At the center of ANNAPOLIS , overlooking the town's baroque web of streets, the Maryland State House (daily 9am-5pm, tours at 11am & 3pm; free) was completed in 1779 and soon after served as an early capitol of the US. It remains the oldest state house still in use. The Old Senate Chamber , to the right of the grand entrance hall, is where the Treaty of Paris was ratified in 1784, officially ending the Revolutionary War; a statue of George Washington stands on the spot where he resigned his commission as head of the Continental Army, and displays document the role Annapolis played in the life of the young Republic. Free guided tours are given twice a day, or you can wander around on your own, perhaps stopping by to listen to the proceedings of Maryland's current crop of legislators, who hold court from January to April in the more modern wing to the north of the old building. Also on the grounds of the State House is the cottage-sized Old Treasury Building , built in 1735 to hold colonial Maryland's currency reserves.

Many grand late eighteenth-century brick homes line the streets of Annapolis, but for substance and grace none surpasses the Hammond-Harwood House , two blocks west of the State House at 19 Maryland Ave, off King George Street (Mon-Sat 10am-4pm, Sun noon-4pm; $5 including tour). The warm redbrick Palladian villa, which consists of two symmetrical wings connected by a central hall, was built in 1774 to the designs of William Buckland, and is most notable for its beautifully carved decorative woodwork, especially evident in the intricate front doorway. Despite its architectural harmony, the house has had an unfortunate history, the architect himself becoming so obsessed with its construction that his fiancée left him, breaking his heart and causing his untimely death at the age of 38; the original owner also died in mysterious circumstances before the house was completed.

Another historic Annapolis mansion, the 1765 William Paca House , 186 Prince George St (March-Dec Mon-Sat 10am-4pm, Sun noon-4pm; Jan-Feb Fri & Sat 10am-4pm, Sun noon-4pm; $8 including tour), was a downmarket rooming house until the 1960s; it was restored to its period appearance in time for the 1976 Bicentennial; the interior is decorated in warm rich colors and fancy furniture, while the splendid formal garden, which you can peer into from King George Street, is being constantly landscaped and boasts an impressive viewing pavilion.

Besides such elite manors, dozens of pastel eighteenth-century clapboard cottages and commercial structures fill the narrow streets that run down to the waterfront. Of those that have escaped the gentrifiers, the Tobacco Prise House , 4 Pinkney St (by appointment, tel 410/267-7619; $2), is a colonial tobacco warehouse that now sets out to explain the handling and storage of the valuable leaves. Further along, the Shiplap House , 18 Pinkney St (Mon-Fri 2-4pm; free), was built in 1715 as a tavern; now it's a small museum of Annapolis history, with a herb garden to the rear containing assorted medicinal plants grown in colonial times.

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