St. Peter the Apostle Church
St. Peter the Apostle Church and Buildings | |
Baltimore, Maryland | |
Coordinates | 39°17′17″N 76°37′56″W / 39.28806°N 76.63222°W |
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Area | 0.5 acres (0.20 ha) |
Built | 1843 |
Architect | Long, Robert Cary, Jr.; Et al. |
Architectural style | Greek Revival |
NRHP reference No. | 76002184[1] |
Significant dates | |
Added to NRHP | October 14, 1976 |
Designated BCL | 2011 |
St. Peter the Apostle Church was a
. Constructed at the northwest corner of Hollins and South Poppleton Streets (848 Hollins) and (11-13 South Poppleton), it was often referred to as "The Mother Church of West Baltimore."Description
The church was built in 1842 to minister to the growing
The name of the church was transferred to here upon the closing of the colonial red-brick church, rectory, school and small surrounding cemetery and its subsequent razing in 1841 of the original
The original St. Peter's building was the "
The older church was located at the northwestern corner of Forest Street (later North Charles) and XXX Lane (later West Saratoga Street), opposite the Old St. Paul's Anglican Parish on the southeastern corner situated above the rugged cliffs to the east overlooking the Jones Falls loop to the northeast around "Steiger's Meadow", below the new Baltimore County and Town Courthouse (just constructed in the new Courthouse Square at the north edge of the town at Calvert Street between New Church Street (now East Lexington Street) and Fish Lane (now East Fayette Street) a year after when the county seat was re-located here from Old Joppa in 1767. The new path of St. Paul's Lane (later Street/Place) ran north and south just below the heights where the two churches were located.
Founded in 1692 as one of the Original Thirty parishes in the Province/Colony of Maryland for the
In 1821 the bishop's chair was transferred to the new Cathedral. The new cathedral was designed by Benjamin Latrobe and located a block further north on the newly named Cathedral Street and intersecting West Franklin and Mulberry Streets. No longer a pro-cathedral, Old St. Peter's continued as the downtown community's parish for another twenty years. Gradually, the members of the parish began moving northwestward and to the west for other residential areas being constructed, as the center became increasingly filled with stores, shops and manufactories. By the early 1840s, the Archdiocese was ready to make a move with a new church building for an old name.
The new neighborhood in inner West Baltimore later acquired the name of ""Union Square" for the prominent small landscaped park in its center. That joined a series of other parks and squares such as Arlington and Franklin which dotted the residential landscape of the western side of the burgeoning city as grids of rowhouses were extended north and south as it grew westward. The New Church itself along South Poppleton and Hollins Streets was part of a complex of several buildings, including a church rectory, a convent, and a school.
Founded by
The limits of the parish grew so much in the early years by 1865 that a second church was established (St. Martin's at Fulton Avenue and West Fayette Street) and dedicated in 1867. St. Peter the Apostle was twice enlarged during its first forty years. In the summer of 1868, a thorough renovation was made with several improvements such as the addition of fifty-four pews, the building extended eastwardly, sanctuary rebuilt, gallery reconstructed, stained glass windows installed from
Up to 1881, those who served as assistants at St. Peter's were the Rev. John Hickey, Rev. William D. Parsons, Rev. O'Tool, Rev. Lawrence McCauley, D.D., Rev. John S. Foley D.D., Rev. P. McCoy, Rev. Edmund Didier, Rev. Henry Reardon, and Rev. Gerard H. Nyssen. Assistant pastors were Rev. Owen Corrigan and again Gerard H. Nyssen.
St. Peter's Cemetery
Father McColgan purchased more than twenty acres from the estate of John McClelland in 1850, and a cemetery was opened in September of 1851. Located at Moreland Avenue and Bentalou Street and consisting of twenty acres, the cemetery was referred to by parishioners as "Parishes Fear", officially known as St. Peter's Cemetery. Comprising mostly Irish-American Catholic immigrants and their children who settled in Baltimore in the 19th century, to work on the B&O, there are also some African-American graves. In total about 15,000 people are buried there. It stopped taking interments in 1969, and by the 1980s there was little money available for upkeep, the land became overgrown and unkempt. In the 1990s, the Jonah House peace-activist commune settled on the property and does some maintenance work in exchange. Leonce Rabillon (1814-1886), a French-born sculptor for wealthy patrons, is the only person still making regular payments for the upkeep of his grave.[7][8][9][10] [11][12]
Gallery
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Stained glass window 1:
Jesus Christ -
Stained glass window 2
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Stained glass window 3:
St. Paul -
Stained glass window 4:
St. Mary -
St. Peter the Apostle Church is on the National Register of Historic Places
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Tabernacle of St. Peter the Apostle Church
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Tracker organ in the balcony of the church
Renovation in 1967
Another renovation, done in 1967, brought the church to the attention of the newly formed Baltimore City Commission on Historical and Architectural Preservation.[6] This attention led to the church being placed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 14, 1976.[1][13]
Throughout its history, the congregation of St. Peter the Apostle Church ministered to those in need, and was also active in community organization efforts. In 1965, pastor Thomas J. Donellan formed the Southwest Baltimore Citizens Planning Council, along with four other area churches, to bring identity and renewal to their Hollins Park neighborhood.[14] At one time the former convent housed a Christian Life Center, which provided recreation and development programs.[15]
In later years declining numbers of parishioners and priests limited the number of services that the church held, and the final regularly scheduled Mass was said at St. Peter on Saturday, January 26, 2008. Thereafter the church was only used for weddings, funerals and special occasions. The churches of St. Martin, St. Peter, and St. Jerome merged and formed a new parish known as the Transfiguration Catholic Community.
Closing
St. Peter's Church was closed in 2008, after 165 years of service. The church was stripped of everything Catholic, and sold to the Carter Memorial Church of God in Christ in 2012. The angels on either side of the Tabernacle were removed and given to St. Ambrose Church. Statues and other relics were removed to other churches in the Archdiocese. The pipe organ, built by Baltimore builder Henry Niemann in 1890, has been placed in storage, pending its location to another church.
References
- ^ a b "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
- ^ a b Spalding, Thomas W. The Premier See: A History of the Archdiocese of Baltimore, 1789-1989. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989.
- ^ “St. Peter’s Seeks Renewal Fund.” The Baltimore Sun, September 11, 1967.
- ISBN 0-87033-477-8
- ^ church bulletin, Vertical Files: St. Peter the Apostle, Maryland Room Collection, Enoch Pratt Free Library, Baltimore, MD.
- ^ a b Kujawa, Kathleen. “St. Peter the Apostle.” Catholic Review, June 27, 1975.
- ^ "Resurrecting a cemetery, demonstrating for peace". The Baltimore Sun. September 30, 2021. Retrieved 2024-03-11.
The cemetery's "only paying customer," according to McAlister, is Leonce Rabillon, a French-born sculptor of the rich and famous. He died in 1886. But for all these years, a payment has been made with clockwork regularity for the perpetual care of his grave.
- ^ Rodricks, Dan (March 18, 1993). "Story lives anew in renewal of old graveyard". The Baltimore Sun. Retrieved 2024-03-11.
- ^ "St. Peter's Cemetery". The Irish Railroad Workers Museum. Retrieved 2024-03-11.
- ^ Zizaza, Nicky (February 29, 2024). "A Baltimore woman's quest to uncover ancestral graves at a historic cemetery". WJZ-TV. Retrieved 2024-03-11.
- ^ "Professor works with family to uncover lost graves in a Baltimore cemetery dating back to mid-1800s". WIYY. February 28, 2024. Retrieved 2024-03-11.
- ^ "An out-of-the-way cemetery tells many stories about West Baltimore in the 1800s". dyingtotelltheirstories.com. July 5, 2021. Retrieved 2024-03-11.
- ^ Rev. John Delclos (January 1976). "National Register of Historic Places Registration: St. Peter the Apostle Church" (PDF). Maryland Historical Trust. Retrieved 2016-04-01.
- ^ “In Hollins Park, People Hail From Both Sides of the Track.” The Baltimore Sun, August 22, 1979.
- ^ “Parish Profile - IX.” Catholic Review, October 27, 1978.
External links
Media related to St. Peter the Apostle Church, Baltimore at Wikimedia Commons