Maryland State House
The Dome's Completion
1792-1795
With the new funds from the council, the designer of the dome returned
to the project on different terms. Joseph Clark, apparently apprehensive
from his previous dealings with the State, was not responsible for providing
materials or contracting laborers. He simply oversaw that construction
was completed according to design.
"In Council, Annapolis May 2, 1792
The General Assembly having appropriated a sum of money to repair the
Stadt House in the City of Annapolis , any person or persons wishing to
contract for the same, may see the designs and particulars of all the work
to be done, on the first Monday in June next, at the house of Joseph Clark,
in this city, and on Thursday following the governor amd council will receive
proposals for executing the carpenters and plaisterers work, together or
separately. The contractor or contractors are to find all materials, and
necessary advances of money will be made for the purchases thereof, on
security being given.
By order T. Johnson, jun clk" 1.
Just as the political arena would soon be defined by more than one political
party, the contract for building the dome was divided into two separate
parts; William Gilmour supervised the carpentry work and Thomas Dance performed
the plastering. Tragedy would interupt the work again. The dome was almost
complete, when the plasterer was killed on February 23, 1793.
"too Day- Dance the plasterer, fell from the upper scaffold of the
Doome of the Stadt House, and is dead or a dying supposed to be about 90
feet high from where he fell" 2.
After Dance's death, the completion of the work on the interior of the
dome was left to other men. Clark left for Washington DC in 1794, where
he became involve in land speculating. John Shaw, the famous Annapolis
cabinetmaker, became the informal undertaker of the project. He hired many
of the men (3) who had worked with Clark
and the rest of the construction finished without hitch. Despite the many
struggles, setbacks, and failures associated with the construction of the
dome, the State of Maryland could say that it had completed a crowning
achievement.
Introduction
The First Dome, 1769-1774
The Second Dome, 1784-1787
The Second Dome, 1787-1792
The Franklin Rod
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Copyright June 11, 2003Maryland State Archives