12 FIRST TO FOURTH ANNUAL REPORTS

of the Hall of Records had been accepted by the Board of Gover-
nors of the St. John's College who had deeded a plot of ground on
their campus with the condition that the architect's design be in har-
mony with the other buildings of the college. In February of the
next year, the year of the Tercentenary, it was announced that con-
tracts for the construction of the building had been awarded.

The Board of Public Works, which had in fact taken over the
business of building the Hall of Records, was specifically vested with
this authority by the Legislature of 1933 which instructed this body
to acquire by purchase or condemnation a suitable site in Annapolis for
this purpose (Acts 1933, Ch. 344). On February 21, 1934, a deed
was executed between the Visitors and Governors of St. John's Col-
lege and the State of Maryland granting to the State the site on
which the Hall of Records now stands for "ten dollars and other
good and valuable considerations." (Recorded March 5, 1934 in
Liber F.S.R. No. 120, folio 301, Land Records of Anne Arundel Coun-
ty). On March 7, 1934 the first spadeful of earth was turned by
State Senator Ridgely P. Melvin of Anne Arundel County who had
sponsored the bill providing for the Hall of Records. The building
was completed one year later and it was occupied by the Land Of-
fice in June 1935 and by the Hall of Records Commission on Octo-
ber 1, 1935.

When the building was near completion the Legislature of 1935
passed an Act providing for the governing of the Hall of Records
along the lines which had previously been outlined to Governor
Ritchie by Judge Bond and his colleagues (Acts 1935, Ch. 18).

BUILDING AND EQUIPMENT

By agreement with the Board of Visitors and Governors of the
St. John's College the Hall of Records was designed to face on the
campus of the College rather than on the street. The architect was
further required to plan the building to conform as much as possible
with the other buildings of the quadrangle. Comment of the archi-
tect on this point is interesting: "The minimum requirements for
the Hall of Records called for a building having a cubic content
considerably greater than that of any other building on the campus.