St Marys College - Dove Castellan Yearbook (St Marys City, MD)

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Foreword

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Academic Life P g 50 Organizations page 62 Cremona 1819 Activities page 74 Mulberry Fields 1760 vP - li. Advertisements .... page 98 Porto Bello 18lh Crnturv

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Hear Ye! Hear Ye! Sl. Mary ' s College, a immument to history and to education, was founded on a peak of fertile land jutting into the St. Mary s River. With the passage of time, the school has taken from its surround- ings the atmosphere of the past that pre- vails in this, the first capital of Mary- land. For . t. Marys, and. indeed, all of the southermost tip i Maryland retains the flavor of Maryland ' s past thrmigh the stately and elegant manor houses that are still mainlained today. Ghosts tales and mistics seem to tradi- tionally surround and entwine these old manor houses. Every place of shelter, be it even a log cabin, houses tales of woe and gladness; but. within the walls of a manor house the tales always appear to have a much deeper intensity with an enormous content ol complexity. In 1634. the first English settlers on the shores of the S. Mary ' s River founded the colony of Mary ' s Land. W ilhin the next decade a tiny settlement. St. Mary ' s City, was carved from the wilderness. Lndcr the auspices ot the awacomoco Indians, the prospering city became the capital of the Province of Maryland. Here the first Slate House was erected in 1676. But in 1694. when the capital of the .State of Maryland was moved to Annapolis, the population and industry of Sl. Mary ' s City dwindled. Little re- mained of the former (piick pulse of life in the old capital. Even the stately mansiims of colonial southern Maryland acquired an air of agelessness. Such was tlie atmosphere that prevailed on the historic banks of the .S|. Mary ' s River when the building of .St. Mary ' s Female Seminary (now St. Mary ' s College! was sanctioned by the Marylanii legislature in 1839. N iw. from the doors of the State House of the province id Maryland, let us journey to the living landmarks of Maryland ' s past, the beautiful manor houses of Sl. Mary ' s County.