Mountaineer Fernweh

View of Baltimore from Chapel Hill by Francis Guy, 1803. Brooklyn Museum of Art/Wikimedia Commons Few big-city churches in the United States have the length of history of Old Saint Paul's. Founded in 1692, it was one of the original 30 parishes created by the Establishment Act when Maryland was transferred from a proprietary province to a Royal colony. Designated as "Patapsco Parish" for its proximity to the river of the same name, the church moved from Colgate Creek (near the present-day Seagirt Marine Terminal in Dundalk) to its present location in 1729, when Baltimore town was first laid out. The remaining property, "Lot 19" on the original survey, is the last parcel from this original survey never to have been sold. The present building is the fourth on the site. The first small brick church built shortly after the purchase of the land was replaced in 1784 by a larger, two story church similar to other colonial and early Federal period churches like  Christ

  When Christ Church closed in 1986, the Diocese of Maryland, Baltimore City, and Mount Vernon stakeholders had no real plan for what came next. The closure and sale of a large church in the area was not unprecedented; Franklin Street Presbyterian had merged with First Presbyterian a decade earlier and sold its building to New Unity Church Ministries. An altar-centered "high church" building with a high bell tower proved to be a bit tougher of a sale, though. With no congregational offers, perennial Democratic candidate and millionaire contractor  George P. Mahoney , a Roman Catholic who lived across the street in the Belvedere Hotel, bought the property.     The bell tower is both     historic, and a safety hazard Mahoney was the first in a line of eccentric characters to be involved with the the old church. He had run for governor and the U.S. Senate half a dozen times, most (in)famously losing to Spiro Agnew in the 1966 gubernatorial race. Reporters of the time described h

  In the heart of midtown Baltimore at the corner of St. Paul and Chase, the scaffolding around the church has been up sufficiently long enough that some long time residents have forgotten when it wasn't there. I can't even quite name the building that it encloses: is it the former Christ Church, the former New Refuge Deliverance Cathedral, or the still fledgling New Life Evangelical Church of Olivet Assembly, who  bought the building at auction in 2021 ?  What we do know is that the scaffold was placed there to protect the pedestrians walking by.  The church is a safety hazard. After years of battles with the city over code violations and fines, New Refuge agreed to sell the building in 2019.  The first auction sought over $1 million, and failed to find a buyer. The second auction brought in $550,000, a fairly meagre sum for a large Mount Vernon property. The buyer, Olivet Assembly, promised to remove the scaffolding by the end of 2021 and install a new, thriving congregation.

  In prior Church Series posts I documented two churches that have been preserved or restored to their Colonial-era appearance. In this post, we look at a building that dates to 1743, but whose layers of history carry into the 1970's. St. Thomas Church, Garrison Forest, was created from St. Paul's Parish of Baltimore City as a chapel of ease in 1742. Saint Paul's was 12 miles to the southeast, and the parish boundaries of the time included most of what is now Baltimore County. With a growing population to the northwest, it was believed a new house of worship was needed. By 1745, a new church had been erected and granted parish status.   St. Thomas was built of brick imported from England, constructed in a Flemish bond pattern that was typical of the time. Originally a 56' x 36' structure, the original interior included box pews, a pulpit on the north wall, and small chancel on the east end. The windows of leaded glass have largely been preserved, though the structur

  Many of Virginia's colonial parish churches have not survived the ravages of time and war, but there are notable exceptions. One of them is Aquia Church in northern Stafford County, just off of US 1 and I 95, a piece of time whose simplicity and light bring a tranquil calm, a calm not always known in her long history. Aquia Church, Overwharton Parish was founded in 1667 when Stafford County was formed out of Westmoreland. Two buildings preceded the present one,  which was constructed between 1751-57 by Mourning Richards (Architect) and William Copein (Master Mason). It is notable for its unique combination of Flemish brick bond pattern and locally quarried Aquia stone, built in a strict Greek cross design, and a tower added at a later (unknown) date. The former two characteristics can only be found elsewhere in Virginia at nearby St. Paul's, King George (also founded in 1667, but the present building was constructed about ten years later), but the tower with this plan make it

  The Alleghenies are a sub-range of the Appalachian Mountains, running north-to-south from central Pennsylvania to southern West Virginia.  It west of the Ridge-and-Valley range that runs along the VA-WV line, and includes some of the highest points in the Appalachian range. One of those points, Hoye-Crest, is notable not so much for its height in the over all range but as the highest point in Maryland. At 3,360 feet, it sits more than 1000 feet lower than its counterparts in Virginia and West Virginia, and is located on publicly accessible private property in the southwest corner of Garrett County, Maryland. This trip is for the moderately adventuresome, as it is a tough, steep mile long climb that is not easy to find. In order to access the trailhead, you must drive to a remote area along US 219, about nine miles north of Thomas, West Virginia. Parking is available along the side of the road, though you will need to be cautious for traffic as the area is not parkland and there are n