First Presbyterian Church and Manse (Baltimore, Maryland)

Last updated
First Presbyterian Church and Manse
1st Presby Baltimore 01.JPG
Baltimore osm-mapnik location map.png
Red pog.svg
USA Maryland location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Usa edcp location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Location200--210 W. Madison St., Baltimore, Maryland
Coordinates 39°17′56″N76°37′8″W / 39.29889°N 76.61889°W / 39.29889; -76.61889
Area1 acre (0.40 ha)
Built1854 (1854)
ArchitectLind, E.G.; Starkweather, Norris G.
Architectural styleGothic Revival
NRHP reference No. 73002186 [1]
Added to NRHPJune 18, 1973
First Presbyterian church in Baltimore, Maryland from a pre-1923 postcard Baltimore MD 1st Presby PHS681.jpg
First Presbyterian church in Baltimore, Maryland from a pre-1923 postcard

First Presbyterian Church and Manse is a historic Presbyterian church located at West Madison Street and Park Avenue in the Mount Vernon-Belvedere neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland, United States. The church is a rectangular brick building with a central tower flanked by protruding octagonal turrets at each corner. At the north end of the church is a two-story building appearing to be a transept and sharing a common roof with the church, but is separated from the auditorium by a bearing wall. The manse is a three-story stone-faced building. The church was begun about 1854 by Norris G. Starkweather and finished by his assistant Edmund G. Lind around 1873. It is a notable example of Gothic Revival architecture and a landmark in the City of Baltimore. [2]

Contents

The steeple is the tallest in Baltimore at 273 feet (83 m) and was completed by 1875, supported by clusters of cast iron columns. A subsidiary spire to the right is 125 feet (38 m) high, and the smaller, on the southwest corner, is 78 feet high. Wendel Bollman fabricated much of the ironwork at his Patapsco Bridge and Ironworks. The manse, or rectory, is located to the left, or west of the entrance. The stonework is a red freestone or sandstone from New Brunswick. [3]

First Presbyterian Church and Manse was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. [1] It is now known as the First and Franklin Presbyterian Church, after merging in 1973 with the former Franklin Street Presbyterian Church several blocks to the south at the northwest corner of West Franklin and Cathedral Streets, across from the central Enoch Pratt Free Library, which was used by the merged congregation for a time and then sold to a fundamentalist Protestant congregation.

First Presbyterian Church is the oldest Presbyterian congregation in Baltimore, founded in 1761, then located after 1763 at East Fayette and North Streets (later Guilford Avenue) on the northwest corner in downtown. The latter was the site for its three succeeding buildings until 1859, when the site was purchased by the Federal Government and a U.S. Courthouse was constructed there. It was instrumental in the establishment of the local Presbytery of Baltimore and many "daughter congregations" such as Second Presbyterian Church and others. [4] [ failed verification ] It is included in the Baltimore National Heritage Area. [5] [ improper synthesis? ]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Westminster Hall and Burying Ground</span> Historic site in Baltimore, Maryland, US

Westminster Hall and Burying Ground is a graveyard and former church located at 519 West Fayette Street in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. It is currently part of the grounds of the University of Maryland's School of Law. It occupies the southeast corner of West Fayette and North Greene Street on the west side of downtown Baltimore. It sits across from the Baltimore VA hospital and is the burial site of Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849) and several politicians and military officials. The complex was declared a national historic district in 1974.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mount Vernon, Baltimore</span> Neighborhood in Baltimore, Maryland, United States

Mount Vernon is a neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland, located immediately north of the city's downtown. It is named for George Washington's Mount Vernon estate in Virginia, as the site of the city's Washington Monument.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oella, Maryland</span> Historic district in Maryland, United States

Oella is a mill town on the Patapsco River in western Baltimore County, Maryland, United States, located between Catonsville and Ellicott City. It is a 19th-century village of millworkers' homes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phoenix Shot Tower</span> United States historic place

The Phoenix Shot Tower, also known as the Old Baltimore Shot Tower, is a red brick shot tower, 234.25 feet (71.40 m) tall, located near the downtown, Jonestown, and Little Italy communities of East Baltimore, in Maryland. When it was completed in 1828 it was the tallest structure in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St. Peter the Apostle Church</span> Historic church in Maryland, United States

St. Peter the Apostle Church was a Roman Catholic church located within the Archdiocese of Baltimore in Baltimore, Maryland. Constructed at the northwest corner of Hollins and South Poppleton Streets and, it was often referred to as "The Mother Church of West Baltimore."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle Monument</span> Monument in Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.

The Battle Monument, located in Battle Monument Square on North Calvert Street between East Fayette and East Lexington Streets in Baltimore, Maryland, commemorates the Battle of Baltimore, with the British fleet of the Royal Navy's bombardment of Fort McHenry, the Battle of North Point, southeast of the city in Baltimore County on the Patapsco Neck peninsula, and the stand-off on the eastern siege fortifications along Loudenschlager and Potter's Hills, later called Hampstead Hill, in what is now Patterson Park since 1827, east of town.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">First Unitarian Church (Baltimore, Maryland)</span> Historic church building

The First Unitarian Church is a historic church and congregation at 12 West Franklin Street in Mount Vernon, Baltimore, Maryland. Dedicated in 1818, it was the first building erected for Unitarians in the United States. The church is a domed cube with a stucco exterior. The church, originally called the "First Independent Church of Baltimore", is the oldest building continuously used by a Unitarian congregation. The name was changed in 1935 to "The First Unitarian Church of Baltimore " following the merger with the former Second Universalist Church at East Lanvale Street and Guilford Avenue in midtown Baltimore. The American Unitarian Association and the Universalist Church of America (established 1866) representing the two strains of Unitarian Universalism beliefs and philosophies merged as a national denomination named the Unitarian Universalist Association in May 1961.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">College of Medicine of Maryland</span> Historic building in Maryland, USA

The College of Medicine of Maryland, or also known since 1959 as Davidge Hall, is a historic domed structure in Baltimore, Maryland. It has been in continuous use for medical education since 1813, the oldest such structure in the United States. A wide pediment stands in front of a low, domed drum structure, which housed the anatomical theater. A circular chemistry hall was housed on the lower level under the anatomical theater.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St. Mary's Seminary Chapel</span> Historic church in Maryland, United States

St. Mary's Seminary Chapel, located at 600 North Paca Street in the Seton Hill neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland, is the oldest Neo-Gothic style church in the United States. It was built from 1806 through 1808 by French architect J. Maximilian M. Godefroy for the French Sulpician priests of St. Mary's Seminary. Godefroy claimed that his design was the first Gothic building in America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lloyd Street Synagogue</span> Historical former Reform synagogue in Baltimore, Maryland, United States

The Lloyd Street Synagogue is a Reform and Orthodox Jewish former synagogue located on Lloyd Street, Baltimore, Maryland, in the United States. The Greek Revival-style building is the third oldest synagogue building in the United States and was the first synagogue building erected in Maryland. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978 and designated as a Baltimore City Landmark in 1971.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cathedral Hill Historic District (Baltimore, Maryland)</span> Historic district in Maryland, United States

The Cathedral Hill Historic District is an area in Baltimore, Maryland. It lies in the northern part of Downtown just south of Mount Vernon. Roughly bounded by Saratoga Street, Park Avenue, Hamilton Street, and St. Paul Street, these 10 or so blocks contain some of the most significant buildings in Baltimore. The area takes its name from the Basilica of the Assumption which sits in the heart of the district. Despite the number of large religious structures in the area, the district's buildings are primarily commercial in character, with a broad collection of significant commercial structures ranging in date from 1790 to 1940.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Temora (Ellicott City, Maryland)</span> Historic house in Maryland, United States

Temora, is a historic home located at Ellicott City, Howard County, Maryland. It is a T-shaped, two-story and cupola, Tuscan-style Victorian house of stuccoed tongue-and-groove boards. The house was built in 1857 after a design prepared by Norris G. Starkweather, a little-known but accomplished architect from Oxford, England, who also designed the First Presbyterian Church and Manse at West Madison Street and Park Avenue in the Mount Vernon-Belvedere neighborhood in Baltimore, Maryland, with his later more famous assistant - Edmund G. Lind. The house was built for Dr. Arthur Pue Jr. on land given from his grandmother Mary Dorsey Pue of Belmont Estate. The name of the estate Temora comes from the poems of Ossian

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frederick Historic District</span> Historic district in Maryland, United States

The Frederick Historic District is a national historic district in Frederick, Maryland. The district encompasses the core of the city and contains a variety of residential, commercial, ecclesiastical, and industrial buildings dating from the late 18th century to 1941. Notable are larger detached dwellings in the Queen Anne and American Foursquare architectural styles of the late 19th and early 20th centuries The churches reflect high style architecture ranging from Gothic and Greek Revival to Richardsonian Romanesque and Colonial Revival. The east side of the district includes the industrial buildings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Franklin Street Presbyterian Church and Parsonage</span> Historic church in Maryland, United States

Franklin Street Presbyterian Church and Parsonage is a historic Presbyterian church located at 100 West Franklin Street at Cathedral Street, northwest corner in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. The church is a rectangular Tudor Gothic building dedicated in 1847, with an addition in 1865. The front features two 60 foot flanking octagonal towers are also crenelated and have louvered belfry openings and stained glass Gothic-arched windows. The manse / parsonage at the north end has similar matching walls of brick, heavy Tudor-Gothic window hoods, and battlements atop the roof and was built in 1857.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St. James the Less Roman Catholic Church</span> Historic church in Maryland, United States

St. James the Less Roman Catholic Church, also known as St. James and St. John's Roman Catholic Church, is a historic Roman Catholic church located at Baltimore, Maryland, United States and was one of the earliest neighborhood parishes established in the central city (1833). The building later became Urban Bible Fellowship Church. On March 29, 2020 lightning struck the steeple, causing the building to catch fire and partially collapse.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maximilian Godefroy</span> French-American architect

J. Maximilian M. Godefroy was a French-American architect. Godefroy was born in France and educated as a geographical/civil engineer. During the French Revolution he fought briefly on the Royalist side. Later, as an anti-Bonaparte activist, he was imprisoned in the fortress of Bellegarde and Château d'If then released about 1805 and allowed to come to the United States, settling in Baltimore, Maryland, where he became an instructor in drawing, art and military science at St. Mary's College, the Sulpician Seminary. By 1808, Godefroy had married Eliza Crawford Anderson, editor of her own periodical, the Observer and the niece of a wealthy Baltimore merchant.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Franklin Square Historic District (Baltimore, Maryland)</span> Historic district in Maryland, United States

Franklin Square Historic District is a national historic district in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. It is a 19th-century rowhouse neighborhood developed along a strict grid street pattern. A one square block, two and a half acre public park, Franklin Square, is a focal point for the area and the most elaborate rowhousing surrounds the square. The district contains approximately 1,300 buildings of which approximately 1,250 contribute to the significance of the historic district.

Charles L. Carson, was an architect born in Baltimore, the oldest son of Daniel Carson, a builder, and one of the founders of the Baltimore chapter of AIA. Carson had little formal training as an architect. Around 1870 he partnered with Thomas Dixon (architect) while taking drawing lessons at the Maryland Institute College of Art. Carson and Dixon worked from their offices at 117 Baltimore Street as Thomas Dixon and Charles L. Carson until sometime before 1877 when the partnership was dissolved. In 1888 he hired Joseph Evans Sperry who became his chief assistant, and later his partner and successor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Franklin Avenue Presbyterian Church</span> Historic church in Michigan, United States

Franklin Avenue Presbyterian Church is a historic church at 108 W. Grand River Avenue in Lansing, Michigan. It was built in 1916 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lafayette Square (Baltimore)</span> Historic site

Lafayette Square, is a historic city park and district in the Sandtown-Winchester area of West Baltimore, Maryland. It is bounded by Lanvale Street and Lafayette, Arlington, and Carrollton Avenues.

References

  1. 1 2 "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
  2. Joyce McClay and Catharine Black (October 1972). "National Register of Historic Places Registration: First Presbyterian Church and Manse" (PDF). Maryland Historical Trust. Retrieved 2016-03-01.
  3. Dorsey, John; Dilts, James D. (1981). A Guide to Baltimore Architecture (Second ed.). Centreville, Maryland: Tidewater Publishes. pp.  20–21. ISBN   0-87033-272-4.
  4. "First and Franklin Presbyterian Church". The First and Franklin Presbyterian Church. Retrieved 2009-03-15.
  5. "Baltimore National Heritage Area Map" (PDF). City of Baltimore. Archived from the original (PDF) on May 22, 2013. Retrieved March 11, 2012.