State Circle
   
The Annapolis historic district is not laid out in the predictable and regular grid that many of us are accustomed to. As every tourist knows, the streets in the Annapolis Historic District are spaced unevenly and appear as if their irregular design is a byproduct of hundreds of years of changes and city growth. This is not the case. Annapolis' street plan was intentionally designed in 1696 as a conscious use of monumental architecture, planned vistas and ceremonial spaces, to make use of baroque planning principles. Archaeological excavations conducted around the State House Circle in the winter of 1989-1990, as part of remodeling and repaving of the traffic circle, uncovered intact deposits that dated to the 1720s. These deposits afforded Archaeology in Annapolis the opportunity to interpret changes in the historic district's layout. The historical interpretations resulting from the excavations illuminate issues concerning Annapolis' political organization and ideas of national citizenry throughout the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. 
Plan of Annapolis Maryland: 1718. Unfortunately Francis Nicholson’s original town plan was lost in a fire in 1704.The earliest map of Annapolis to date is a 1743 copy of James Stoddert’s 1718 plan of Annapolis (Photo courtesy of the Maryland State Archives, Annapolis, MD.)  

Circles of Power 

Crowning the historic district, the State House is ringed by a traffic circle on one of Annapolis's tallest hills-this is not by accident. In 1696 it was decided by the British monarchy that Maryland's capital was to move from St. Mary's City, then a Catholic stronghold, to Anne Arundel Town, a small Protestant city originally settled in 1649. Comprised of only a few streets, Anne Arundel Town was redesigned by Francis Nicholson, based on Baroque design principles originally developed during the Italian Renaissance. Renamed Annapolis in honor of England's Queen Anne, Nicholson superimposed his town plan on Annapolis' already existing streets, and created a new city comprised of two circles (State and Church), both with radiating streets stemming out from them. But why go through the trouble of laying out such an unusual town plan?
   
C. 1710 portrait believed to be Francis Nicholson. The image used here is from a photograph, original portrait is now lost. (Photo courtesy of the Maryland State Archives, Annapolis, MD. SC 1621-590)
 It appears as though Francis Nicholson followed the Baroque style used in the rebuilding of London in 1666 by Christopher Wren and John Evelyn. This particular style attempts to create visual illusions based on planned vistas, and convergent and divergent lines of sight culminating in monumental architecture, as a means of creating symbolically charged spaces. Along with joining Church and State circles by a single road to symbolize the recent union of British Church and State, Nicholson utilized a series of vistas made by using non-parallel lines of sight to create symbolic social order. Archaeological excavations conducted around State Circle in 1990 were able to determine that the  sides of 5 of the 8 entries leading into State Circle broaden the closer they get to the State House, thus effectively creating divergent lines of sight that make the State House appear much larger than it actually is. This use of point perspective was later integrated into private landscapes of Annapolis elite such as Charles Carroll of Carrollton's garden. 

 
   
Annapolis's baroque town plan was originally created as an embodiment of political power, attempting to naturalize the landscape's appearance as though it is one with the power that it supported. All of this was done during a time of civic unrest, directly after the official relocation of the capital from St. Mary's City. This raises an intriguing question: how did Annapolis change after the American Revolution-when a particularly difficult period of civic unrest had recently ended?
In 1990 archaeological excavations around State Circle located fence palings, two wells, a walk, a post for a street light, and numerous curbs and street levels indicating the actual creation of a viewing platform around the State House. Subsequent spatial analysis has shown that the circumference of State Circle has not been stable. (Photo courtesy of Archaeology in Annapolis.) 
   

Citizenry and Symbolic Power

It appears as though there is a meaningful connection between the Baroque town planning in Annapolis and the ideas of newly formed American nationalism in the Federalist period, from 1780-1820. In the 1780s the State of Maryland replaced the State House's older cupola with an eight-sided multistoried dome. On the eight sides, four ranks of windows on each of the different stories were situated to look down on each of State Circle's radiating streets and paths. Because of its many tiered windows that can be seen all over town, the cupola acts like a viewing platform, or panopticon. The idea of the panopticon plays off Federal period ideas for citizens both to see and be seen. Panoptic designs, and the social theory that underlay them, were commonly used throughout society, and can be seen in homes, hospitals, churches, insane asylums, and schools. The 1780s State House cupola represents a new notion for establishing social control, both on the body and in the mind. Based on the Federalist idea of a franchised citizen, a participatory citizen- rather than a passive subject, the State House as panopticon sought to ensure correct social behavior by newly independent Annapolitans.
The Maryland State House. The distinctive design of the cupola has been interpreted as a symbolic display of political power. (Photo courtesy of Matthew David Cochran.) 
   

 

The 1780s cupola on the State House (seen in the photo at the left) appears to be based on Jeremy Bentham's original ideas for the building of a model prison (seen in the image at the right). Bentham's model consisted of a multistoried domed building in which inmates were constantly visible from a central location. This particular form is designed so that the inmate is never fully sure when he/she is being watched. And, in the absence of a watcher the inmate is trained to watch him/herself. (Photo courtesy of the Maryland State Archives, Annapolis, MD. Image courtesy of Prashant Kaw.) 
Throughout the 18th century Annapolis consistently utilized aspects of social control, seen in both Nicholson's Baroque town plan and the Federal period State House cupola. Formed at times of civic unrest, these parts of the urban landscape have created Annapolis as a political volume. With the use of new and inventive forms of archaeological analysis, Archaeology in Annapolis has begun to more fully understand the extent to which the 18th century builders of Annapolis used the urban landscape as a tool in which to create and maintain social control. 
 
Read more about the archaeology of the State Circle, symbolic space and the State House as a Panopticon:

 

Leone, Mark P.
1995. A Historical Archaeology of Capitalism. American Anthropologist 97:2:251-268.
Leone, Mark P., Jennifer Stabler, Anna-Marie Burlaga

1998. A Street Plan for Hierarchy in Annapolis: An Analysis of State Circle as a Geometric Form. In Annapolis Pasts: Historical Archaeology in Annapolis, Maryland, edited by Paul A. Shackel, Paul R. Mullins and Mark S. Warner, pp.291-306. The University of Tennessee Press, Knoxville.

Leone, Mark P. and Silas D. Hurry
1998. Seeing: The Power of Town Planning in the Chesapeake. Historical Archaeology 32(4):34-62. 

Read, Esther Doyle 
1990. “Archaeological Investigations around State Circle in Annapolis, Maryland.”

Shackel, Paul A., Joseph W. Hopkins and Eileen Williams
1988. “Excavations at the State House Inn, 18AP42, State Circle, Annapolis, Maryland. A Final Report.” on file: Maryland Historical Trust Crownsville, Maryland, and Historic Annapolis Foundation, Annapolis. 

Stabler, Jennifer 
1990. “Archaeological Investigation of the State Circle Public Well, 18AP61.” on file: Maryland Historical Trust, Crownsville, Maryland and the Historic Annapolis Foundation.