St. Thomas' Church | |
Location | 14300 St. Thomas Church Rd., near Upper Marlboro, Maryland |
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Coordinates | 38°44′56″N76°45′24″W / 38.74889°N 76.75667°W |
Area | 18.8 acres (7.6 ha) |
Built | 1742 |
Built by | Page, Daniel |
Architectural style | Georgian, Gothic Revival |
NRHP reference No. | 00001504 [1] |
Added to NRHP | December 13, 2000 |
St. Thomas' Church is an Episcopal church in a rural setting, located at Croom, Prince George's County, Maryland. It is one of four congregations that have constituted the parish of St. Thomas in the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, the others including the Church of the Atonement in Cheltenham, the Chapel of the Incarnation in Brandywine, and St. Simon's Mission also in Croom.
The original church was constructed between 1742 and 1745, and is one of the earliest Episcopal churches in Southern Maryland. With the adjacent cemetery, St. Simon's Mission, and St. Simon's Cemetery, it forms part of the St. Thomas' Episcopal Parish Historic District.
The church was completed on December 25, 1745, and was unofficially known as "Page's Chapel," as the landowner, Daniel Page, had been contracted to erect the structure. In 1850, St. Thomas' became its own parish and undertook Gothic Revival renovations and expansion under the direction of New York City architect, John W. Priest, an associate of Andrew Jackson Downing. In 1888, the frontal bell tower was erected in memory of Bishop Thomas John Claggett, first Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church consecrated in the United States. Recent restoration work, in 1954, was based on the specifications of the original 1740s building contract, but retained Priest's Gothic Revival additions. The church is surrounded on all sides by a cemetery, which contains the graves of many prominent citizens and old county families. A fence and cast iron gate posts with Gothic designs was installed in 1907. [2]
One of the original founders and benefactors of St Thomas's church was Benedict Swingate Calvert (1730-1788) who was a Maryland Loyalist during the American Revolution. He was the son of Charles Calvert, 5th Baron Baltimore, the third Proprietor Governor of Maryland, (1699–1751), and may have been the grandson of King George I of Great Britain. His mother's identity is not known and, as he was illegitimate, he was not able to inherit his father's title or estates, which passed instead to his half brother Frederick Calvert, 6th Baron Baltimore (1731–1771). He spent most of his life as a politician and planter in Maryland, though Frederick, by contrast, never visited the colony. Calvert became wealthy through proprietarial patronage and became an important colonial official, but he would lose his offices and his political power, though not his land and wealth, during the American Revolution. He is buried beneath the chancel of the church along with his wife Elizabeth Calvert (1731 – 1788) and daughter Eleanor Calvert (1757/1758 – September 28, 1811). [3] [4] : 22
The church was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2000. [1]
Benjamin Contee was an American Episcopal priest and statesman from Maryland. He was an officer in the American Revolutionary War, a delegate to the Confederation Congress, and member of the first United States House of Representatives.
Thomas John Claggett was the first bishop of the newly formed American Episcopal Church, U.S.A. to be consecrated on American soil and the first bishop of the recently established (1780) Episcopal Diocese of Maryland.
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St. Paul's Church, also known as St. Paul's Church, Baden, or St. Paul's Parish, Prince George's County, is located at 13500 Baden-Westwood Road, in Baden, a community near Brandywine in Prince George's County, Maryland. It was originally constructed in 1733–1735. A porch on the north side was enclosed in 1769, and in 1793 an addition of 26 by 30 feet was made to the south side. The Bishop's Window, a memorial to Bishop Thomas John Claggett, is at the chancel window. In 1921 the sanctuary was widened and the chancel deepened.
The John W. Coffren House and Store are two historic buildings located at Croom in Prince George's County, Maryland. This assemblage is significant for their architecture, as well as their association with the commercial history of the area and with John W. Coffren, local merchant and landowner. The Coffren House, built in 1861, has a Greek Revival entrance and interior detail. The Coffren Store, constructed ca. 1853, is a utilitarian structure, designed for use as a one-room general store. The store closed in 1945. The significance of the house and store together is that they are an intact example of house and store complexes that served rural communities in the county during the 19th century. Their builder, John W. Coffren (1828-1874), who rose from ditch digger to wealthy merchant, served on the Vestry of St. Thomas Church in Croom and on the Prince George's County School Board, as well as owning much of the property in the Village of Croom.
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St. Thomas' Episcopal Church is a parish of the Episcopal Church in Owings Mills, Baltimore County, Maryland, part of the Diocese of Maryland. It is noted for its historic parish church, built in 1743.
St. James Church is a historic Episcopal church located at Monkton, Baltimore County, Maryland, US.
Croom is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Southern Prince George's County, Maryland, United States. As of the 2020 census it had a population of 2,720. Croom largely consists of former tobacco farms and forests converted to Washington bedroom subdivisions such as nearby Marlton. The main part of Patuxent River Park is in Croom.
St. Paul's Protestant Episcopal Church, more commonly called Old St. Paul's Church today, is a historic Episcopal church located at 233 North Charles Street at the southeast corner with East Saratoga Street, in Baltimore, Maryland, near "Cathedral Hill" on the northern edge of the downtown central business district to the south and the Mount Vernon-Belevedere cultural/historic neighborhood to the north. It was founded in 1692 as the parish church for the "Patapsco Parish", one of the "original 30 parishes" of the old Church of England in colonial Maryland.
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Benedict Swingate Calvert was a planter, politician and a Loyalist in Maryland during the American Revolution. He was the son of Charles Calvert, 5th Baron Baltimore, the third Proprietor Governor of Maryland (1699–1751). His mother's identity is not known, though one source speculates that she was Melusina von der Schulenburg, Countess of Walsingham. As he was illegitimate, he was not able to inherit his father's title or estates, which passed instead to his half brother Frederick Calvert, 6th Baron Baltimore (1731–1771). Benedict Calvert spent most of his life as a politician, judge and planter in Maryland, though Frederick, by contrast, never visited the colony. Calvert became wealthy through proprietarial patronage and became an important colonial official, but he would lose his offices and his political power, though not his land and wealth, during the American Revolution.
Elizabeth Calvert was the daughter of Maryland Governor Captain Charles Calvert and Rebecca Gerard, and a wealthy heiress in colonial Maryland. Her parents died when she was young, leaving her their substantial fortune. In 1748, aged 17, she married her cousin Benedict Swingate Calvert, a Loyalist politician and planter and the illegitimate son of Charles Calvert, 5th Baron Baltimore. Benedict's connections to the ruling Calvert family allowed him to benefit from considerable proprietarial patronage, until the American Revolution saw the overthrow of British rule and the end of Calvert power in Maryland. Benedict and Elizabeth had to pay triple taxes after the war's end but, unlike many loyalists, their lands and fortune remained unconfiscated.
St. Thomas' Episcopal Parish Historic District is a national historic district located at Croom, Prince George's County, Maryland. The district encompasses four contributing buildings and three contributing sites associated with St. Thomas' Church. The other contributing buildings are the Gothic Revival style St. Thomas' Church Rectory (1852-1853), Tenant/Sexton's House, and tobacco barn. The contributing sites are the St. Thomas' Episcopal Church Cemetery, St. Simon's Mission Chapel Site, and St. Simon's Cemetery. The African-American communicants of St. Thomas' Church formed St. Simon's Mission Chapel in the late-19th century and it operated on the property associated with the Croome Industrial and Agricultural School, which operated from about 1902 to 1952.
Petersville is an unincorporated community in Frederick County, Maryland, United States. Petersville is located at the junction of Maryland routes 79 and 180, 1.3 miles (2.1 km) northeast of Rosemont.