All Faith, Charlotte Hall

Sadly, most of the churches that I have visited have had notices on their doors saying that they are closed for the foreseeable future, due to the Corona Pandemic.*

All Faith Episcopal Church in Mechanicsville/Charlotte Hall was the delight of the day! 

Built between 1766-1769, the church is a one story, brick building with a wood shingle, gable roof. A small vestments room, added on in the mid to late-nineteenth century, is attached to the building's southeast corner.

The church is constructed of brick laid in Flemish bond with a molded brick watertable. Typical of Episcopal churches of the period, the primary elevation is situated on the building's west side. Here, a series of three, symmetrically aligned, compass-headed bays pierce the facade. The bays consist of a centrally located set of paneled French doors flanked on either side by a twelve-over-sixteen, double-hung window. 

Perhaps the most distinctive component of this elevation is a three part Palladian window composed of two smaller six-over-nine double-hung sash that flank a larger eighteen-over-sixteen, single-hung sash. A small fluted keystone highlights the top of the central window's architrave. 

This elevation is further embellished through a pair of cornice returns as well as modillions that lie just under the eaves. The north and south sides of the church reveal an identical rhythm of openings. Symmetrically aligned, the bays consist of a centrally located set of paneled French doors flanked on either side by eighteen-over-sixteen, single-hung sash windows. 

The east gable end is pierced by a circular stained-glass window, although the original compass-headed window opening is discernible in a brick patch in this area.

The window depicts the major crops of the area, including corn, tobacco and tomatoes. 

Sunday had been planned as a work-day for the parishioners to clean the graveyard and property after the winter, but it was canceled. However, two people did show up and one was kind enough to give me a tour of the church's interior - as we maintained our distance! 

Like many of the churches I've seen, this has a barrel-vaulted ceiling, this accentuated with the painted beams. Also, like other churches, the pew set up is similar, a row along each side and a double center row. 

Unlike some of the other churches, these pews didn't have doors. 

What is now the organ loft at the rear of the church was where the slaves came to worship with the plantation owners. 

One interesting thing about this church was that the steeple, which might not have been original, was knocked down during a hurricane, and the congregation chose not to replace it in its original position. Rather, they created a separate structure as a bell-tower. 

There is a spiral staircase in the tower which leads to a below-grade church hall.

The congregation wisely decided not to distract from the church with a more modern hall, as so many other churches have done. 

As we wandered around the graveyard, I caught the name of our family's original property in Southern Maryland - De La Brooke Manor. 

In addition to being the first lord of the Manor, he also imported the first set of hunting hounds to the colony. 

I was delighted to have the chance to visit All Faith, and have a lovely tour. 

Link to Medusa from which much of the description came.

*A few people have chided me for not sheltering-in-place during this uncertain time. My response is that I am in my car, by myself, and visiting very rural churches where no one is around. On my 200+ mile trip on Saturday, I only saw three people. Two at the RoFo and one who was caretaker for a property I visited... but I will tell you about that later.