Introduction
Located at 186 Prince George Street, the William Paca House stands in the center of the Historical District of the City of Annapolis. Directly behind the restored mansion sits a large 2-acre 18th century pleasure garden, a garden that up until 40 years ago was lost to history. William Paca, signer of the Declaration of Independence and former governor of Maryland built his Annapolis house and garden in the early 1760s. Paca owned the property until 1780. Through the remainder of the 18th and all of the 19th centuries, the house and garden had a succession of private owners (Historic Annapolis Foundation 2002). While the house had been maintained over the years, Paca’s garden fell into disrepair. The historic garden met its final end in 1901 when the property was sold and a hotel was constructed overtop the historic landscape.
When Carvel Hall Hotel was demolished, Historic Annapolis Foundation raised the money to purchase the historic William Paca House. Following the acquisition of the William Paca House and Garden in 1965, Historic Annapolis, Inc. began drawing up plans for reconstruction of William Paca’s 18th century garden. Although the garden property was under the ownership of the State of Maryland, the Maryland Historical Trust turned responsibility for the restoration of the garden over to Historic Annapolis. In 1966, the Garden Committee was formed. From 1966 to 1973, the Garden Committee, headed by St. Clair Wright, was responsible for making all decisions related to the garden reconstruction.
The Garden Committee initially believed an exact reproduction of the original garden design would not be possible. Any documentation of the construction of the garden had been lost, believed to have been destroyed during the fire at his Wye Island home 1879. In addition, construction of Carvel Hall Hotel erased all physical evidence of the historic landscape that may have existed through the 19th century. As a result, the Garden Committee decided the only alternative would be construction of a fanciful garden on the site of William Paca’s “lost garden” (Wright 1966). The plan called for the creation of a garden that would reflect typical landscape styles found in England during William Paca’s time period and not Paca’s actual garden.
As plans for the garden were in development, Historic Annapolis contracted National Park Service archaeologist, Bruce Powell, to conduct an archaeological investigation of the site. Powell’s investigation led to the discovery of several features dating to Paca’s period. As St. Clair Wright stated in her report, The Once and Future Garden of William Paca:
“Rather than lose these valuable resources of the
original form of the 18th century garden, Maryland Historic Trust,
with commendable resiliency, decide to pursue the additional archaeological work
that would make it possible to restore and reconstruct, when necessary, the
original garden instead of creating a fanciful one.” (Wright 1976).
Historic Annapolis’s new commitment to reconstruct William Paca’s historic garden began in 1967. At that time, the Garden Committee contracted with archaeologists and researchers to recover as much information about William Paca’s garden as possible, both through historical documentation and archaeologically. Those charged with conducting the garden restoration utilized all available information in order to rebuild Paca’s garden as accurately as possible.
The information obtained about the historic garden by archaeologists Bruce Powell (1966) and Glenn Little (1967-68) was surprising. They discovered William Paca’s garden had not been destroyed, only hidden over the years. Excavations of the north half of the property by King George Street uncovered a number of historic features including: a pond, canal, bridge, outbuildings, and drainage system all dating to William Paca’s time. Bruce Powell and Glenn Little found that the original grade of the landscape was untouched.
Landscape designer Laurance Brigham and architect Orin Bullock conducted the restoration of William Paca’s garden in the early 1970s. Drawing on archaeological data and historical documentation regarding the William Paca Garden and other similar period gardens, Brigham and Bullock resurrected a significant aspect of Annapolis history. Major restoration of the William Paca Garden concluded in 1972, however additional archaeological testing of the landscape continued for another twenty years.
In 1975, Kenneth and Ronald Orr conducted additional archaeological testing of the lower garden in and around the vicinity of the fourth garden fall and terrace. The work they did provided Historic Annapolis with the information needed to determine the location of the garden pavilion as well as the interior design of the garden springhouse. Eight years later Ann Yentsch conducted additional testing of the springhouse interior. The project sought to determine whether any additional 18th century materials could be located. The final excavation of the William Paca Garden began in 1990. Laura Galke, Historic Annapolis Curator of Archaeology, performed additional testing around the artificial brick stream located below the third garden fall. The excavations by conducted by Kenneth and Ronald Orr, Ann Yentsch and Laura Galke were comparatively smaller in scale to that of Bruce Powell and Glenn Little, however the information they provided is just as valuable to understanding William Paca’s historic garden.
Using the archaeological data collected by Bruce Powell, Glenn Little, and Kenneth and Ronald Orr, in conjunction with historical records, garden dictionaries, photographs and portraits, Brigham and Bullock directed a scientifically accurate restoration of the two-acre landscape Paca built (Leone 1987). The restored William Paca Garden is unique. The garden built by William Paca in 1765 is the only opportunity in Annapolis to see what an 18th century city garden actually looked like (Leone 1987).