The Top Places to Visit in Annapolis, Maryland
Granted, there are many terrific historical and cultural reasons to enjoy Annapolis, Maryland. There are period historical tours with tour Historical Interpreters dressed in Colonial garb. There are fabulous historical homes and gardens. There are renowned restaurants and hotels. But the three reasons I most enjoy Annapolis, Maryland are St John’s College, City Dock and Dawson’s Art Gallery.
St John’s College is situated in the heart of the Historic District in Annapolis, Maryland. Its old and venerable Georgian buildings are collected on gently rolling terrain under lush canopies of equally old and venerable trees. Even the red squirrels, studied (along with Aristotle) by every St. John’s College Freshman, seem quite venerable, if not so old. Its grounds abut College Creek where the men’s and women’s crew teams row at the crack of dawn. Approximately 400 students keep up a friendly rivalry – well, this decade it is friendly – with the U. S. Naval Academy whose large and imposing campus is “just across the street.” Well the back fields are just across the street, the Academy is half a mile farther on.
Until recently, St. John’s College protected in its back lawns one of the original Thirteen Liberty Trees. It was around these Liberty Trees that the early pre-revolutionary rebels would congregate to pass on and discuss news of the latest British atrocities. Now, the Liberty Tree has been felled by old-age, after many temporary fix-it jobs including cement in deteriorating branches, and its sappling, Son of Liberty Tree prospers on a lawn nearby the site of the original giving a new generation to an important reason to enjoy Annapolis, Maryland.
City Dock, a charming place though encumbered with a less than graceful title, is a straight walk from St. John’s College down Prince George Street. The U. S. Naval Academy boatyard opens into Severn River right next to City Dock and sometimes watchers can see the Academy sailboat teams practicing maneuvers in the calm waters. At City Dock – after passing many Annapolis, Maryland homes bearing placards designating their protected historical status – one finds a pleasant square surrounded by restaurants and other eateries, shops and galleries, and, of course, the waters of the wide and open Severn River which empty into Chesapeake Bay. Sitting here, at City Dock, feeling the Atlantic breeze, watching the sail- and motorized boats come and go, nibbling a sandwich or licking an ice cream cone is one of life’s quintessential pleasures and reasons to enjoy Annapolis.
Leaving City Dock (reluctantly) along Fleet Street, down East Street, over to Price George Street, onward to Maryland Avenue, takes you to the door of Dawson Gallery, located at 44 Maryland Avenue. In a town full of art galleries such as Annapolis, Maryland is, Dawson Gallery is my favorite because they specialize in 19th and 20th century fine art. It is wonderful to go in and see masterful works of art, painted in the 1800’s, bearing price tags. These are not untouchables in museums – yet.
My two favorite of all my visits to Dawson Gallery are, first, The Vikings Daughter (1887, approximately 10″x14″), an oil painting on canvas by American painter Frederick Stuart (1842-1924). The Viking’s Daughter is now in the Smithsonian American Art collection. The Smithsonian got to pay the roughly $4,600 price on the tag. Second is a charcoal sketch by Louis J. Feuchter (1896-1957). It was a charcoal sketch made from within a boat near the finish of one America’s Cup Race in the early 1900’s. The one swooping, central line demarcating the lead boat’s mainsail tells the whole story of the last minutes of the race as the second and third boats struggle, vainly, to come up from behind. Dawson Gallery is a definite reason to enjoy Annapolis, Maryland.
Having enjoyed these subtle pleasures of Annapolis, these ivory towers of St. John’s College, this peace and fresh air of City Dock and these masterpieces for sale at Dawson Gallery, the more apparent enjoyments of Annapolis take on a richer undertone, a deeper personal meaning in the midst of ancient cobblestones and edifices. The tours have clearer context and the foods will appease with richer flavors. Enjoy Annapolis, Maryland.
