration was in progress, and declared: 'This ought not to be done.'"[1]

On March 30, 1876, the General Assembly approved an appropriation of $32,000 for the “repair and improvement of the State House.”[2] In the next two years, under the supervision of Baltimore architect George A. Frederick, drastic changes were made to the historic rooms in order to preserve the safety of the building while updating the building’s style to a Victorian aesthetic. Unfortunately, these changes ultimately hid or destroyed several original architectural details throughout the State House.

The Old Senate Chamber, as it appeared after the 1876-1878 renovations. Most notable in this picture is the re-opening of two windows at the front of the room and the disappearance of the niche, covered with elaborate drapery in keeping with the Victorian aesthetic. Printer in Souvenir Album, General Assembly of Maryland, 1898 Session, MSA SC 5788.

“The Prettyest in America:” Accounts of the OSC

Much like their accounts of the city discussed in last week's blog post, delegates of Congress had much to say about their new seat at the Maryland State House. Due to a lack of surviving pictorial evidence from the eighteenth century, these descriptions serve as valuable evidence for determining the appearance of the Old Senate Chamber in 1783.

Opinions on the State House were generally favorable, even from those delegates who were unimpressed with the entertainments of Annapolis. David Howell of Rhode Island, who looked unfavorably on the lack of a church in the city, said of the State House, “The State House & the House assigned for the President are spacious & eligantly finished, far exceeding those buildings in Philadelphia.”[1] Charles DeWitt, a delegate from New York, similarly described the State House in a letter to his son as, “the most superb, it is thought, in any of the United States.”[2]

Conceptual sketch of the State House c.1859. Drawn by Elizabeth Ridout, 1954, Maryland State Archives, MSA SC 1444-01-20.

"All Eyes Being Fixed on Washington:" Washington Resigning Leaves the State House

This past Monday, a team of conservators and professional art handlers from Artex Fine Art Services worked with the Department of General Services and the Maryland State Archives to remove Edwin White's Washington Resigning His Commission from the State House. The painting, part of the state-owned art collection managed by the Maryland Commission on Artistic Property and completed in 1859, will undergo major conservation over the course of the next year, and will return to the State House in conjunction with the completion of the restoration of the Old Senate Chamber. This masterpiece has hung above the grand staircase of the Maryland State House since 1904, when it had been moved from its original home in the Old Senate Chamber.

Artex staff works to remove Washington Resigning from its place on the grand staircase. Maryland State Archives, 4 November 2013.

An army of art handlers from Artex worked carefully for several hours to first remove the painting from the wall and lower it to the floor. The canvas was then removed from the frame, and the disassembled frame was carried piece by piece downstairs where it was wrapped for safe transport. The canvas, meanwhile, was secured in cardboard and plastic, and carried out of the State House through a window in the original part of the State House. A specialty contractor removed the window to accommodate the painting; they reinstalled it immediately after the painting was out of the building. Once outside, the canvas and the frame components were loaded into a truck for transportation to the conservators’ studios.

Union Card Found in OSC Chimney Breast

On October 4, 2013, the construction workers made an exciting discovery in the chimney of the Old Senate Chamber. Lodged between the bricks was an old piece of paper that turned out to be a union card from the Bricklayer's Union of Maryland #5 dated April 1904. On the back of the card was a handwritten note that said, "Built by C. H. Obery Jr., Jos. Holland, July 29, 1906."

This card is almost certainly a remnant of the 1905 renovations of the State House under architects Baldwin and Pennington, which notably included the addition of the New Annex. The State House Building Commission also worked on the restoration of the Old Senate Chamber. Among the extensive renovations to take place in the chamber in 1905, the fireplace, which had been torn out in 1858, was rebuilt.

Workers uncovered a piece of paper in the chimney breast of the Old Senate Chamber, 4 October 2013.

Vicki Lee, Senior Conservator of the Maryland State Archives, inspects the union card in the chimney breast, 4 October 2013.

Progress Uptdate: Measuring the OSC

 From left: Project architects, Mark Wenger and John Mesick, and
Sasha Lourie, Curator, Maryland Commission on Artistic Property

Last week, architects John Mesick, Mark Wenger, and their team from Mesick, Cohen, Wilson, Baker, LLP were in the Old Senate Chamber documenting and measuring the space in preparation for the demolition and design phases of this project.  During their week-long stay, the architects also visited historic Annapolis houses in order to have a better understanding of the local architectural vocabulary and to identify the relationship between the architects and craftsmen documented to have been working in the city during the construction of the State House.

Below: Members of Mesick, Cohen, Wilson, Baker, LLP team
drafting and measuring the space.

Old Senate Chamber Architectural Advisory Committee

Yesterday, September 13th, was the second meeting of the Old Senate Chamber Architectural Advisory Committee held in the Chamber. The basis for this meeting was an introduction to John Mesick and Mark Wenger, from the firm Mesick Cohen Wilson Baker Architects, who have been been selected as the lead architects for the upcoming restoration. Offering a fresh perspective and new insight into this historic space, coupled with years of experience working with comparable buildings, we are thrilled to have the Mesick and Wenger team on board and are looking forward to working with them. 

From left: Marcia Miller, Md. Historical Trust; Mark Wenger, Mesick Cohen Wilson Baker Architects; John Larson, Vice President for Restoration Old Salem, Inc.; Peter Pearre, Trostel & Pearre, Architects.