ARCHIVIST OF THE HALL OF RECORDS

plans and report to the Assembly of 1931 (Acts 1929, Ch. 470).
Meanwhile the Hall of Records had been mentioned at the second
meeting of the Commission which was held May 21, 1928. It was
mentioned again June 18, 1929 when the idea was attributed by a
member of the Commission, Daniel Randall, to Chief Judge Car-
roll T. Bond who had intended to bring the matter before the Leg-
islature but for reasons not given had not done so. By November of
that year the Commission had firmly adopted the idea and was ask-
ing for recommendations for a site.

The choice of a site was not an easy one and was to cause much
heartache before it was finally made. When the Legislature met in
1929, the Commission asked Governor Ritchie to include in his Sup-
plementary Budget the sum of $5,000 for the expenses of the Com-
mission, including the sum necessary for the securing of an option
on a desirable site. In the Spring of 1929 an offer was made of a lot
on the St. John's College Campus, and at its first meeting the newly
appointed Executive Committee of the Tercentenary Commission
asked Mr. Randall and Mathew Page Andrews to investigate the
possibilities of such a site. While negotiations with the St. John's
College were going on, the Mullen Property adjoining the Post Of-
fice was suggested.

But the Commission soon became aware that approval of the
Hall of Records project was not to be unanimous. Certain County
officers were opposed to sending their records to Annapolis, and the
Land Office and Maryland Historical Society were reluctant to re-
linquish their rights as archival agents for the State. This unexpected
opposition, plus the great cost involved, induced a subcommittee of
the Commission to ask the Governor to separate the Hall of Records
project from the other features of the Tercentenary. They asked that
$400,000 be appropriated for the building and equipment, $5,000 for
an architect's competition and $1,000 for the expenses of dedication.
It will be seen that the Governor asked for half the amount pro-
posed for the building, the competition was never held and the build-
ing never dedicated. But the Executive Committee rejected the rec-
ommendation of the subcommittee and perhaps by so doing saved
the Hall of Records from being cut off altogether.

The Commission was very much divided over the question of a
site, and until the last moment those who were opposed to the St.