{"id":573,"date":"2020-06-01T09:21:09","date_gmt":"2020-06-01T09:21:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.intermap.pro\/annapolis\/?post_type=business&p=573"},"modified":"2020-06-01T09:24:10","modified_gmt":"2020-06-01T09:24:10","slug":"government-house","status":"publish","type":"business","link":"https:\/\/www.intermap.pro\/annapolis\/business\/government-house\/","title":{"rendered":"Government House"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Government House is and has been the official residence of the governor of Maryland since 1870. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is here that the governors and their wives or official\nhostesses have greeted and entertained important visitors to the state. Some of\nthese illustrious guests have included Mark Twain; Her Royal Highness Queen\nElizabeth, the Queen Mother; and Sugar Ray Leonard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This\nis, however, much more than a residence. It has been, and continues to be, the\ncenter of the political and social life of this beautiful capital city.\nGovernment House is at the heart of Maryland history and the furnishing,\npaintings and other items within its walls tell the story of Maryland’s rich\nand glorious past. Among its treasures are portraits by Charles Willson\nPeale, one of America’s foremost portrait painters, and furnishings by\nPotthast, eminent Baltimore furniture makers of the 19th century. The house is\nalso decorated with beautiful pieces from around the nation and the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As\nyou see it today, Government House is a Georgian-style country house. When it\nwas built in 1870, it was of the fashionable style of the period, a Victorian\nmansion<\/a> with a mansard roof.\nVisitors to the house entered through magnificent walnut doors, carved with the\nMaryland coat of arms and symbols of Maryland industry and agriculture. The\nVictorian library now recalls the original ambience of Government House, and\npanels and rondels from those doors can be seen there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This\nwas not the first governor’s residence in Annapolis. In 1733, the General\nAssembly authorized the purchase of land and construction of an official\nresidence for the governor, but it was not until 1742 that Governor Thomas\nBladen purchased a four-acre plot near College Creek and a dwelling was begun.\nBecause of a dispute between Bladen and the House of Delegates, this house was\nnever completed. After the Revolutionary War, the unfinished building was\nturned over to St. John’s College and renamed McDowell Hall, after the\ncollege’s first president.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nsearch for a suitable residence for the governor resulted in the acquisition of\nthe Jennings House, which was leased by Governor Horatio Sharpe. In 1769,\nit was purchased by Governor Robert Eden, Maryland’s last provincial governor.\nAfter his departure, the house was confiscated by the state and was used as the\ngovernor’s residence for the next 90 years. In 1866, the Jennings House was\nsold to the U.S. Naval Academy and, in 1868, land was purchased on State Circle\nfor a new Governor’s residence. It was ready in 1870 for its first occupants,\nGovernor Oden Bowie and his family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\n1935-36, the conversion of Government House to its present appearance took\nplace and, in 1947, more renovations, including cleaning, painting, and roof\nrepairs were done. In 1987, a new skylight by Maryland craftsmen was installed\nand, in 1990, a fountain featuring Maryland symbols was placed in the garden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\nare seven public rooms in Government House: the Entrance Hall, the Victorian\nParlor, the Federal Reception Room, the Empire Parlor, the Conservatory, the\nDrawing Room, and the State Dining Room. On display in Government House are\nmany works from the state-owned art collections, installed by the Maryland\nCommission on Artistic Property of the Maryland State Archives. In the Entrance\nHall are portraits of Queen Henrietta Maria, after whom Maryland was named, and\nCharles Calvert, Fifth Lord Baltimore. The portrait of Queen Henrietta Maria was\npainted in 1901 by Florence MacKubin after the original by Anthony Van Dyck,\nwhich hangs in Warwick Castle in England. A portrait of Frederick Douglass,\ncommissioned in 2014 and painted by Simmie Knox, is on display in the Drawing\nRoom, along with Charles Willson\u2019s Peale\u2019s portrait of George Washington\npainted during the Revolutionary War. The State Dining Room features the\nportrait of the Sharpe Family painted in 1753 and attributed to\nArthur Devis. A portrait bust of Harriet Tubman, displayed on a wooden pedestal\nmade from wood of Maryland\u2019s historic Wye Oak, is displayed in the\nConservatory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Government\nHouse is administered by the Government House Trust which was established in 1980.\nIn 1995, the General Assembly passed legislation to expand and strengthen the\nrole of the Trust in the care, preservation, and interpretation of the public\nrooms in the residence which has played such an important role in the history\nof Maryland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":576,"parent":0,"template":"","businesses_cat":[67,6,7,39],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intermap.pro\/annapolis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/business\/573"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intermap.pro\/annapolis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/business"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intermap.pro\/annapolis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/business"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intermap.pro\/annapolis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intermap.pro\/annapolis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"businesses_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intermap.pro\/annapolis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/businesses_cat?post=573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}