Lomography

The Capital Of MD And A Ghost Town
written by vtayeh on October 24th, 2009 , 4 comments (4 votes)

Please activate JavaScript to see this gallery.

Annapolis officially became a city in the early 1700s but they had settlers there since the mid 1600s. Some of the major characteristics of Annapolis include the city docks, the Naval Academy and of course the Maryland Crabs. For a short while, it was even the capital of the United States (a little before D.C. was actually built). Annapolis has seen so many types of people, governments and war, like the Puritans, the Catholics, the Revolutionary War and the Civil War. Because of all its history, you’re bound to hear some great ghost stories.

I’ll start with a ghost that haunts the State Capital Building. In the 1800s when the State Capital Building was being constructed, a man named Thomas was working on the Dome of the building when his scaffolding broke and he fell 100 feet to his death. Shortly afterwards, his surviving family (wife and children) were denied his hard earned pension and shipped back to England. It is believed that he haunts the Dome and the balcony that surrounds the dome because of the injustice done to his family. Rumor has it that you can see him walking around the railing of the Dome at dusk and that several night security officers quit after their first shift because of the strange apparitions they saw.

Ghosts don’t only haunt the land but they also haunt the sea. Before Baltimore was founded, Annapolis was the major seaport for that area. It mostly consisted of crabs and oysters but there was also fishing. Anyways, the city dock area had (and still has today) plenty of bars that line the water and the docks. Greedy ship captains would ask drunken sailors, stumbling out of the bars, to board the ship to harvest the crab and oysters and in exchange for their services, the captain would promise them a huge cut of the harvest. The sailors, with impaired judgment, would accept and go out to sea. Once they completed the labor, the captains would dump the sailors into the water. And for a little while, they may have stayed afloat but eventually they would make it to their watery grave and drown. Hauntings reported in the local papers state that still to this day, you can see unexplained red flashing lights dancing on the water surface representing the sailors’ final moments.

Even though I personally haven’t experienced any hauntings myself, I’m completely fascinated by them. Ghost stories aside, Annapolis isn’t a scary place to visit at all. It still has the old-time charm with its boutiques and general stores that line the streets. One of my favorite places is Kilwin’s chocolate and ice cream shop. They make delicious fudge, truffles and super tasty ice cream. Everyone should definitely stop in on a sunny day, buy some ice cream, and take a stroll along the water front. It’s like the perfect combination!

So whether you’re into ghosts or not, Annapolis is definitely a place to visit whenever you’re in Maryland. I just hope that the next time I’m in Annapolis, I’ll catch the Ghost Tour bus and maybe I’ll even get the inside scoop on other haunted buildings. I’ll keep you posted!