By Marcia Miller, Chief, Office of Research, Survey and Registration

The Chamber is open! The Old Senate Chamber in the Maryland State House has opened its doors to visitors once again after completing a multi-year, state-of-the-art restoration. The extensive project returned the room as accurately as possible to its 18^th-century appearance. Exhaustive physical investigation and meticulous research, combined with fieldwork throughout the City of Annapolis, ensured the authenticity of the richly-ornamented architectural detailing and the furnishings as they would have appeared on December 23, 1783.

The Old Senate Chamber as it would have appeared on December 23, 1783 during the resignation ceremony of General George Washington. The gallery has been recreated based on historic photographs, physical evidence, and documentary records.

By Tyler Anthony Smith

The author graduated from Warren Wilson College with a bachelor’s degree in history and studio art in 2010.  He is currently pursuing a master’s degree in Historic Preservation from the University of Maryland College Park and working for Dell Corporation as an Assistant Preservation Technician.  He can be reached at tyleranthonysmith@gmail.com.

The “Two Sisters Houses” at 612-614 S. Wolfe Street in Fell’s Point

Have you ever noticed two small, 218-year-old, wood-sided houses on South Wolfe Street in Baltimore’s Fell’s Point?  The Society for the Preservation of Federal Hill and Fell’s Point owns these buildings, often referred to as the “Two Sisters,” which likely date to 1797 – the same year that the U.S. Frigate Constellation was built in a Fell’s Point ship yard. Originally part of a building with four identical units, the remaining ”Two Sisters” each stand just twelve feet wide and fifteen feet deep, with…