All Hallows Church, also known as The Brick Church, is a historic church located at 3604 Solomon's Island Road, in Edgewater,

Anne Arundel County Anne Arundel County (; ), also notated as AA or A.A. County, is located in the U.S. state of Maryland. As of the 2020 United States census, its population was 588,261, an increase of just under 10% since 2010. Its county seat is Annapolis, wh ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. Parish records date back to 1682, indicating that it existed prior to the Act of Establishment (1692) passed by the

General Assembly of Maryland The Maryland General Assembly is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Maryland that convenes within the State House in Annapolis. It is a bicameral body: the upper chamber, the Maryland Senate, has 47 representatives, and the lower chambe ...

laying off the Province into 30 Anglican parishes. The church building is a low, rectangular

Flemish bond Flemish bond is a pattern of brickwork that is a common feature in Georgian architecture. The pattern features bricks laid lengthwise (''stretchers'') alternating with bricks laid with their shorter ends exposed (''headers'') within the same cou ...

brick structure with a

hip roof A hip roof, hip-roof or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downward to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope, with variants including Tented roof, tented roofs and others. Thus, a hipped roof has no gables or other ve ...

. The building was constructed about 1710 as the parish church of All Hallows' or South River Parish, now called All Hallows Parish, South River. The interior was gutted by fire in 1727. It was modernized in 1825 and again in 1885. After a fire in 1940, reconstruction restored the building to its 1710 appearance. The ancient cemetery, shaded by a grove of oak trees, surrounds the church. It contains the graves of many local families. One is Provincial Justice, Deputy-Governor and Lord High Sheriff of Anne Arundel Colonel William Burgess (1622–1686), who donated 100 acres of his lands for the establishment of Londontowne. Among the descendants of pioneer planter/politician Colonel Nicholas Gassaway is his son, the Lord High Sheriff Captain Thomas Gassaway (1683–1739), amidst whose plantations the church itself was built. The bell in the rustic tower bears the date 1727. All Hallows' Church was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1969. In addition to the Brick Church, the parish maintains a

chapel-of-ease A chapel of ease (or chapel-of-ease) is a church architecture, church building other than the parish church, built within the bounds of a parish for the attendance of those who cannot reach the parish church conveniently, generally due to trav ...

at 864 West Central Avenue, in

Davidsonville Davidsonville is an unincorporated community in central Anne Arundel County, Maryland, United States. It is a semi-rural community composed mostly of farms and suburban-like developments and is a good example of an "exurb." Davidsonville has rel ...

. The Chapel was constructed from 1860 to 1865 because the parish's Brick Church was too far away at distant. The parish's

rectory A clergy house is the residence, or former residence, of one or more priests or ministers of a given religion, serving as both a home and a base for the occupant's ministry. Residences of this type can have a variety of names, such as manse, p ...

is diagonally across the street from the Chapel. All Hallows Parish, South River, is still an active parish in the

Episcopal Diocese of Maryland The Episcopal Diocese of Maryland forms part of Province 3 of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America, Province 3 of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America. Having been divided twice, it no longer includes all of Marylan ...

. The Rev. Jeffrey C. Hual is the current rector.All Hallows Parish, South River website
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Gallery

Image:All Hallow's Brick Church Bell Tower.JPG, Bell Tower at All Hallow's Brick Church, Completed in Spring 2006 by C. R. Bennett Construction, September 2009

References

External links

* *, including photo from 1966, at Maryland Historical Trust * {{National Register of Historic Places in Maryland Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in Maryland Episcopal church buildings in Maryland Churches in Anne Arundel County, Maryland Churches completed in 1710 18th-century Episcopal church buildings Historic American Buildings Survey in Maryland National Register of Historic Places in Anne Arundel County, Maryland 1710 establishments in Maryland Brick buildings and structures in Maryland