Seton Hill Historic District is a
historic district
A historic district or heritage district is a section of a city which contains older buildings considered valuable for historical or architectural reasons. In some countries or jurisdictions, historic districts receive legal protection from c ...
in
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 ...
. It 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 1975.
It includes
St. Mary's Seminary Chapel, which is a
National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...
. It also includes
Mother Seton House, briefly home of
St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, separately listed on the National Register.
Seton Hill, Baltimore's former second
French Quarter
The French Quarter, also known as the , is the oldest neighborhood in the city of New Orleans. After New Orleans (french: La Nouvelle-Orléans) was founded in 1718 by Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, the city developed around the ("Old Squ ...
, is centered on the former
St. Mary's Seminary and College, which was founded by Sulpician priests fleeing the
French Revolution
The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...
(1789-1795) around 1791. Today Saint Mary's Park is situated where the former Seminary and College buildings once stood. The neighborhood was designated as an Historic and Architectural Preservation District of Baltimore City in 1968, and was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975. Saint Mary's Park, the heart of Seton Hill, is the largest open green space in downtown Baltimore on its Westside. In 1790, the first Roman Catholic prelate ordained for the new United States, Bishop
John Carroll John Carroll may refer to:
People Academia and science
*Sir John Carroll (astronomer) (1899–1974), British astronomer
*John Alexander Carroll (died 2000), American history professor
*John Bissell Carroll (1916–2003), American cognitive sci ...
met with Father Nagot of the Order of St. Sulpice and agreed to a plan for the establishment of the Sulpician Order in Maryland. A year later priests of the order, journeyed across the
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...
with Fathers Nagot, Tessier, Garnier, and Levadoux opening the Sulpician headquarters in the old One Mile Tavern, then located at West Franklin Street and the Hookstown Road, (known today as Pennsylvania Avenue). The Sulpicians soon purchased the inn, adapting it to a small seminary, and in future years they completed an extensive college and seminary complex along North Paca Street in the area of the existing Seminary structures in 1806, with a second replacement group of buildings in the 1870s. St. Mary's thus became the first Roman Catholic seminary in the United States, celebrating its 175th Anniversary there in 1966 (four years before they were razed in 1970 creating the current park) at its older Paca Street campus of
Victorian architecture which it had left in 1929 for its later elaborate
Beaux Arts / Classical Revival style architecture and expansive campus on Roland Avenue and Northern Parkway in the
Roland Park
Roland Park is a community located in Baltimore, Maryland. It was developed between 1890 and 1920 as an upper-class streetcar suburb. The early phases of the neighborhood were designed by Edward Bouton and Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr.
History
J ...
neighborhood of North Baltimore. There it later celebrated its Bicentennial in 1991. The only original St. Mary's academic structure remaining is a particularly significant building located on the old Seminary grounds is a small red brick chapel, the
Chapel of Our Lady of the Presentation, which was dedicated in 1808. This structure, designed by
J. Maximilen M. Godefroy, a prominent architect of the time and teacher at the secular college attached to the seminary, is one of the oldest remaining example of
Gothic Revival architecture
Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...
in the U.S.
Frenchman Godefroy also designed several other structures including the city's
War of 1812
The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States of America and its indigenous allies against the United Kingdom and its allies in British North America, with limited participation by Spain in Florida. It bega ...
memorial to its casualties of the
Battle of Baltimore
The Battle of Baltimore (September 12–15, 1814) was a sea/land battle fought between British invaders and American defenders in the War of 1812. American forces repulsed sea and land invasions off the busy port city of Baltimore, Maryland ...
during the British attack in September 1814 of the iconic landmark
Battle Monument
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 ...
(1815-1822), situated at the old colonial era Courthouse Square on
North Calvert Street, between East Fayette and East Lexington Streets. It commemorates the
Battle of North Point
The Battle of North Point was fought on September 12, 1814, between General John Stricker's Maryland Militia and a British force led by Major General Robert Ross. Although the Americans retreated, they were able to do so in good order having inf ...
in southeast
Baltimore County
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 ...
and the
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...
's bombardment of
Fort McHenry
Fort McHenry is a historical American coastal pentagonal bastion fort on Locust Point, now a neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland. It is best known for its role in the War of 1812, when it successfully defended Baltimore Harbor from an attack b ...
guarding the
Baltimore Harbor & Port. The monument serves as a symbol of the city on the municipal seal and city flag and logo to this day since 1827. Plus the First Unitarian and Universalist Church at West Franklin & North Charles Street in 1817 a
[Live Baltimore: http://livebaltimore.com/neighborhoods/seton-hill/#.UqnMqY1gNg0]
References
External links
*, including photo dated 1975, at Maryland Historical Trust, an
accompanying map
{{Authority control
French-American culture in Baltimore
French communities
Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Baltimore
Seton Hill, Baltimore