St. John's Episcopal Church (Baltimore, Maryland)
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St. John's Protestant Episcopal Church | |
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Bell tower of St. John's Protestant Episcopal Church | |
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| Location | 3009 Greenmount Ave., Baltimore, Maryland |
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| Coordinates | 39°19′31″N 76°36′32″W / 39.32528°N 76.60889°WCoordinates: 39°19′31″N 76°36′32″W / 39.32528°N 76.60889°W |
| Built | 1849 |
| Architectural style | Gothic Revival |
| NRHP Reference # | [1] |
| Added to NRHP | March 27, 1974 |
St. John's Episcopal Church is a historic Episcopal church located on Old York Road (off Greenmount Avenue and 31st Street) in the former village of Huntingdon (now the community of Waverly in northeast Baltimore, Maryland, United States. The congregation is often referred to as St. John's of Huntingdon Episcopal Church. It is a Gothic Revival structure built originally in 1847. A bell tower was added in 1849. The church was rebuilt on the original walls and foundation after an 1858 fire. In 1878 additions to the rebuilt structure were made to the transepts and chancel. It is constructed of stone with granite and wood trim and Early English in style. This church building was consecrated in 1860. Also on the property is a cemetery.[2]
St. John's Protestant Episcopal Church was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.[1]
History
The congregation of Saint John's Church - part of the Episcopal (or, Anglican) Church - has worshiped together on the same site since 1843. At that time the area now known as the Waverly and Charles Villages - the neighbourhood in northeastern Baltimore city ministered to by Saint John's Church - was actually the small village of Huntingdon, Maryland, a collection of about seventeen great estates and houses, and the more modest homes of a new and emerging middle class. (The estate names around Huntingdon village are synonymous with old Baltimore families: Montebello, Clover Hill, Homewood, Guilford, Greenmount, Abbottston (Gilman-Cate) and Homestead.)
The original village of "Huntingdon", which extended from Huntingdon Avenue (in the present day neighborhood of Remington) on the west to the Harford Road on the east; from Huntingdon Avenue (now 25th Street) on the south to Boundary Avenue (42nd Street) in the north, was annexed from Baltimore County to Baltimore City in 1888 and the post office was renamed Waverly, after Sir Walter Scott's 'Waverley' novels. The residential and commercial community of Peabody Heights (later renamed Charles Village in the 1960s) was created out of this area to the west in the 1870s, while the residential area of Waverly with its commercial district centering on Greenmount Avenue (southern city end of York Road and 33rd Street was in the east. Also to the northwest is the community of Coldstream-Homestead-Montebello which has a redevelopment umbrella organization combining various local neighborhood associations for cooperative efforts with offices centered at Baltimore City College. Also to the west is the redeveloped campus of the old Eastern High School, a distinctive landmark since 1938, now with offices for the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions since the 1990s.
In November 1843, the Reverend W. A. Hewitt was sent to the village of Huntingdon by Bishop Whittingham of the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland at the request of one Mr Thomas Hart who wished to have some of his grandchildren baptised without making the journey to the parish church, Saint Paul's, in Baltimore. The bishop was eager to establish new congregations in Maryland which would embody the ideals of the Oxford Movement (which evolved from the Tractarian Movement), a spiritual-renewal movement making itself strongly felt throughout the Anglican Church in England and elsewhere. Saint John's Church was born with those baptisms and that spiritual renewal.
The first services were held in an old American Revolutionary War barracks located some thirty yards southwest of the present church building; on 10 July 1844, Saint John's Church was legally incorporated as a diocesan mission church within the bounds of Saint Paul's parish, and by 1845 it was an independent congregation. The congregation laid the cornerstone for its first church in April 1846 and saw its consecration by Bishop Whittingham on 11 November 1847. It was determined that the church should be a "free" church - there were to be no pew rents, ever.
For the first two years the rector returned his stipend to the treasurer as his offering toward the building expenses (he also installed the furnace at his own expense, ensuring the warm devotion and gratitude of his flock). However, on 15 May 1858, just eleven years after its consecration, this lovely new building was gutted by fire and burned to the ground.
The congregation was poorer, but undaunted, and the cornerstone of a new building, the present church, was laid on 11 September 1858 by the parish's faithful father in God, Bishop Whittingham. The first service in this building was held on 22 May 1859, and its consecration was on All Saints' Day, 1 November 1860. The congregation prospered, as did its parishioners, and a Parish House (1866) and a Rectory (1868) were added, all in matching "gothick" style.
The church, and for the most part the other buildings, were built according to the principles of the Cambridge(England) Ecclesiological Society, which devoted itself to the revival of the Gothic style in architecture and all the appurtenances appropriate to the style and dignity of that setting. The Oxford Movement brought with it a matching revival of dignity and ceremonial in the worship of the church, and the interior decoration reflected this influence.
The original church on this site, patterned after Saint Michael's, Longstanton, in England, was a pure example of English "country gothick," and this design involved a long nave, lancet windows, thick low medieval walls, and a high, steep-pitched roof. There was a south porch and relatively small sanctuary at the east end.
The present building preserved most of those features, and was enlarged in 1875, adding transepts (to create the classic cruciform shape evident today), a baptistry (the present Lady Chapel), sacristy, enlarged sanctuary, and a glorious bell tower and spire. The interior decoration was finally completed in 1895 in the same Victorian Gothic revival style.
After several "modernisations" of the decor, neglect, and eventual whitewash(!), the restoration of much of the original decoration was begun in 1983-85 by the Reverend R. Douglas Pitt, the eleventh rector. This work was resumed in 1994 under the Reverend Jesse L. A. Parker, twelfth rector, and continues as of this writing. All of the restoration work has been accomplished by the well-known decorative artist Janet Pope, of J. Pope Studios, Baltimore, which specializes in historic decorative restoration.
References
- 1 2 Staff (2008-04-15). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service.
- ↑ "Maryland Historical Trust". St. John's Protestant Episcopal Church, Baltimore City. Maryland Historical Trust. 2008-11-21.
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to St. John's Protestant Episcopal Church (Baltimore, Maryland). |
- St. John's Protestant Episcopal Church, Baltimore City, including undated photo, at Maryland Historical Trust
- Saint John's in the Village website
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