Historic Annapolis City Dock and Market House

Annapolis City Dock, known locally as Ego Alley for the procession of boats that cruise its narrow channel for public admiration, anchors the historic waterfront of Maryland's colonial-era state capital. The dock area clusters around Market Space, a small plaza surrounded by 18th-century brick rowhouses now housing restaurants, galleries, and the restored Market House, which has sold local seafood, produce, and prepared food since 1786. The brick waterfront promenade extends several hundred yards from the Market House around the harbor basin to the Naval Academy seawall, affording continuous views of sailboats, skipjacks, and motor yachts. The surrounding historic district contains more than 1,500 buildings predating 1900, giving downtown Annapolis one of the densest concentrations of 18th-century architecture in the United States. The Maryland Inn on Church Circle and the William Paca House and Garden on Prince George Street are within a five-minute walk. Guided walking tours departing from the dock area offer ninety-minute histories of the colonial and Revolutionary War period, including the eight months in 1783–84 when the Treaty of Paris was ratified here and Annapolis served as the national capital. The Kunta Kinte–Alex Haley Memorial at the foot of the dock commemorates the 1767 arrival in Annapolis Harbor of Alex Haley's ancestor Kunta Kinte, as documented in the novel Roots, providing a significant counterpoint to the district's colonial grandeur. Water tours of the Chesapeake Bay and Severn River depart seasonally from the city dock piers, ranging from forty-five-minute harbor cruises to sunset sails on traditional Chesapeake log canoes. The dock itself and the outdoor promenade are free to access and open at all hours.