ENDLESS CHAPTERS... ONE INTRIGUING STORY

from 2023 Visit Annapolis & Anne Arundel County Visitors Guide

RECREATION

The Chesapeake looked very different 13,000 years ago. Explore what the Indigenous People saw, how they lived, and how they and the environment changed. Follow the QR code to an electronic story map to explore the research and findings of local archaeologists as they work to learn about the Indigenous people who traveled and lived here.

In nearby Edgewater, the Woodlawn History Center at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) provides a glimpse into the area’s Native American settlements and the families who lived there. Built in 1735, Woodlawn is the oldest building in the Smithsonian collection in its original location. The 2,650-acre waterfront site is home to hiking trails and 15 miles of shoreline with access to car-top boat launching.

Neighboring Historic London Town and Gardens recounts the story of the colonial seaport of London Town. Founded in 1683, it was an important trade center and home to one of the earliest European settlements in the region. The town flourished for one hundred years before succumbing to changes in travel routes, fluctuations in the tobacco market, and the chaos of the American Revolution.

Visitors to the 23-acre museum and park can tour the circa 1760 William Brown House and reconstructed colonial buildings. Along the way, you’ll encounter historical interpreters portraying the servants, enslaved persons, sailors, pirates, tradespeople, and landowners who lived there. Nature lovers will enjoy the eight-acre Woodland Garden filled with native plants and exotic species arranged along a one-mile trail that culminates with a stunning overlook of the South River.

At least eight slave ships are known to have docked at London Town between 1708 and 1760. For this reason, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has designated London Town a “Site of Memory Associated with the Slave Route.” Annapolis City Dock has received the same designation. In September 1767, Kunta Kinte, an enslaved person from Gambia, arrived at Annapolis City Dock aboard the Lord Ligonier. A sculptural memorial at the site depicts Pulitzer Prize winning author Alex Haley reading his best-selling book, Roots: The Saga of an American Family, to children of various ethnicities. Calling for racial reconciliation and healing, the novel recounts the life of Kunta Kinte and the generations that followed him.

Annapolis City Dock and London Town are two of more than 40 sites nationally that commemorate the nearly 12 million African people who were forced into the Middle Passage, becoming the forebears and mothers of the African diaspora.

The Museum of Historic Annapolis’s new permanent exhibition, Annapolis: An American Story, shares dramatic stories of Annapolis and its diverse people—free and enslaved—who helped shape our American story over more than 400 years. The nearby Banneker-Douglass Museum is the State of Maryland’s official museum for African American history and culture. It is dedicated to improving the understanding and appreciation of America’s rich cultural diversity for all. Here, the stories of Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, and other Black Marylanders come to life through interpretive art and history exhibits.

Life-size bronze statues of Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman were recently installed in the Old House of Delegates Chamber at the Maryland State House. They stand there as silent witnesses to the ratification of a new state constitution that abolished slavery in Maryland in 1864.

The Maryland State House is the oldest State House in continuous legislative use in the nation. It is also the only State House ever to have served as our nation’s Capitol. The Continental Congress met in the Old Senate Chamber from November 26, 1783, to August 19, 1784. During this time, George Washington resigned his commission as commanderin-chief of the continental army and the Treaty of Paris was ratified, officially ending the Revolutionary War.

In front of the State House, a statue of famous Marylander Thurgood Marshall stands in Lawyers’ Mall, near the site of his first significant victory in the Maryland Court of Appeals. In 1935, he successfully argued for the admission of Donald Murray to the University of Maryland School of Law, setting the stage for Brown v. Board of Education in 1954.

I always encourage people to visit the Peerless Rens Club in Eastport. It’s a historic Black social club that was founded and built in 1948 by a group African-American men, including my grandfather, Ernest Booth. I love talking to people about our history and continuing on the legacy of our club as a community gathering space. It always makes me smile to see the joy on visitors’ faces as they connect to and experience our history.

KEISHA KERSEY, Member, Peerless Rens Club

In the high-profile case that made Marshall a household name, he succeeded in having the Supreme Court declare segregated public schools unconstitutional. His successful court track record led to his appointment as the first African American U.S. Supreme Court Justice in 1967.

While Annapolis is home to the United States Naval Academy, Army roots run deep in Anne Arundel County. During World War I, 19,000 acres of land acquired through eminent domain became Fort George G. Meade, a training facility for more than 400,000 U.S. soldiers. Years later, a large section of Fort Meade is now the Patuxent Environmental Science Center and Wildlife Refuge. Signs of the Army base’s old outbuildings are still visible among 13,000 acres of now tranquil forest. In addition to a National Wildlife Visitor Center, the refuge includes meadows, lakes, and wetlands along 20 miles of trails.

As home of the National Security Agency (NSA), Fort Meade is the gateway to America’s best kept secrets. The adjacent National Cryptologic Museum is NSA’s principal gateway to the public. It introduces visitors to some of the most dramatic moments in the history of American cryptology, the people who devoted their lives to cryptology and national defense, the machines and devices they developed, the techniques they used, and the places where they worked. For many, it provides a new understanding of events in American and world history.

Nearly 375 years have passed since the first Puritan settlers landed on the shores of the Chesapeake Bay. Even as Annapolis and Anne Arundel County’s rich and diverse history continues to evolve, the intricate roots of our colonial port city turned world-renowned recreational boating capital are visible everywhere, waiting to be discovered by new adventurers with their own stories to share. May the next exciting chapter begin with you!