ANNAPOLIS, a city and seaport of Maryland, U.S.A., the capital of the State, the county seat of Anne Arundel county, a port of entry of the Maryland customs district, and the seat of the United States Naval Academy; on the Severn river about 2m. from its entrance into Chesapeake bay, 26 m. south by east from Baltimore and about the same distance east by north from Wash ington. The population was 11,214 in 1920, of whom 2,954 were negroes; and was 12,531 in 193o. .
Annapolis is one of the most picturesque and historically inter esting cities of America. The grounds and buildings of the United States Naval Academy occupy a beautiful site of 200 ac. on the bank of the Severn. On an elevation near the centre of the city stands the State House (1772) with its lofty white dome and pillared portico. Nearby are the State Treasury, erected late in the i7th century for the house of delegates; and St. Anne's Prot estant Episcopal church, which was a State church in the later colonial days. A number of residences dating from the i8th cen tury still stand, and colonial associations are further preserved by the names of some of the principal streets, such as King George's, Prince George's, Hanover and Duke of Gloucester.
St. John's college (chartered 1784 as a continuation of King William's school, which had been founded by an act of the legisla ture in 1696) occupies a campus of 26 ac. adjoining the grounds of the Naval Academy. One of the trees on the campus is believed to be over 600 years old. The main building, McDowell Hall, was built in the i8th century to be the governor's mansion, and was the scene of many historic events. In 1926 the college acquired the Matthias Hammond House (or Harwood House), a beautiful example of the southern Georgian architecture, and has refur nished it as it was in 1774, to be kept as a museum. The college is a non-sectarian institution for men, limited to 40o students. The State offers scholarships to students from each of the counties of Maryland and from the city of Baltimore.
Annapolis was settled in 1649 by Puritan exiles from Virginia. At first it was called Providence ; later, Town at Proctor's, Town at the Severn, and Anne Arundel Town; and in 1694 was named Annapolis, in honour of Princess Anne, then heir to the throne of Great Britain. In the same year it was made the seat of the new (royal) government. It was incorporated in 1708. From the middle of the i8th century until the Revolution it was noted for its wealthy and cultivated society, and had a considerable com merce, until Baltimore, in 1780, became a port of entry. Congress was in session in the State House from Nov. 26 1783 to June 3 1784; and it was here that Washington, on Dec. 23 1783, resigned his commission as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army. The "Annapolis Convention" of 1786 was a meeting to which all the States were invited to send delegates, to consider measures for the better regulation of commerce ; but as only five States were represented (New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, New Jersey and Delaware), the delegates merely passed a resolution calling for another convention to meet in Philadelphia the following year, to amend the articles of confederation; and it was this Philadelphia convention that framed the Constitution of the United States.