The Historic Architecture of Annapolis, Maryland - Part 2 - State Circle

Annapolis State Circle is a unique streetscape that is also a microcosm of Annapolis. The street announces grand aspirations with the size of the circle (approximately 3.2 acres), but it is not a pure geometric circle or oval. The ‘circle’ is an irregular egg that follows the natural topography. The fact that there was no attempt to manipulate the topography into a more monumental base for the State House (see photo) is as significant as the fact that the State House dome does not define any actual center of the Circle. The State House dome is not precisely in the center of any of the radiating streets. The views up East Street, or Francis, or Maryland Avenue, will find the dome slightly off axis. This "near miss" is a fundamental characteristic of the built environment of Annapolis.

The near-miss exists at all levels in the city: urban plan, individual building, and building detail. The Nicholson urban plan of circles with radiating streets overlaying a 90 degree street grid leads to the idiosyncratic buildings at acute and obtuse intersections, such as the Maryland Inn, Farmers National Bank, buildings at the intersections of Fleet with Cornhill, Northwest with College Avenue, and Prince George with East. The construction of buildings over a long time causes the idiosyncratic juxtaposition of grand and modest. The startlingly abrupt contrast of the twentieth century buildings between the Paca House and the James Brice house with those two older and grander buildings; and the way Cumberland Court slices out the Hammond Harwood House side garden are just two of many examples. Everywhere there are “near-misses” in building details: the way the round headed second floor window trim of the James Brice house collides with the bracket roof cornice, the way the same cornice terminates at each side with a haphazard brick corbel in place of the forgotten pilasters; and at the garden side of the James Brice House there is the start of a black brick header chevron pattern that is started, then abandoned before the second floor. All of these “near-misses” are attempts at grand gestures that get derailed in the practical ride of complex daily urban life. This is the great charm of Annapolis. It is grand, formal, monumental, and simultaneously modest, haphazard, and unceremonial.