We’re going to take a break from the cherry blossoms to go back to St Mary’s College. This building, as is a trend on campus, is named after a former governor. The buildings architecture seems to be purposefully made to resemble the older buildings of the area.
I’ve decided that the weeping cherry is the superior cherry tree. It encompasses you on all sides and with such distances, from ground to tree-top, that walking through one is a real experience.
If one were to follow the changes in seasons by means of following the clues on MDP, they would likely end up confused and often wearing clothing that is not appropriate for the season. This is one moment when MDP’s seasonal calendar is perfectly in line with reality. Here we have the first MDP sighting of a cherry blossom in 2010. This one lone cherry tree was just sitting in the middle of a barren wasteland of un-blossomed trees. I thought it deserved a picture for it’s efforts.
Today’s “Frieze Frame” comes from the fine arts ceter in St Mary’s College. St Mary’s College is located in and throughout wat was formerly the first city and the capitol of Maryland.
On March 25, 1634 the first colonists in Maryland, led by Leonard Calvert, brother of the second lord Baltimore and Governor of Maryland, arrived in the Potomac river and disembarked on this island. To mark this occasion, this day, the 25th of March, is an official state holiday, Maryland Day.
Though the colonists would end up spending most of the next few days living aboard their ships, when they arrived on the 25th they moved onto this island to celebrate a religious ceremony, the feast of the annunciation. As the sign pictured reads, this was a Catholic ceremony and this event is today commemorated by the large cross on the island. (placed there in the 20th century)
The colonists arrived aboard two ships, one large one called, The Ark of London, and a smaller ship called the Dove. The trip was full of misfortunes, which I’ll let you read about here. The island was named St. Clements island,in honor of St Clement, who watches over mariners, and whose feast day was the same day that the Ark and the Dove left England.
There is no official count of how many colonists were aboard the two boats, but experts put it between 95 and 150. This group would eventually move just a few miles south of the island and found St. Mary’s City, which would serve as the capitol of Maryland.
St. Clement’s is literally an island. In the winter months there is no ferry service, and it actually starts this weekend as part of a celebration of Maryland day. In the mean time, I have only these pictures from the shoreline.
This schoolhouse from the early 18th century stands on the banks of the Potomac in St. Mary’s county. It was moved to its current location in the early 90′s and restored for visitors. It is very close to a point of significance in Maryland history. That point, which has nothing to do with the schoolhouse other than a shared geographic location, is the reason why we are dedicating this week’s posts to southern Maryland and it will be revealed tomorrow.
In every county of Maryland citizens display the state flag. In St Mary’s county, the county flag is almost more of a common site than the state flag. The flag displays the county seal in the center with the date of its incorporation, 1637, which is three years after the first colonists in Maryland arrived in what would become St. Mary’s county. The colonists who arrived in the state were certainly religiously minded. The Lords Baltimore were Catholic and sought to make Maryland a place of religious toleration. (at least for all christian sects) The county’s name is given to Mary, mother of Jesus, not the same Mary for whom the state is named.
This week’s posts are going to come from Southern Maryland. This is for a good reason, which will be revealed later this week. However, to help soften the defeat of Maryland and of Morgan State in the NCAA tournament over the last few days, I figured we could all use a bit of a light hearted post today. I’ve seen people in this state try to pull crabs out of some unlikely spots. I’ve also seen people try to pull crabs out of spots where I would be reluctant to call the water clean. This sign, located on a pier in the Potomac, entertained me greatly as half of the pier is used for a ferry and that wasn’t enough to stop people from crabbing there until the sign was up.
The Terps play their first game in the NCAA tournament today so this picture of the center of the court from Cole Field House, which is currently on display at the Comcast Center, seemed appropriate.
