ANNAPOLIS — The scaffolding that has concealed the towering dome on top of the State House since the legislative session ended last April will be taken down in the coming weeks.
The dome has been covered up for the past several months so workers could scrape the flaking paint and give it a brand new coat.
“The dome has, from time to time, over the course of years, because it was done in a latex-based paint, had started to fail, had started to flake,” said Sam Cook, director of the Department of General Services, which oversees the dome’s maintenance. “We’re removing all that flaking paint where everything failed at and getting a good base down and putting a good coat of oil-based paint on there.”
This is the third State House to be erected on State Circle and was completed toward the end of the 18th century. The dome is the largest in the country that is made entirely of wood, according to the Maryland State House website.
It is the only state capitol to have served as the nation’s capitol building. The Continental Congress met in the Old Senate Chamber from November 1783 to August 1784.
During that time, George Washington resigned his commission as Commander in Chief of the Continental Army before Congress. Also, the official end to the Revolutionary War was marked with the ratification of the Treaty of Paris.
Joseph Clark, the State House’s architect, constructed the dome so that there would be eight different views of Annapolis from atop its balcony. Thomas Jefferson and James Madison spent a few hours on the balcony in September 1790 with a couple of friends.
After the maintenance is done, the dome is supposed to look like it did before the scaffolding went up, just newer.