Notice how austere the brickwork looks beside its Georgian neighbors. This is one of three preserved 18th-century Georgian brick houses in Annapolis, alongside the Hammond-Harwood House and the William Paca House. Like those neighbors, the Brice House is a five-part brick mansion: a large central block with flanking pavilions joined by low connecting hyphens.
Of the three, its exterior is the most austere, which leaves the brickwork to speak for itself. The house was built by James Brice, who served as Mayor of Annapolis in 1782–83 and 1787–88 and as acting Governor of Maryland in 1792. It remained in the Brice family until 1874, was bought by St. John’s College in the 1920s and used as a faculty residence, and in 1953 was acquired by Mr. and Mrs. Stanley S. Wohl, who carried out restorations in 1953 and 1957.
Declared a National Historic Landmark in 1970, the house has also yielded surprising traces of private life: archaeological work in 1998 uncovered hoodoo caches, spiritual offerings placed by African-American slaves who served here. Study the restrained lines, follow the hyphens to the flanking pavilions, and notice the elevated site on which the house sits.