Paca House (18AP1)
Site History
The Paca House is an 18th-20th century standing urban mansion house and formal terraced gardens located at 186 Prince George Street in the Historical District of Annapolis. William Paca, signer of the Declaration of Independence and former governor of Maryland built his Annapolis house and garden in the early 1760s and owned the property until 1780. Directly behind the restored mansion sits a large 2-acre 18th-century pleasure garden, a garden that up until 50 years ago was lost to history.
Through the remainder of the 18th and the entirety of the 19th centuries, the house and garden had a succession of private owners. While the house had been maintained over the years, Paca's garden fell into disrepair. The historic garden was destroyed in 1901 when a hotel was constructed overtop the historic landscape. When Carvel Hall Hotel was demolished, the Historic Annapolis Foundation raised the money to purchase the historic William Paca House.
Following the acquisition of the William Paca House and Garden in 1965, Historic Annapolis, Inc. began drawing up plans for reconstruction of William Paca’s 18th century garden. In 1966, the Garden Committee was formed. From 1966 to 1973, the Garden Committee, headed by St. Clair Wright, was responsible for making all decisions related to the garden reconstruction.
The Paca House and Garden was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1972.
Archaeological Investigations
Excavations in the garden were initiated in the 1960s and detailed the extended use of the property by William Paca and others throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. Although 18AP1 has been the subject of several episodes of archaeology, most have been poorly documented. The site maps, notes, etc. that do exist reveal that most of the archaeology has occurred in the garden and not near the Paca House itself. For many years the reconstructed garden was considered the most important product of this research.
In 1966, Bruce Powell of the National Park Service excavated backhoe trenches in the formal garden area of the Paca House. Stanley South conducted restoration archaeology in 1967-68 at the Paca House, followed in 1967-1969 by the work of J. Glenn Little, Contract Archeology, Inc., which conducted extensive salvage archeology on the William Paca Gardens. The information obtained about the historic garden by these projects was surprising. They discovered Paca's garden had not been destroyed, only hidden over the years. Excavations of the north half of the property by King George Street uncovered a number of historic features including: a pond, canal, bridge, outbuildings, and drainage system all dating to William Paca's time. Bruce Powell and Glenn Little found that the original grade of the landscape was untouched.
The restoration of William Paca's garden occurred in the early 1970s. The restoration drew on archaeological data and historical documentation. Major restoration of the William Paca Garden concluded in 1972, however additional archaeological testing of the landscape continued for another twenty years.
Testing under the direction of Kenneth and Ron Orr occurred in 1975 at the Paca House and Garden, at the request of Historic Annapolis, Inc. The work was requested by the property owners for the purpose of providing data for use in reconstructing the interior of the spring house and Pavilion house. The site of the former had been located and the exterior reconstructed, but the location of the latter was still unknown. This work took place in the lower garden in and around the vicinity of the fourth garden fall and terrace. This work provided Historic Annapolis with the information needed to locate the garden pavilion as well as the interior design of the garden springhouse.
In 1981, Karin E. Peterson prepared a summary of archaeological excavation data from the William Paca House for the Maryland Historical Trust. In 1982, Ann Yentsch conducted additional testing of the springhouse interior. The project sought to determine whether any additional 18th-century materials could be located.
The next excavation of the William Paca Garden began in 1990. Laura Galke, Historic Annapolis Curator of Archaeology, performed additional testing around the artificial brick stream located below the third garden fall. The work was conducted in conjunction with the reconstruction of the garden canal and the placement of drainpipes in the garden's lower fall.
During 2003, UMD graduate Jason Shellenhamer undertook an internship with Archaeology in Annapolis, to assemble varied data on archaeological excavations in the William Paca Garden and design a tour of the garden that highlighted these discoveries.
Intact deposits relating to life in the Paca House may be preserved at the site. Furthermore, the 1990 field project revealed that intact 18th century deposits potentially are preserved to the north of the garden canal. Continued archeological monitoring of any development of these areas is still a necessity. The site still potentially holds significant archeological research potential.
References
1990 Paca Garden Archaeological Testing - 18AP01, 186 Prince George Street, Annapolis, Maryland. Historic Annapolis Foundation.
1975 The Archeological Situation at the William Paca Garden: The Spring House and the Presumed Pavilion House Site. Historic Annapolis Inc.
1981 Summary of Archaeological Excavation Data from the Wm. Paca House. On file, Maryland Historical Trust, Crownsville, MD.
2004 The Archaeology and Restoration of the William Paca Garden, Annapolis, Maryland: 1966-1990. (University of Maryland) MHT # AP 136.
Associated Artifacts
Toys and Games
