St. John's Church is a historic A.U.M.P.

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * Chris ...

located in Ruxton,

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 ...

History

J. Aquila Scott, a free African-American, moved to the

Bare Hills Bare literally means fully or partially naked, or figuratively used it means minimal. Bare may also refer to: People * Bare (surname) * Jader Volnei Spindler (born 1982), Brazilian football player nicknamed "Bare" Places * Bare Island ( ...

area in the 1820s, and in 1833, was named among the five trustees of a small congregation of th
Bethel Episcopal Methodist Religious Society
in a deed from Mary and Elijah Fishpaw. The deed was for three quarters of an acre of land in the northeast corner of the Hopyard tract on which to build a cemetery and Methodist church. The local African-American congregation, which had been meeting at Scott's home, established a parsonage and built a log cabin church on the plot.

Architecture

The original log church burned in 1876. The current structure was completed in 1886 by Rev. Edward W. Scott, son of Aquila Scott, and is a frame

Carpenter Gothic Carpenter Gothic, also sometimes called Carpenter's Gothic or Rural Gothic, is a North American architectural style-designation for an application of Gothic Revival architectural detailing and picturesque massing applied to wooden structures ...

-style gable-roofed structure with

board-and-batten A batten is most commonly a strip of solid material, historically wood but can also be of plastic, metal, or fiberglass. Battens are variously used in construction, sailing, and other fields. In the lighting industry, battens refer to linea ...

siding, stylized

lancet window A lancet window is a tall, narrow window with a pointed arch at its top. It acquired the "lancet" name from its resemblance to a lance. Instances of this architectural element are typical of Gothic church edifices of the earliest period. Lancet wi ...

s and decorative detailing. According to its National Register listing, "St. John's Church is particularly important as an exceptional example of African American church building in the late 19th century." For many years, the church was the center of spiritual life for the local African-American population, including those in Bare Hills and those working as live-in servants in Ruxton. Attendance at the church declined in the 1960s, and the property was closed and largely forgotten until 1980, when Ruxton resident Gail B. O'Donovan discovered the chapel while researching a zoning issue. She rallied the community to raise $108,000 for the restoration of the church and a -story stuccoed stone house on the property, believed to date from about 1835, which was used as a parsonage and had suffered significant fire damage. Also on the property are a simple frame rectangular social hall built in 1886 by Rev. Edward W. Scott and an extensive burial ground behind the church.

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 ...

on March 15, 1982, reference number 82002807.

Gallery

References

Churches in Baltimore County, Maryland Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in Maryland Churches completed in 1886 19th-century Methodist church buildings in the United States Carpenter Gothic church buildings in Maryland African-American history of Baltimore County, Maryland Methodist churches in Maryland National Register of Historic Places in Baltimore County, Maryland A.U.M.P. Church {{Maryland-church-stub