Framing the Past

Framing the Past. Discovering. As a colonial capital, St. Mary's City once boasted several hundred structures. It welcomed trading visiting traders, trappers, planters, and lawmakers who did business with the city's innkeepers, lawyers, merchants, and printer., Here you can see several wooden skeletons that represent original Town Center buildings. These modern "ghost frames" are located over actual building foundations discovered during archaeology. The frames with chimneys represent houses. Those without chimneys were probably barns, outbuildings, or stables., Historic St. Mary's City continues to do archaeological research on these ghost frame sites. Over time, more of the original structures will be recreated. Until then, the ghost frames help to remind us that St. Mary's City really was a city where people lived, worked, and established a government., [Captions:] , Archaeologists analyze postholes, brickwork, trash pits, and other in-ground evidence to determine what a structure may have looked like and how it was used. Shown here is a progression of archaeological discovery from test pit to reconstructed building., "His Lordfh, therefore intends, that all his Planters, fhall dwell together at the first, at or as neere as may be vnto St. Maries Towne..." , The Conditions of Plantation, July 15, 1634