Taylor's Chapel is an historic

chapel A chapel (from , a diminutive of ''cappa'', meaning "little cape") is a Christianity, Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. First, smaller spaces inside a church that have their o ...

located at

Baltimore Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the 30th-most populous U.S. city. The Baltimore metropolitan area is the 20th-large ...

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 ...

. It is a

Greek Revival Greek Revival architecture is a architectural style, style that began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe, the United States, and Canada, ...

style chapel located in a quarter acre fenced-in plot, which also includes a graveyard, within Mount Pleasant Park in northeast Baltimore. The structure is a small, mid-19th-century country church, built of stone, covered with

stucco Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and ...

, painted white, and has a gable roof. The interior features frescoes on the walls and ceiling, attributed by tradition to the Italian-American painter

Constantino Brumidi Constantino Brumidi (26 July 1805 – 19 February 1880) was a Greek-Italian painter and a Naturalization, naturalized American citizen, best known and honored for his fresco work, ''The Apotheosis of Washington, Apotheosis of Washington'', in the ...

. The frescoes are ''

trompe-l'œil ; ; ) is an artistic term for the highly realistic optical illusion of three-dimensional space and objects on a Two-dimensional space, two-dimensional surface. , which is most often associated with painting, tricks the viewer into perceiving p ...

'' paintings of classical architectural detailing, including pilasters, panels, coffering, and ornaments. It has remained completely unaltered since its construction in 1853. It was built as a

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a Protestant Christianity, Christian Christian tradition, tradition whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's brother ...

chapel by the Taylor family on their Mt. Pleasant plantation. In 1925 the City of Baltimore purchased the land surrounding the chapel and burial grounds for use as a public golf course. The site of the chapel and burial grounds was left to a self-perpetuating board of trustees. Taylor's Chapel is considered the mother church of St. John's United Methodist Church of Hamilton. Taylor's Chapel 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 1983.

References

External links

*, including photo from 1983, at Maryland Historical Trust
Taylor's Chapel – Explore Baltimore HeritageFind A Grave: Taylor's Chapel CemeteryTaylor's Chapel - The Historical Marker Database
Churches in Baltimore United Methodist churches in Maryland Properties of religious function on the National Register of Historic Places in Baltimore Churches completed in 1853 19th-century Methodist church buildings in the United States Greek Revival church buildings in Maryland Northeast Baltimore Baltimore City Landmarks {{Maryland-Methodist-church-stub