The Mt. Carmel Monastery is a historic

monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer which ...

located at

Port Tobacco Port Tobacco, officially Port Tobacco Village, is a town in Charles County, in southern Maryland, United States. The population was 13 at the 2010 census, making Port Tobacco the smallest incorporated town in Maryland. Overview This was historical ...

Charles County Charles County is a county in Southern Maryland. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the population was 166,617. The county seat is La Plata, Maryland, La Plata. The county was named for Charles Calvert, 3rd Baron Baltimore, Charle ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. It is a two-part frame house, the main block of which was built about 1790 and restored in 1936–37. It consists of a two-story structure with a moderately pitched

gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...

roof. The entire house, devoid of any extraneous ornamentation, reflects the austere lives of the

Carmelite , image = , caption = Coat of arms of the Carmelites , abbreviation = OCarm , formation = Late 12th century , founder = Early hermits of Mount Carmel , founding_location = Mount Car ...

nuns who are believed to have used this house as their residence. The monastery was founded on October 15, 1790, by four English-speaking Carmelite nuns from what is now Belgium, among them Ann Teresa Mathews; three were born in Charles County. The fourth nun was Frances Dickinson from London. Like thousands of English Roman Catholic girls who wanted to be nuns, Dickinson had traveled to Belgium to enter a convent there, as none was left in England. Dickinson would the first prioress until her death in 1830. In 1831 the nuns then in residence were ordered by the bishop to transfer the convent to

Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

. This property in Port Tobacco was abandoned. In 1933 an organization called the Restorers of Mt. Carmel in Maryland formed to aid in the restoration of the site. The Mt. Carmel Monastery was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1973.

References

External links

*, including photo from 1969, at Maryland Historical Trust
Restorers of Mount Carmel in Maryland
* ttp://carmelofporttobacco.com Discalced Nuns of the Carmel of Port Tobacco Belgian-American history Houses in Charles County, Maryland Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Maryland Houses completed in 1790 Carmelite monasteries in the United States National Register of Historic Places in Charles County, Maryland {{CharlesCountyMD-NRHP-stub