By Linda Tancs

Just two hours from Baltimore is historic St. Mary’s City, Maryland’s first capital. Visitors can explore outdoor exhibits on the banks of St. Mary’s River set on 800 acres of beautiful tidewater landscape and discover how archaeologists and historians uncovered this treasured part of Maryland’s past. A National Historic Landmark, it’s one of the best preserved English colonial archaeological sites in North America. St. Mary’s was also the scene of many notable firsts in America’s early history: the first effort to free religion from government in America, the first legislator of African descent in North America and the first woman to petition for the right to vote in colonial America. Plan an overnight stay at The Inn at Brome Howard, located on the museum grounds. Once the center of life in St. Mary’s City, it’s a perfect example of a mid-19th century gentleman’s plantation house built for Dr. Brome.