It's been 263 years since Jonas Green began publishing the Maryland Gazette in the back yard of his Charles Street house.

But if he could step inside the old house today, Green would still see members of his family and know his way to the kitchen and bathroom.

"The floor plan is exactly the same. However, he might ask whose furniture this is," said his great-great-great-great-great-grandson Randy Brown, who lives there today with his wife, Dede.

They run the home as the Jonas Green House Bed and Breakfast.

Aside from a few renters in the 1960s and '70s, only Greens and their descendants have lived in the house since the newspaperman first leased it in 1738.

Mr. Brown moved into the house in 1992, after spending two years renovating it.

"The house was a god-awful, horrible mess," Mr. Brown said. "The roof leaked and all the plaster had come down. We lost the plumbing, heating and electrical system. The house had basically fallen into itself."

Today Mr. Brown regales guests with stories of Green's life in downtown Annapolis -- including how his wife, Anne Catherine Hoof Green, was the real breadwinner of the family.

"The house ought to be named after her if history was at all fair to what was going on at the time," Mr. Brown said.

"Jonas Green was a fun guy to know, the kind you'd like to have at a party. But he wasn't a businessman and Anne Catherine certainly was."

The Gazette is the forerunner to The Capital and continues to be published today as a twice-weekly newspaper in north county. The Colonial weekly was founded by British journalist William Parks in 1727.

A Philadelphia printer, Green was sent by his cousin Benjamin Franklin to Annapolis in 1738 after Parks moved to Williamsburg.

Green rented the house on Charles Street, which at the time had just a two-story kitchen next to a two-room house.

In the early 1740s, the owner expanded it to its current size to make room for Green's print shop, a post office and his 14 children, only six of whom lived past the age of 6.

From the start, Green was a troublemaker. He hated the Stamp Act, which among other things directly taxed his newspaper. Refusing to pay, he halted publication of his paper with the protest headline "The Maryland Gazette Expiring: In Uncertain Hopes of a Resurrection to life again."

In the bottom right corner, he placed a skull and crossbones where the tax stamp should have been.

Cooler heads prevailed, and Green revived the Gazette with the banner headline: "An Apparition of the late Maryland Gazette, which is not dead, but only sleepeth."

He also signed a contract to be the sole printer for the General Assembly, a role he kept until he died, bankrupt, in 1767.

"He didn't own a thing. He leased his house for 29 years and he never paid Benjamin Franklin back, who had staked him in the business," Mr. Brown said.

Born in Holland, his wife had been involved in running the paper since the Greens moved to the city the year they were married.

After her husband's death, she took over the legislature contract and in three years bought the house and printing business, becoming the nation's first female publisher.

"When she wasn't birthing children, taking care of the others and working in the print shop, she was down at the market place selling stuff to feed her children," Mr. Brown said. "This was an astounding woman."

The newspaper remained in the family's hands for 98 years after her death. Despite her hard work, she didn't leave the family independently wealthy.

Mr. Brown opened the current bed-and-breakfast to pay the mortgage.

"People who are history buffs come to stay here specifically because the house is so old," he said. "It's like a museum, but it's a living museum."

Guest Dottie Lindley of Richmond, Va., was impressed by the way the Browns have blended modern plumbing and electrical equipment with the historic architecture.

"I'm particularly intrigued with the wide floorboards upstairs," she said.

Mr. Brown plans to enjoy the house as long as he can.

"I always tell my wife that they're going to have to carry me out of here feet first," he said. "She always jokingly responds, "That can be arranged.'"

Published 05/15/01, The Capital, Annapolis, Md.
© Copyright 2001 The Capital, Annapolis, Md.

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