St. Mary's College of Maryland

St. Mary's College of Maryland, St. Mary's City, Maryland

St. Mary's College of Maryland Report: Executive Summary (PDF) .1MB

St. Mary's College of Maryland Report: Main (PDF) 28 MB

St. Mary's College of Maryland Report: Cultural Landscapes (PDF) 42.4 MB

St. Mary's College of Maryland Report: Landscape Guidelines and Recommendations (PDF) 8 MB

St. Mary's College of Maryland Report: Historic Buildings (PDF) 28.7 MB

St. Mary's College of Maryland Report: Architectural Guidelines and Recommendations (PDF) 15.4 MB

St. Mary's College of Maryland, a small liberal arts college founded in 1840, is surrounded by the remains of America's colonial past. In 1997 the College formed a partnership with historic St. Mary's City and Trinity Episcopal Church for the oversight of the local historic area, a National Historic Landmark District since 1969. St. Mary's College will use grant funds to produce a landscape management plan for the sites associated with the College-owned Calvert Hall (1924) and St. Mary's Hall (1904), the City-owned reconstructed State House (1934), and the Church-owned Chapel of Trinity Parish (c.1830). The resulting Preservation Master Plan will allow the College and its partners to address planning needs and improve stewardship and preservation within the historic area.

St. Mary's College of Maryland received a Getty grant in 2006 for $145,000 to support campus heritage planning.

Report Summary

Purpose:Because of the close connections between the early history of the campus and its surrounding community, the central goal of this project was to develop a preservation master plan that addressed the preservation and building issues for two structures on campus (Calvert Hall and St. Mary’s Hall) and also two neighboring buildings (the State House and Trinity Episcopal Church).

Historic Designation(s): St. Marys City Historic District (National Register of Historic Places).

Planning Process: The project was based on the premise that the college, which shares much of its campus with Historic St. Mary’s City, and the Church must work together to manage change effectively and protect extant resources. These entities are committed to fostering ongoing efforts to preserve their shared histories.

Outcomes—Products: The project produced “St. Mary’s College of Maryland Preservation Master Plan” (2008), which is composed of three parts. The main text of the preservation master plan includes discussions about planning, programming interpretation, and management. The second section, a landscape management plan, looks at existing conditions of landscape features within the study area and provides guidelines and recommendations about the care and management of these features. The last section offers a historic building management plan, which considers treatment guidelines and maintenance recommendations for the four buildings noted above.

Outcomes—Strategies and Goals for the Future: The preservation master plan is intended to provide a tool to each entity about the appropriate care and maintenance of their historic resources now and in the coming years. It is also expected to play a direct role in future planning and development efforts regarding building modifications, new construction projects, and historically sensitive growth in Historic St. Mary’s City. Furthermore, the preservation plan has been utilized as one component in the development of the Maryland Heritage Project, a collaborative web effort that continued to bring together the college, the city commission, the Church, and the wider community.