In the 17th century, fences played a large role in changing frontier plantations to a more urban environment. Timothy B. Riordan, director of archaeology at Historic St. Mary’s City (HSMC), will discuss the role in his talk “’A good substancial fence of loggs . . .:’ Creating landscape out of wilderness at the Calvert House” at 2 p.m. Saturday, February 5, at the HSMC Visitor Center. The talk is part of the Smithsonian Institution’s “Between Fences” exhibition – and the related local exhibition “Facing Fences” − now at St. Mary’s College of Maryland’s Boyden Gallery in Montgomery Hall through March 4.
“During its 70-year existence, the Calvert House was, at times, the Governor’s House, the largest Ordinary in town, and a Statehouse for the Province,” said Riordan. “While serving each of these functions, it was the center of a landscape bounded and divided by fences. Each of these functions led to changes in the layout of the boundaries.”