Behind these walls sits Maryland's central depository for government records, holdings stretching back to the colony's founding in 1634. Its holdings date from Maryland's founding in 1634 and include colonial and state executive, legislative, and judicial records; county probate, land, and court records; church records; business records; state publications and reports; and special collections of private papers, maps, photographs, and newspapers. These records are kept in a humidity- and temperature-controlled environment, and any necessary preservation measures are conducted in the Archives' conservation laboratory.
The building you face traces its institutional roots to the Hall of Records, created as an independent agency in 1935 and charged with the collection, custody, and preservation of the official records, documents, and publications of the state under Chapter 18, Acts of 1935. The push for a modern, centralized archives grew out of the state's tercentenary celebrations of 1934; the Maryland Tercentenary Commission made a centralized archives a key feature of that commemoration. A Memorial Hall of Records was proposed as early as 1928, and in 1931 the Maryland General Assembly appropriated funds toward the effort.
Somewhere inside, climate-controlled shelves and a conservation lab quietly guard the centuries of lives and laws this building was built to hold.