St Mary's City | |
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Unincorporated community | |
"The State House", reconstruction of the original 1676 Maryland Statehouse, Maryland's first capitol and the home of the Maryland colonial assembly, stands on the original site.
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Location within the state of Maryland | |
Coordinates: 38°11′21″N 76°25′56″W / 38.18917°N 76.43222°WCoordinates: 38°11′21″N 76°25′56″W / 38.18917°N 76.43222°W | |
Country | United States |
State | Maryland |
County | Saint Mary's |
Founded | March 27, 1634 |
Founded by | Leonard Calvert |
Area | |
• Total | 1.20000 sq mi (3.10799 km2) |
• Land | 1.10000 sq mi (2.84899 km2) |
• Water | 0.100000 sq mi (0.258999 km2) |
Population (2010) | |
• Total | 933 |
Time zone | Eastern (EST) |
• Summer (DST) | eastern (Americas) (UTC) |
ZIP codes | 20686 |
St. Mary's City Historic District
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St. Mary's City Historic District: Reconstructed 1667 Catholic Church, built on site of the original Jesuit mission church in the St. Mary's City colonial settlement, Maryland's first colony.
HSMC, July 2009 |
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Nearest city | St. Mary's City, Maryland |
Built | c. 1667. Rebuilt 2009 |
NRHP Reference # | 69000310 |
Significant dates | |
Added to NRHP | August 4, 1969 |
Designated NHLD | August 4, 1969 |
St. Mary's City is a former colonial town that was Maryland's first colonial settlement and capital. It is now a large, state-run historic area, reconstruction of the original colonial settlement, living history area and museum complex, also known as Historic St. Mary's City.
Half of the area is also the campus of the public honors college, St. Mary's College of Maryland.
St. Mary's City is the historic site of the founding of the Colony of Maryland (then called the Province of Maryland). The original settlement was also the fourth oldest permanent English settlement in the United States.
St. Mary's City is also considered the birthplace of religious freedom in America, with the earliest North American colonial settlement ever established with the specific mandate of being a haven for both Catholic and Protestant Christian faiths.
It is also an internationally recognized archaeological research area and training center for archaeologists, and is home to the Historical Archaeology Field School. There have been over 200 archeological digs in St. Mary's city over the last 30 years. Archaeological research continues in the city.
It is an unincorporated community under state law, and is located in southern St. Mary's County, Maryland, which in turn is the southernmost tip of the state of Maryland on the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay. St. Mary's City is bordered by the St. Mary's River, a short, brackish water tidal tributary of the Potomac river, near where it empties into the Chesapeake.
The public honors college, St. Mary's College of Maryland, is a state-funded coed undergraduate liberal arts college. It is only one of two "Public Honors Colleges" in the nation and one of only a handful of small public liberal arts colleges. It was specifically tasked by the state of Maryland to be modeled after far more expensive private elite liberal arts colleges with the intention of offering such an education in the public sector.