William Paca and his Annapolis Home
On May 30, 1763, William Paca purchased two adjacent plots of land between Prince George Street and King George Street in Annapolis, Maryland. Over the next two years, Paca designed and oversaw the construction of his home and garden.
Paca would have had a number of gardening dictionaries available to him in order to plan the design of his adjoining pleasure garden. Philip Miller’s Gardening Dictionary (1748), Alexander Le Blond’s The Theory in the Practice of Gardening (1722), and Batty Langley’s New Principles in Gardening (1728) were all known to be available in Annapolis prior to and during the time Paca constructed his garden. Published in Europe in the early 18th century, these dictionaries provide instruction on how to design a pleasure garden according to the ideals of symmetry and order. Any formal garden in the city or on a manor in the country would have been built using these detailed books (Leone 1987). The books contained descriptions of landscape engineering, buildings, and water control. In early 18th century England, overt geometric garden patterns utilizing terraces and parterres were popular. Closer to Paca’s time, naturalistic gardens were becoming more popular. While still employing geometric principles, naturalistic gardens, like their predecessors, were created for the purpose of controlling views toward focal points. Paca may have incorporated both earlier and more modern designs in his formal garden.
Paca lived at his Annapolis home until 1780. In 15 years there Paca became increasingly involved in events that led to the American Revolution. His involvement culminated in 1774 when Paca began to attend the Continental Congress. In 1776, Paca voted for and subsequently signed the Declaration of Independence. Paca later resigned his position as delegate and took a position as a judge of the Admiralty Court, which tried cases involving maritime issues. On July 25,1780, Paca sold his Annapolis home to Thomas Jenings, Attorney General of Maryland.
In 1901, Annapolis Hotel Corporation acquired the William Paca House and Garden. The Paca House was renovated to serve as the new hotel’s lobby. Directly behind the house on the site of the historic garden, a 200-room hotel was constructed, completely erasing any evidence of the historic pleasure garden above ground. Named Carvel Hall, the hotel opened in 1906. From 1906 to 1965 Carvel Hall served as Annapolis’ most popular residence for members of the Maryland legislature, naval officers, and families visiting the state capital. In 1911, a fire burned through Carvel Hall Hotel. While the fire devastated the 200-room structure, the building was eventually rebuilt and continued to serve Annapolis for another 54 years. In 1965 the hotel and historic Paca House were purchased as part of a plan to use the land to construct a new apartment/office complex, destroying the existing hotel and historic Paca House.
A decade earlier, in 1952, Historic Annapolis Incorporated (H.A.I.) had been established. At that time, Historic Annapolis’ mission was to preserve threatened buildings of historical and cultural significance in Annapolis and Anne Arundel County. When it was made public that the William Paca House and Carvel Hall were to be razed, Historic Annapolis raised $250,000 and purchased the house but was unable to raise the money to purchase the adjoining 2 acres. Urged by Historic Annapolis Inc., the Maryland General Assembly purchased the remaining land that was once the site of William Paca’s historic garden. Shortly after H.A.I. acquired the properties, efforts were undertaken to restore both the house and garden properties to their appearance in William Paca’s time.
William Paca’s records regarding the construction of the house and garden were not available to restoration architects. In 1879, Paca’s Wye Hall home caught fire causing extensive damage to the house as well as the items inside. Because no records could be located at the time of the restoration process, it is presumed that any extant records kept by Paca about the construction of his house and garden were lost in this fire. As a result, restoration architects and landscapers sought information on the house and garden in alternative materials, such as letters, as well as the existing remains on the property. Aside from some minor structural changes to the house’s exterior and wings, much of the original house remained intact and in good condition. However, the restoration of the garden was a different matter. While much of the historic garden remained mostly untouched for 120 years after Paca sold the property, construction of Carvel Hall Hotel in 1901 erased any surface evidence of the original landscape.
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