Town Center

 

Walk the paths that Maryland’s colonists trod as you stroll through Town Center. Be certain to visit Cordea’s Hope, a 17th-century storehouse. Test your mathematical skill by learning how to keep accounts the 17th-century way, and discover how seasons affected the availability of goods.

 

At Smith’s Ordinary, a re-creation of an ordinary or inn typical of Maryland in the last quarter of the 17th century, learn how we are able to reconstruct buildings using historical and archaeological research.

 

Tour the Van Sweringen Inn, where you’ll see portions of the Inn’s 17th-century brick floor that were discovered by archaeologists. This is the same floor where members of the Governor’s Council and other prominent visitors enjoyed some of the best cider in the colony in the late 1600s.

 

Find out about the beginnings of printing in the Chesapeake at the reconstructed Print House, where you can help operate a reproduction press.

 

Visit the State House, a re-creation of the original built in 1676. This reconstruction was built in 1934 in honor of the colony’s 300th anniversary.

 

All around Town Center, notice the building frames. These structures, called ghost frames, designate where archaeologists have discovered 17th-century buildings. In some cases, the identity and history of these buildings are known, but others still remain a mystery. Visit with archaeologists during the Summer Field School to find out what the latest discoveries are. Using the ghost frames and archaeological clues, imagine St. Mary’s City in the 1680s.