The Seminary Chapel at the St. Mary's Spiritual Center is a historic gem. Completed in 1808, the chapel was designed by Maximilian Godefroy, the architect of many historically important structures in Baltimore including the Battle Monument and First Unitarian Church. Godefroy boasted that the chapel was the first Gothic building in the United States. The great hoop shape of the interior is similar to the interior of the chapel at Versailles, and its use of Georgian details reflects the complexities of early American architecture.

600 N. Paca Street, Baltimore, MD 21201

A Historic Showcase for Black Playwrights and Performers

The Arena Playhouse at 801 McCulloh Street has been occupied by the Arena Players, an African American theater troupe, since December 1961. Established in 1953 as an outgrowth of the “The Negro Little Theater”, the Arena Players spent a decade performing at varied locations including Coppin State University, the Druid Hill YMCA, the Great Hall Theater of St. Mary’s Church in Walbrook, and the Carl J. Murphy Auditorium at Morgan State University.

When the theater moved to McCulloh Street at the end of 1961 they took over a building with a long history. Originally known by the address of 406 Orchard Street, the three-story building was erected in the mid to late nineteenth century. By 1890, the building operated as a livery attached to the Hartman & Moore Carriage Factory near the northern end of a row of seventeen buildings between McCulloh Alley and Little Monument Street. Around 1892, Patrick Gaierty acquired the livery and continued to operate it as "University Stables" up until his death in August 1911. Shortly after Gaierty's death, St. Mary's Protestant Episcopal Church acquired the building and turned it into a church hall.

In 1918, during World War I, the church hall was converted into the War Camp Community Service Club for Colored Soldiers with a dance hall, food, bath facilities, and accommodations for two hundred sailors or soldiers. In the 1940s, the building hosted the St. Mary's Hall Nursery School and offered low-cost childcare for local Black families.

By the early 1950s, the city had extended McCulloh Street through the middle of the block leaving two short rows of houses and commercial buildings. The adjoining carriage factory had been turned into a factory for the Baltimore Chair Company. And, by 1960, the church hall had been turned into a 13,500-square-foot warehouse and S.J. Stackhouse & Son, Inc. advertised the building for lease (noting the building's "new hearing plant" and "very good condition").

The Arena Players moved in at the end of 1961 and, by November 14, 1969, managed to purchase the building in a deal financed solely by ticket sales. In 1974, Arena Players met with the Neighborhood Design Center (NDC) to seek the group's assistance in planning the expansion of their 200-seat theater. NDC recruited Leon Bridges, a Black architect who had opened an office in Baltimore in 1970, and Bridges drafted a plan for the redevelopment of the building at an estimated cost of $755,000. Between August 1975 and October 1976, the group undertook a major renovation to add a new large theater to the building. The work was supported by a $50,000 mortgage from the Ideal Building and Loan Association, $120,000 in gifts from community groups and individuals, a $3,000 grant from the Maryland Arts Council, and a $321,000 federal grant administered by the city's Department of Housing and Community Development. The new 300-seat theater was commemorated on October 22, 1976 with a performance of Langston Hughes' Little Ham.

For many years, the Arena Playhouse was one of the only venues dedicated to showcasing the works of Black playwrights and performers. While Black performers now have more opportunities, the theater on McCulloh Street continues to be a treasured institution today.

801 McCulloh Street, Baltimore, MD 21201

Constructed in 1882, the Orchard Street United Methodist Church is one of the oldest standing structures built by a Black congregation in Baltimore. The church was established by Trueman Pratt, a free Black man who was born into slavery in Anne Arundel County, came to Baltimore, and began organizing prayer meetings at his home on Pierce Street in 1825. According to some sources, Pratt was originally held by General John Eager Howard and sold several times before he purchased his own freedom. The church formally organized in 1837 and, in 1839, Trueman, together with fellow free blacks Cyrus Moore and Basil Hall, leased the grounds at the corner of Orchard Street and what was then called Elder Alley and the church appeared as "Orchard Chapel," in a 1842 Baltimore business directory. The congregation paid $80.50 annually to Kirkpatrick Ewing, a Pennsylvanian who owned the property. The first building went up in 1838 followed by additions in 1853 and 1865 to accommodate a growing congregation. After the end of the Civil War, a great number of recently emancipated Black Marylanders from rural counties on the Eastern Shore and Southern Maryland moved to Baltimore and many lived in the area around the church. One such individual was the Reverend Samuel Green, a Dorchester County native, who had been imprisoned five years in the state penitentiary for possessing the novel Uncle Tom's Cabin. Green moved to Baltimore in the early 1870s in order to work for the burgeoning Centenary Biblical Institute (now Morgan State University) and worshipped at Orchard Street until his death in 1877. By the time founder Trueman Pratt died in 1877—allegedly reaching over one hundred years of age—the congregation had clearly outgrown their building and began making plans to build a new church. In 1882, a Baltimore architect named Frank E. Davis was tasked with constructing the new facility on the same location. The church, renamed the Metropolitan Methodist Episcopal Church, was finished that December at an approximate cost of $27,000. Thousands of Baltimoreans came out for the laying of the corner-stone, including numerous prominent ministers from the region. A contemporary newspaper account refered to the finished building as the "foremost colored house of worship in the state." The church developed into an important civic institution for the African American community, often hosting conferences related to politics and education. The Colored Maryland Literary Union, the Washington Methodist Episcopal Conference, and reunions of United States Colored Troops met at Orchard Street over the years. Teddy Roosevelt even took to the pulpit in advance of the 1912 election in order to warn black voters against accepting bribes by "unscrupulous white men." The church remained in operation until the congregation relocated in 1972. Unfortunately, within a year, a fire and recurring vandalism nearly led to the structure being demolished by the city. Recognizing its historical significance, community groups mobilized to save the church. Several preservation organizations, including the Maryland Commission on Negro History and Culture, sought to document its story. Local historians succeed in listing the building on the National Register of Historic places in 1975. During the research process no evidence was recovered to support rumors of Underground Railroad activity, though church members may well have participated in that movement. Efforts to restore the church and establish a museum of black history in the state repeatedly stalled throughout the next 15 years. Orchard Street finally received the necessary backing when the Baltimore Urban League decided to move its offices there in 1992. The organization funded much of the restoration, which has returned the aged structure to its former grandeur.

Watch on this church!

512 Orchard Street, Baltimore, MD 21201

On June 16, 1808, Elizabeth Bayley Seton arrived at St. Mary's Seminary in Baltimore on the same day that Bishop John Carroll, the first bishop in the Unites States, dedicated the seminary's newly built chapel. Elizabeth came to Baltimore from New York to set up a boarding school for girls. During her one-year stay in what is now the Mother Seton House, she took the vows of a Daughter of Charity, thus cementing her conversion and commitment to Catholicism. Following her start in Baltimore, Mother Seton, as Bishop Carroll dubbed her, went on to found Saint Joseph's Academy and Free School in Emmitsburg, Maryland, the first free school for girls in America, and the Sisters of Charity of St. Joseph, the first apostolic community of women in the United States.

The St. Mary's Spiritual Center, as the location is now called, is also the original home of St. Mary's Seminary, the first seminary in America. The seminary has trained a number of notables, including: Mother Mary Elizabeth Lange, a Haitian immigrant who founded the Oblate Sisters of Providence (the first African American Catholic community) and St. Francis High School; Father Gabriel Richard, who is called "The Second Founder of Detroit"; and Father Michael McGivney, who went on to found the Knights of Columbus in Connecticut.

600 N. Paca Street, Baltimore, MD 21201