Designated a National Historic Landmark District in 1965 and expanded in 1984, the historic district covers most of the original colonial town. The 1695 street plan by Governor Francis Nicholson — radial streets converging on two circles, one for the state house, one for the church — is the oldest surviving baroque town plan in the United States, predating L'Enfant's Washington by almost a century.
More than 1,200 historic buildings sit within the district's roughly half-square-mile, including the densest concentration of pre-1800 structures in the country outside Charleston. Walking maps are available free from the Annapolis Visitor Center on West Street; the official 90-minute guided "Three Centuries Tour" leaves from there twice daily in season.