Nearly 200 years have passed since farmers built the modest Christ Episcopal Church ? and it shows.
The building has a leaky roof, bulging stained-glass windows and decaying wood trim, but that only causes the parish and a local preservation group to advocate more fervently for it.
“It?s been with people through the very best of times ? weddings and baptisms, and also through funerals and the Civil War. So many generations? tears and joy have come before it,” said the Rev. Richard Ginnever, rector of the church off Oakland Mills Road in Columbia. His son was married there last week.
The church recently was added to Preservation Howard County?s top 10 list of endangered sites, at the same time as historic Roman Catholic St. Louis Church was released from it.
Last year, St. Louis parish?s Clarksville Church, built in 1856, was gutted, it had rotting wood and a roof that was about to give.
The parish made noise, raising money for a capital campaign and enlisting the help of the county government and preservation groups.
Today, its restoration is historically accurate and nearly complete.
St. Louis? success should be a model for other historic churches trying to stay afloat, said Mary Catherine Cochran, president of Preservation Howard County.
“It?s a great example of what a church can do when they marshal their resources, and think about their long and rich history,” Cochran said.
Churches should pull together across faith lines to rescue their history, said Monsignor Joseph Luca, pastor of St. Louis Church on Route 108 in Clarksville.
“There should be more of that cooperation and support. What we are really doing is preserving our history as a people. We should all be interested in that,” Luca said.
To see the full list of Howard County?s endangered sites, visit the Preservation Howard County Web site at www.preservationhowardcounty.org.
Preservation Howard County
The annual meeting of Preservation Howard County will begin at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the Waverly Mansion on Waverly Mansion Drive in Marriotsville. The group will discuss the recently released 2006 list of Howard County?s Top 10 Endangered Sites. Every year, Preservation Howard County names 10 historic sites facing threats such as deterioration, development and destruction. May is Historic Preservation Month. The meeting is open to the public.
History snapshots
St. Louis Church
Charles Carroll, the only Catholic signer of the Declaration of Independence, led a church nearby, during a time when Catholics were not permitted to publicly display their faith. The parish was officially founded in 1855, when the current church building was constructed.
Christ Episcopal Church
The first church building there, called Queen Caroline Parish Church, was built in 1727. The Rev. James Macgill was its rector. The current church building was built in 1809.
Source: St. Louis Parish Web site, www.stlouisparish.org and Preservation Howard County Web site, www.preservationhow ardcounty.org.
