The Brick Chapel's History

After Lord Baltimore regained control over Maryland in 1658, work could begin on a permanent chapel at St. Mary's City, and evidence indicates the Jesuits completed the brick chapel before 1670. This church could not have been built anywhere else in the English-speaking world at the time because Roman Catholicism was outlawed there. Although no construction records survive, it likely required four to five years of effort. The chapel was Maryland's first major all-brick building and served as the centerpiece of worship for Maryland's Catholics from circa 1667 until 1704, when the royal governor ordered it locked and banned the public practice of the Catholic faith. A few years later the Jesuits demolished the structure and reused its materials. Its exact location was forgotten until 1938, when architectural historian Henry Chandlee Forman discovered its foundation, and more than fifty years later intensive archaeological study by Historic St. Mary's City uncovered the foundation and revealed the nature of the building. Written references show the chapel in use and esteem: in 1669 Robert Pennywell was convicted of breaking out its windows; in 1670 Richard Moy left 2000 pounds of tobacco for repairs and fencing; in 1675 Richard Moy and his wife Elizabeth were buried there and stones in the floor were taken up and relaid for their burial; in 1678 Walter Hall left 5000 pounds of tobacco to buy religious ornaments for the church at St. Mary's; in 1697 Royal Governor Sir Francis Nicholson called the Jesuits as having "a good brick Chappell"; and in 1704 Fathers William Hunter and Robert Brooke were called before Maryland's governor for saying mass there, after which the governor ordered the chapel locked.

Maryland · United States