Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1911-11-08
A SOCIETY NEEDED.
Former AnnapOlitan Believes There
Should Be A Local Organization For
Preservation And Marking OF
AnnapoIis Antiquities.
Annapolis Antiquities.
Baltimore, Nd, Nov. 4. IL.

Baltimore, Nd, Nov. 4, IL.
Editors Evening Capital, Annapolis,
Md.
Gentlemen:-I have long thought
there was sorely needed at Annapolis
society for the preservation and
marking of Annapolis antiquities
Every now and then your paper records
the razing of some colonial building,
or else that it has chaged hands. which
NAV mean its ultimate destruction.
Annapolitans will some day realize
that thu history, historical documents
and objects of the city are valuable
business asset. | trust that knowl-
edge may come home to them before
it is too late. Not infrequently in
The Capital | see notices indicating
this iconoclastic tendency, which will
surely be the subject of lamentation in
years to come.
Why is 4 that Annapolis, with such
a splendid past, should signally ne
glect to announce it. Nearly every
other colonial community has marked
its important objects and buildings in
some prominent way, indicating their
history and societies have been form
ed for this purpose in these communi-
ties, whereas with US, nearly every
one seems willing to disregard this
valuable business asset, and to fail
to cherish and perpetuate in some per-
manent and prominent way the many
splendid incidents in the history of the
State and nation which have occurred
within our borders.
l am conscious of the fact that An
napolitans cannot afford to raise large
sums Of money to save these homes,
but much could proba oily be accom-
plished by their influence in keeping
them as they are.
Note the deplorable changes, such
as the removal of the Callahan or
Pinkney House from its old site; the
partial destruction of the Sparks
House, the razing of Fort Severn and
the colonial Executive Mansion in
the Naval Academy, and old Brewer S
Tavern, the painting of the Scott
| House, Ogle House, Dorsey House,
Jennings House and Treasury Build
ing; the annex to the State House
the alteration of the Peggy Stewart
| House, Chancellor John Johnson S
House, the Shaw House and many
others.
Indeed, Annapolis is fast losing it's
colonial atmosphere. and when it does,
it will destroy something which it can
never recover, and will have taken
itself out of class of very few dis
tinguished communities, and put it
self in the classification of cheap
American cities. Any one who has
travelled his country knows how
poorly Annapolis contrasts in modern
| buildings with many communities of
it's size, and but for the Naval Acad-
envy, it's colonial buildings and it's be-
ing the State Capital, no one would
| hardly know it was on the map.
AS former citizen of Annapolis, /
have an ambition to have it retain its
| splendid place among American mu-
| inequalities, for, in the past, and even
up to the present, it is unuestionably
the best known American city of its
| population in America. viii not some
few enterprising people, and also
| those who are lovers of the colonial.
band themselves together in the or
| ganization of the society above sug-
gested, and prevent further desecra-
| ton?
Very truly yours,
GEORGE FORBES.