St. Joseph, Cordova

I made a quick run over to the Shore the other weekend to check out St. Joseph's Church in Cordova, just off the Route 50 and 404 intersection. 

When I started this project, I made an assumption that most of the churches I visited would be Catholic because of Maryland's early tradition of religious freedom. But that has not been the case at all. More than 90% of the churches have been Episcopal churches, and generally, they are better-looking than the Catholic ones!

From the HABS report:

According to the corner stone, the original church was constructed in 1782 and rebuilt in 1903. The original church can be traced from the color and bond of the brick. Portions extend into what appears to be a two story, three bay brick house of early 19th century date. The other end stops at the transept which was added in 1903. 

Its original appearance would be conjectural, although, the central windows of the present nave apparently were earlier doors. In its present form, the church is an extension of a two story brick parsonage. 

The church is three bays long plus three semicircular additions creating a transept and upper arm of a cross. It is only one story in height and has a steeply pitched 'A' roof, conical on the three semicircular sections. Each of the latter sections has a single window with leaded stained glass sash. There is a chimney on the north side, otherwise the only other chimneys are in the parsonage. Three windows light the sides of the nave. The latter have semicircular arches. 

Portions of the older part are laid in Flemish bond above a chamfered water table, otherwise it is common bond. The main entrance to the church is located on the southeast side of the building. The parsonage is a three bay long two story brick building with central doors. Sash is 6/6 and there is a basement under the south end. A chimney is located in each gable. 

I was disappointed that I couldn't see the interior of this church, so I snagged one from the Google.

Link to Medusa.

St. Andrews, California (MD)

A few weeks ago, I drove down to St. Mary's County, but this time to the east side, along the Chesapeake Bay. I am very familiar with the drive down Solomon's Island Road, having done it for two years while in college. 

Just after you cross the bridge, you arrive in California, which is just up the road from Hollywood. And that's where I found the fascinating St. Andrew's Church. 

It was built in 1766 to serve as the parish church of St. Andrew's Parish, which had been established in 1744.

Because the church is set back off the road, at a perpendicular angle, it's hard to get the a handle on how unusual the architecture is. 

It is a rectangular brick box church laid in Flemish bond with a gable roof and round-arched windows trimmed with brick segmental arches. Richard Boulton designed the church in 1766; he was also responsible for the outstanding carving and ornamentation at Sotterley, a plantation on the Patuxent River. 

From the HABS report: On the west front, all convention is abandoned in a flourish of architectural forms. At both the northwest and southwest corners stands a two-story square brick tower with a diminutive spire.

Brick quoins trim the corners of the towers up to the string course. Each tower has two niches on the west side that are framed with a raised brick arch, awaiting some appropriate statue or urn. On the south and north side of each tower is a round-arched window situated above a shallow recess framed with a brick arch. Between the towers at ground level is a recessed one-story loggia. Above the loggia is a two-tiered gallery lighted by a Palladian window centered under the pedimented gable end.

A separate exterior door and staircase lead to the upper tier of the gallery, and an interior step ladder leads to the lower gallery. On the interior, the church has a barrel-vault ceiling over the nave which is supported by columns with Ionic capitals.

Each of the two side aisles has a flat ceiling. The original flagstones pave the floor. The carved wooden reredos has fluted Ionic pilasters which frame Biblical quotations painted by John Friech in 1771. The church has box pews.

Overall, the churches in St. Mary's County have been a disappointment, but there are some treasures like St. Andrew's that have made the trip worthwhile. 

Link to Medusa. 

OOPS!

Apparently, there is a glitch in the Google-sphere, which included Blogger, and a lot of photographs from late March and early April have gone missing.

They assure me that the images will be returned, as they are aware of this issue. Let's hope so!

Middleham Chapel, Lusby

I took a swing down to Calvert and eastern St. Mary's County the other weekend. The Governor says that taking a drive is fine (otherwise people would go crazy), so I took advantage of a gorgeous day to take a drive. 

The first church on my route was the little Middleham Chapel in Lusby in Calvert County. As you can see, the church dates from 1748, and like other small churches, this was considered a "chapel of rest."

If you look closely at the brickwork, you will see that it changes about 2/3 of the way up the front. The chapel was actually built prior to 1748, but when the roof-line was changed that year, they added some height, the date and two now-bricked-up windows. On the lower section, the brickwork is a Flemish bond with glazed headers, and on the upper, it's a regular bond.

The belfry shelters a small cast iron bell bearing the date 1699 that was salvaged from an earlier frame chapel which formerly stood on or near this same site. 

Sadly, I couldn't find any images of the interior of Middleham, and since there are stained glass windows, I couldn't even peek inside. 

Link to Medusa.

St. Luke's, Church Hill

A few weeks ago, I did "the big loop," leaving from Baltimore in the morning and circling counter-clockwise over to the Shore and returning to Baltimore late in the day. It was about 200 miles in total, but it was a gorgeous spring day, and I had a route plotted out, so it was a lot of fun. 

One of the churches on the list was St. Luke's in Church Hill in Queen Anne's County. It was built between 1729 and 1732, with the brick exterior walls laid in Flemish bond with glazed headers, something that I eventually found to be a common style.

The church originally had three entrances, one each on the north and south sides and a smaller slaves' entrance on the west side. 

While the gambrel roof is distinctive, the semi-circular apse is something I saw at numerous churches of the same age. What is unusual about St. Luke's apse is that it also has a gambrel roof. The church originally had a bell-tower, but that was removed only ten years after it was built. 

Again, as with many other churches, the interior of St. Luke's features a barrel-vault ceiling. The pews are not the box style, but are set in rows. St. Luke's is one of the oldest continuously-operating churches on the Eastern Shore. 

Link to Medusa.