Yet these daunting circumstances didn't stop locals from trying to save the 111-year-old building, including Anne St. Clair Wright, George Hannon Jr., L. Harvey Poe Jr. and Pringle Symonds.

"The proposal (to raze the market) was outrageous," said Mrs. Symonds, who moved to Annapolis in 1963. "There was talk that its removal would increase parking, but that wasn't the real thrust of it. A larger development was presumed and everyone thought (Mr. Jackson) had a hidden interest," she said. Many thought he favored constructing a 10-story building.

During the crisis, Mrs. Symonds collected signatures for two "save-the-market" petitions: one for downtown residents, the other for waterfront merchants.

Getting residents to sign was no problem, she said. Yet businesses such as Stevens Hardware were reluctant.

Mrs. Symonds also helped to form the Save the Market Committee, with Mr. Hannon as co-chairman. This informal coalition believed in the market's historical and architectural value. Working with Historic Annapolis Inc., it distributed pro-market literature and collected more than 3,000 signatures on petitions.

To counter Mr. Jackson's anti-market editorials, the committee ran a paid political ad in The Evening Capital on Sept. 27, 1968. Titled "An Open Letter to the Mayor and City Council," it boasted more than 300 signatures and called for a two-year delay in the market's proposed destruction.

Market supporters flooded the paper with other letters to the editor while others took legal action. This effort began when Carroll Brice addressed the City Council on Aug. 12, 1968 - just before it voted to raze the building.

Representing descendants of those who deeded Market Space to the city in 1784, he spoke about the deed's possible reverter clause. Mr. Brice argued that the clause required the city to return Market Space to the heirs if it were used for anything but a market house.

Malcolm Smith, the city attorney, disagreed.

"The deed contains no reverter clause," he said. "I've told (the) mayor that the city can legally demolish the market and use the property for any public use, the same as any other property owned by the city."

At first, Mr. Brice claimed he had no plans to go to court. He changed his mind, however, once research funded by Historic Annapolis and the committee identified a more extensive list of descendants.

And on Dec. 17, 1968, Baltimore attorney Lawrence Rodowsky filed suit on behalf of three of them: Dr. Douglas Carroll of Brooklandville (who had never been to the Market House or heard of the controversy until he was contacted); Nancy Gordon Carroll Trimble, also of Brooklandville; and Julia Anne Walton Tyler of Ferry Farms.

"The suit was a diversionary tactic," said Mr. Poe, who moved to Annapolis in 1954. "... The reverter might not work, but at least we could hold things up."

In response to the lawsuit, Mayor Roger Moyer called an emergency City Council meeting on Dec. 20, during which the council voted to keep the market functioning until a court decision was made.

"There's no intention of putting anybody out of business - we don't want an empty market," he said at the time.

The market closed temporarily, was divided into smaller stalls, and reopened. Tenants, however, would have to vacate on 30 days' notice if the court found in favor of the city.

Meanwhile, three factors were improving the market's chances for survival. First, groups such as the National Trust for Historic Preservation began voicing their support. James Biddle of the trust wrote to Historic Annapolis that destruction of the Market House "would be a serious loss to the character of the waterfront area."

A key turning point also occurred in December 1968. That month Talbot Speer, then-president and publisher of The Evening Capital, announced that Philip Merrill was about to buy Capital Gazette Press Inc. He did, and shortly thereafter, Mr. Jackson and his anti-market editorials left the newspaper.

Finally, election time was approaching. Aldermen Arthur Ellington and Charles Bernstein, both longtime advocates of razing the market, planned to retire. "And, due to public pressure, persuasive lobbying by citizens such as Mrs. Wright and Mrs. Poe, and other factors, most candidates ran on a pro-market platform," said Mr. Poe.

Elections took place in the spring and a new council emerged. Mayor Moyer remained, Mr. Bernstein and Mr. Ellington retired as planned, and three new aldermen joined the column: Stuart Whelan Jr., Robert Spaeth and Al Hopkins. After the election, the mayor called a special council meeting on July 17.

That night, Mr. Whelan called for the council to rescind its decision to destroy the market, and the Market House, Harbor and Docks Committee, of which he was chairman, recommended making the market a real asset to the community.

His committee had earlier concluded that the market could make a valuable contribution to plans by the city and the state to improve the City Dock area, and that residents wanted to keep the market.

The council passed Mr. Whelan's motion unanimously, and soon thereafter voted to renovate the Market House. Three years and $140,000 later, it reopened on Aug. 3, 1972.

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Sources include Historic Annapolis Foundation's Market House files, plus case files and City Council proceedings and ordinances.