The Council of Independent Colleges: Historic Campus Architecture Project

Paca-Carroll House

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Paca-Carroll House (ca. 1960), St. John's College (MD)

Paca-Carroll House (addition), St. John's College (MD)

Paca-Carroll House (rear view, ca. 2007), St. John's College (MD)

Institution Name: St. John's College (MD)
Original/Historic Place Name: Paca-Carroll House
Location on Campus: front right, facing College Ave.
Date(s) of Construction and Designer(s):

1855-1857

original construction Davis, J. M.

Type of Place: Individual building
Style(s): (Glossary)
Materials:

Foundation: brick

Walls: brick

Roof: slate

Function:

ca. 1857	private residence (duplex for two faculty families)
ca. 2004-present (2007)	residence hall

Significance: architecture, education, history
Landmark designation:

National Register

Paca House and Garden (1971)

Narrative: see below
References: see below

Narrative:
Although the Paca-Carroll House was built early in the Victorian era as another duplex to serve two faculty families, the house is a simple, well-proportioned building reminiscent of the Federal era. It was named for two signers of the Declaration of Independence: William Paca, who was among those petitioning the General Assembly for the college charter, and Charles Carroll of Carrollton, a member of St. John's first board. James Cain, the American novelist, whose father taught at St. John's, was born in Paca-Carroll in 1892. In this century it became a student dormitory, which was enlarged in 1981 when a contemporary wing was added and the original section was gutted and rebuilt.

References:

I. Bibliographic sources:

Dunbar, Florence T. Brick Double House [St. John's College]. Historic American Buildings Survey report and photographs. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of the Interior/ National Park Service, 1964.

Morrison, Hugh. Early American Architecture: From the First Colonial Settlements to the National Period. New York: Oxford University Press, 1952.

Paca House and Garden. National Register of Historic Places nomination form. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of the Interior/ National Park Service, 1971.

Tilghman, Tench Francis. The Early History of St. John's College in Annapolis. Annapolis, MD: St. John's College Press, 1984.

Trieschmann, Laura, and Kim Williams. Paca-Carroll House, St. John's College. Maryland Inventory of Historic Properties report. Crownsville, MD: Maryland Historical Trust, 2000.

Turner, Paul Venable. Campus: An American Planning Tradition. New York: Architectural History Foundation; Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1984.

Wollon, James Thomas, Jr., and Frank S. Welsh. Paca-Carroll House, St. John's College, Annapolis, Maryland: An Historic Structure Report. [Havre de Grace, MD: James Thomas Wollen; Ardmore, PA: Frank S. Welsh], May 1979.

II. Location of other data:

University: Library, Special Collections

SHPO

Government Offices

Other: Maryland Hall of Records