OLD TREASURY BUILDING

In 1733 the Maryland General Assembly passed a bill allowing for the dispensing of paper currency, and by 1735 a building was under construction on the State House grounds for this purpose. Now known as the Old Treasury Building after its 1780s occupant, this one-and-a-half-story brick building is the oldest surviving public building in Maryland and the only structure besides the State House remaining on State Circle. The building’s unique public function is reflected in its thick walls, heavy doors, barred windows, and masonry vaulted ceiling. However, in scale and form the Old Treasury Building also resembles a fine hall-parlor house of the period. The brick front entrance porch and a rear ell create a cruciform plan that also recalls contemporary Anglican churches. The State of Maryland undertook an extensive restoration after major cracking appeared in the ceiling vaults in 1949, an early example of state-sponsored preservation work. This restoration, led by Baltimore architects Laurence Hall Fowler and Henry Powell Hopkins, replaced Greek Revival interior features with reproduction ones thought to be more appropriate for an eighteenth-century building, but retained the original doors and hardware. Recent preservation efforts have focused on archaeology and interpreting the early history of state government in Annapolis.