ANNAPOLIS, Md., the capital and port of entry of Maryland and county-seat of Anne Arundel County; on the Severn River, two miles from Chesapeake Bay, on the Maryland and the Annapolis, Baltimore and Washington electric railroads. It is 26 miles southeast of Baltimore and 30 miles northeast of Washing ton, D. C. It is also connected by boat with Baltimore and other cities on the bay. It is in a fruit and berry-growing region; has oyster packing plants, marine railway, glass factory, two banks, daily, weekly and other periodicals, and a property valuation of $3,000,000. An napolis is widely known as the seat of the United States Naval Academy (q.v.), with its beautiful new buildings and grounds on which the government has expended $15,000,000. The marine barracks and naval experiment stations are also situated here. Saint John's College, the first free school in America, was established in Annapolis in 1696; there are good schools, a fine new high school and a preparatory school fo; the naval academy. The State build ings include the Colonial State House dating from 1772, recently rebuilt, and the little treasury building. There are Catholic and Presbyterian churches and the historic Epis copal Church of Saint Anne first erected in 1695. A convent, a house of Redemptorist
Fathers, formerly the Carroll residence, and some of the finest colonial mansions in the country are among other points of interest, as well as the bronze statues of Gen. John de Kalb and Chief Justice Roger B. Taney. The city was founded in 1649 and was first named Providence. It received its present name in honor of Queen Anne and was made the capi tal of the province in 1694; in 1708 it was given a charter by the Queen. Annapolis played an important part in early American history. On 19 Oct. 1774, the brig Peggy Stuart laden with tea was burned in the har bor in protest against the taxation of the colo nies by Great Britain; the first Federal Consti tutional Convention was held here in 1786, and in 1783 Washington surrendered his commis sion in the senate room of the State House where a year later the treaty of peace with Eng land was signed. Pop. (1910) 8,609; (1914) 8,643. Consult Ridgeley, 'Annals of Annapolis' (Baltimore 1841), and Powell, 'Historic Towns of the Southern States' (New York 1900).