Mount Gilboa Chapel is a historic

African Methodist Episcopal Church The African Methodist Episcopal Church, usually called the AME Church or AME, is a Black church, predominantly African American Methodist Religious denomination, denomination. It adheres to Wesleyan-Arminian theology and has a connexionalism, c ...

located in Oella,

Baltimore County, Maryland Baltimore County ( , locally: or ) is the third-most populous county in the U.S. state of Maryland and is part of the Baltimore metropolitan area. Baltimore County (which partially surrounds, though does not include, the independent City of ...

. It is a small stone church measuring 28 feet by 42 feet, built about 1859 by free African Americans. The front façade is

ashlar Ashlar () is finely dressed (cut, worked) stone, either an individual stone that has been worked until squared, or a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, generally rectangular cuboid, mentioned by Vitruv ...

masonry, but the sides and rear are of rubble.

Background

The building is the replacement of an earlier log chapel of unknown origin. It is possible that neighbor Benjamin Banneker attended services in such a log building. An

obelisk An obelisk (; from grc, ὀβελίσκος ; diminutive of ''obelos'', " spit, nail, pointed pillar") is a tall, four-sided, narrow tapering monument which ends in a pyramid-like shape or pyramidion at the top. Originally constructed by Anc ...

that the Maryland

Bicentennial __NOTOC__ A bicentennial or bicentenary is the two-hundredth anniversary of a part, or the celebrations thereof. It may refer to: Europe *French Revolution bicentennial, commemorating the 200th anniversary of 14 July 1789 uprising, celebrated ...

Commission and the State Commission on Afro American History and

Culture Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups.Tyl ...

erected in 1977 to commemorate Banneker stands in the church's yard near his unmarked grave. The chapel 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 1976., at Maryland Historical Trust

References

External links

* * {{National Register of Historic Places in Maryland Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in Maryland African Methodist Episcopal churches in Maryland Churches in Baltimore County, Maryland Churches completed in 1859 19th-century churches in the United States African-American history of Baltimore County, Maryland Oella, Maryland National Register of Historic Places in Baltimore County, Maryland 1859 establishments in Maryland Benjamin Banneker African-American cemeteries in Maryland