What color was the Old Senate Chamber?

This is one of the many questions often asked by visitors to the Old Senate Chamber, and it is one being scrutinized by the project team working on the restoration. In a room that has experienced so many architectural changes in its 233-year history, there is no easy answer to the question of what is "original" to the room. Beginning with this entry, we will begin to examine many of the architectural elements and finishes currently in the space and provide insights into what we do, or do not, know about each of them. 

c. 1905
Color postcard of the Restored Old Senate Chamber
Postcards Of Maryland State House Grounds Collection
MSA SC 2215-21

 
Since the room was restored in 1905, the walls have only been painted in three different colors: a "colonial" green in 1905, modeled after John Trumbull's 1824 painting of General George Washington Resigning his Commission; white in the mid-twentieth century; and Prussian blue in the late 1990s.

So are any of these colors original to the eighteenth century?
 

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.

Trumbull's Old Senate Chamber

Sketches of the interior of the Old Senate Chamber, By John Trumbull.
Graphite on paper, c. 1822Courtesy Yale University Art Gallery, Gift of the Associates in Fine Arts, 1938.286a &b

The above images, sketched by John Trumbull ca. 1822, are the earliest known depictions of the Old Senate Chamber. These sketches were drafted on-site in preparation to fulfill his 1817 commission from the U.S. Congress to paint  four large scenes of pivotal moments before, during and after the Revolutionary War to hang in the Capitol Rotunda. This series includes, Declaration of Independence (1818), Surrender of Lord Cornwallis (1820), Surrender of General Burgoyne (1821), and General George Washington Resigning His Commission (1824).

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. 

First Photographic Images of the OSC

Happy Labor Day Weekend

Photograph of a plaster molder temporarily working in the Old House of Delegates Chamber during the 1948 renovations to the State House Rotunda.
This process of molding was done entirely by hand.
Taken by the Hughes Co.
William Preston Lane Photograph Collection
MSA SC 4082

Investigation Update: Photogrammetric survey of the OSC

Yesterday, Peter Aaslestad of Aaslestad Preservation Consulting LLC visited the Old Senate Chamber to survey the space using architectural photogrammetry, the practice of obtaining information about physical objects through the process of recording, measuring, and interpreting photographic images. 

Peter Aaslestad performing photogrammetry in the OSC, August 2012.