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18-596: It includes St. Mary's Seminary Chapel , which is a National Historic Landmark . It also includes Mother Seton House , briefly home of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton , separately listed on the National Register. Seton Hill, Baltimore's former second French Quarter , is centered on the former St. Mary's Seminary and College , which was founded around 1791 by Sulpician priests who fled the French Revolution (1789-1795). Today Saint Mary's Park occupies

36-500: A historic bandstand to now surround the old Chapel and Mother Seton House. To the east in the 1980s was constructed a four-lane landscaped parkway with median strip of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard, edged by short brick retaining walls which curved around the west side of downtown Baltimore like an inner "beltway". The small, brick chapel, measuring approximately 90 feet (27 m) long by 70 feet (21 m) wide,

54-777: A prominent architect of the time and teacher at the secular college attached to the seminary, is one of the oldest remaining example of Gothic Revival architecture in the U.S. Godefroy, who was born in France, also designed several other structures: these include the city's War of 1812 memorial to its casualties of the Battle of Baltimore during the British attack in September 1814. The landmark Battle Monument (1815-1822), situated at Courthouse Square on North Calvert Street , between East Fayette and East Lexington streets, commemorates

72-535: Is one and a half stories high, set on a high basement. A false front braced by small flying buttresses rises above the main roof, the result of economy measures that lowered the roof below the level of the intended rose window . A tower, statuary and stained glass in the front windows were also cut. The round arched windows are set in rectangular openings. The bricks were originally made for architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe 's Baltimore Cathedral/Basilica of

90-676: Is the oldest Roman Catholic seminary in the United States and the site also included a secular St. Mary's College, from 1805-1852. Godefroy also designed in Baltimore, the First Unitarian Church at West Franklin and North Charles Streets during 1817 and the Battle Monument , constructed 1815-1822 in the old Courthouse Square at North Calvert Street, between East Lexington and East Fayette Streets, commemorating

108-810: The Battle of North Point in southeast Baltimore County . The Royal Navy bombarded Fort McHenry , which guarded the Baltimore Harbor & Port . Since 1827 the monument has served as a symbol of the city: it appears on the municipal seal, and city flag and logo. Another contributing structure to the historic district is the First Unitarian and Universalist Church at West Franklin & North Charles streets, built in 1817. St. Mary%27s Seminary Chapel St. Mary's Seminary Chapel , located at 600 North Paca Street (off Druid Hill Avenue and modern Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard) in

126-601: The Oblate Sisters of Providence . Later these lessons and masses developed into the first black Roman Catholic congregations at St. Francis Xavier Parish on East Oliver Street to commemorate St. Francis Xavier and St. Peter Claver Parish in West Baltimore which remembers St. Peter Claver . The Josephite Fathers religious order has a special ministry among the African American community within

144-699: The Roland Park neighborhood of North Baltimore. The buildings there were designed in the Beaux Arts / Classical Revival style. The seminary celebrated its Bicentennial there in 1991. The only original St. Mary's academic structure remaining at Seton Hill is a particularly significant building, a small red brick chapel, known as the Chapel of Our Lady of the Presentation , which was dedicated in 1808. This structure, designed by J. Maximilen M. Godefroy ,

162-604: The Seton Hill neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland , is the oldest Neo-Gothic style church in the United States. It was built from 1806 through 1808 by French architect J. Maximilian M. Godefroy for the French Sulpician priests of St. Mary's Seminary . Godefroy claimed that his design was the first Gothic building in America. St. Mary's Seminary (now St. Mary's Seminary and University ), founded in 1791,

180-522: The Assumption of Mary (constructed 1806-1821), but it was eventually built of stone blocks. This was the first Roman Catholic cathedral constructed in America to serve the new Archdiocese of Baltimore . The bricks were then purchased for this project for $ 3,000.00, contributed by Charles Carroll of Carrollton , (1737-1832), last surviving signer of the Declaration of Independence and at one time

198-495: The area where the former Seminary and College buildings once stood. The neighborhood was designated in 1968 as an Historic and Architectural Preservation District of Baltimore City, and was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975. Saint Mary's Park, the heart of Seton Hill, is the largest open green space in downtown Baltimore on its Westside. In 1790, the first Roman Catholic prelate ordained for

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216-693: The chapel to Godefroy's original architectural and artistic intentions. The chapel's basement was used for services by Black Catholic refugees from Santo Domingo (modern Haiti ), a former French colony on the western end of the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies , where the Black slaves rose up in rebellion during the early 1790s and established the first Black republic, but unleashed decades of turmoil. Lessons for African-American children were also provided there by

234-570: The city's dead during the British attack in the War of 1812 's Battle of Baltimore with the bombardment of Fort McHenry and the Battle of North Point in September 1814. The chapel is located adjacent to the Mother Seton House . Originally the chapel was surrounded by a quadrangle of four-story buildings of brick Georgian/Federal design with peaked roofs and dormer windows. On one side

252-431: The entry over the nave. The nave's ceiling is plaster, simulating a shallow rib-vault. A crypt underlies the chapel. In 1839, the chapel gained a tower with a spire and interior decoration by noted local architect Robert Cary Long , jr. (1810-1849) However, Long's steeple later became unstable and was removed in 1916. Some of Godefroy's wood and plaster work was removed at this time. A 1967 renovation sought to restore

270-668: The inn, adapting it as a small seminary. In following years they completed an extensive college and seminary complex along North Paca Street. Some Seminary structures were built by 1806. A second, replacement group of buildings was erected in the 1870s. St. Mary's became the first Roman Catholic seminary in the United States. In 1966 the seminary celebrated its 175th anniversary at its Paca Street campus, which had primarily Victorian architecture. As needs changed, these buildings were demolished in 1970 to create St. Mary's Park. The seminary had moved from this enclave in 1929 for its expansive campus developed at Roland Avenue and Northern Parkway in

288-881: The new United States, Bishop John Carroll , met with Father Nagot of the Order of St. Sulpice and agreed to a plan to establish the Sulpician Order in Maryland. A year later priests of the order sailed across the Atlantic Ocean . Fathers Nagot, Tessier, Garnier, and Levadoux opened the Sulpician headquarters in the old One Mile Tavern, then located at West Franklin Street and the Hookstown Road (known today as Pennsylvania Avenue). The Sulpicians soon purchased

306-411: The richest man in America. A stucco cornice lines the sides of the chapel. The interior comprises a wide nave flanked by narrow side aisles. Nine aisle column bays frame three sets of stained glass windows on each side. A sanctuary is set 18 inches (0.46 m) higher than the nave, flanked by transepts on either side and ending in a small semicircular apse . A balcony extends three bays inward from

324-493: Was a long seminary building and on the other was an L-shaped larger, but similar architectured structure built for the secular College, after it was established in 1805. These were later replaced on the same site by buildings in 1876-78 of Victorian/Second Empire style with mansard roofs although the central chapel of Godefroy endured. In the 1970s, the Victorian buildings were unfortunately also razed leaving St. Mary's Park with

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