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St. John's African
Methodist Episcopal Church & Cemetery
7534 Bellona Avenue
Ruxton, Maryland
Baltimore County
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| Situated on a one-acre lot in Baltimore County,
off Bellona Avenue, St. John's African Methodist Episcopal Church
is a one-room,
one story frame building constructed in the Carpenter Gothic
style. A caretaker's house sits southwest of the church and both
buildings are surrounded by the cemetery. Built in 1886, the
current church building replaced the original 1835 log church
that burned in 1867. Characterized by its high gables, lancet
windows, and fancy trim, the church is an excellent example of
American Gothic Revival or carpenter revival. |
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The African Methodist Episcopal Church began
in Baltimore in 1784, under the leadership of Richard Allen,
a former Delaware
slave who created the AME because he “thought it was
necessary to provide for ourselves a house separate from our
white brethren.” ( Smith 1939, 17) According to Gilbert
Williams, by the
mid-nineteenth century, the AME consisted of “seven
churches and 4,900 members;” its membership today in
the United States is over 2.2 million. (Willliams 120; 137)
The AME became a
vocal advocate
for black enfranchisement and civil rights throughout the nineteenth
century into the mid twentieth century. The St. John’s
AME Church is one of thirty-one historic African-American churches
in Baltimore County, Maryland.
St. John's Church was guided by the leadership of one family
throughout the nineteenth century, the Scotts. Aquilla Scott,
Sr., a freed slave, with four trustee members acquired the
land for $15 to build the original log church in Ruxton in
1833; he
preached at St. John's until his demise in 1858. His son,
Aquilla Scott, Jr., followed in his father's footsteps and
led the church
during the CIvil War years. Scott Jr.'s son, Edward, was
in charge of St. John's when the new building was constructed.
The congregation
created the gothic-like church using whatever materials were
at their disposal in 1886. The new church became a lasting
symbol of commitment the Scotts made to bring spirituality
to their
community through the trying times of the 1800s. Regular
Sunday services were continuously held at the chapel until
the 1970s. |
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| The gable-roofed church measures 35 feet deep by 20 feet
wide and rests on the brick pier foundation of the earlier
log church. Vertical board and batten wooden siding covers
the exterior of the church. Fish scale shakes and egg and
dart gingerbread trim embellish both gable ends. The steep
gable roof was once covered in cedar shakes, but currently
is covered by modern roofing materials. A brick chimney rises
out of the north wall, although two chimney stacks -- one
on the north wall and one on the south wall, are found inside
the building. |
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The double leaf entrance doors on the three-bay
east (front) elevation open directly into the main sanctuary.
Above the door is both a colored-glass transom and a pediment
with bead molding across its front surface. |
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| Surrounding the door on both sides are two lancet windows
with green louvered shutters and shutter dogs. On both
the north and south walls, three similar lancet windows with
shutters admit light into the sanctuary. |
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In both the east and west gable walls, close to the peak,
there are two symmetrically placed stained glass
circular windows with a cross design. |
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The sanctuary occupies the entire interior of the building.
The walls are painted above the chair rail, with wainscoting
underneath. The flooring consists of random-width pine
boards. |
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| Built into the sanctuary is a raised altar with a lectern
and communion rail. On either side of the altar are kerosene
lamps, which have been converted to electricity. Originally,
three over head kerosene chandeliers provided illumination
for the church, raised and lowered by ropes through (still
visible) eye bolts. |
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Sixteen handmade wooden pews could accommodate about
seventy worshippers within the sanctuary. These detailed
pews, with shield and scroll designs, were built into
the chair rail and window treatments on the north and
south walls. |
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| Between the two rows of pews a four-foot-wide center
aisle runs through the sanctuary to the altar, where
the sign, “WELCOME TO ALL” greets worshippers |
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| The rural style of St. Johns Church greatly distinguishes the
building from the other two churches in the study. While St.
Johns is similar in size and layout (for the exception of a vestibule)
to Northern and St. Stephens, it has more ornate embellishments
on the exterior surface, as well as lancet windows with louvered
shutters which complete the Gothic appearance. |
| Beginning in the early-1980s, a non-profit foundation
(heavily coordinated by the Scott family) was established to
save the
St. John’s Chapel. After seeking and receiving financial
grants from various organizations, including MHT, and private
donations, the foundation began the “Restoration and Preservation
of Historic St. John’s Church, Ruxton” project with
$108,000 in funds. In 1982, the church was listed on the National
Register for Historic Places. Charlie Tipper was hired in 1982,
to restore the interior back wall, stabilize the foundation,
repair the stained glass windows, and bring the original paint
color scheme back to the building; all with a $5000 budget and
a year to complete the work. Around the same time, the parsonage
began its immediate and necessary transformation by the efforts
of Hugh Andrews, who completed the framing and roofing work for
$50,000. Currently, both buildings are fairly stabilized, with
future concerns to replace the roof on the chapel. St. John’s
Church is occasionally open to the public, for special events
like weddings and Christmas caroling, which generate funding
for the maintenance income of the chapel. (Holechek 2003, 67-71) |
| The cemetery contains approximately seventy-nine graves with
gravestones and eleven unmarked burials. The earliest gravestone
dates from 1871, the latest from 1960. These tombstones tend
to be placed in family clusters, including the Chaneys, the Turners,
and the Williams. Aquilla Scott Jr., Edward Scott, his wife,
Henrietta, and twelve other members of the Scott family are buried
in St. John’s AME Cemetery. |
| Contact Person: Peter Kurtze (410) 514-7649 |
Holechek, Jim. Two Cross Keys Villages: One Black, One White...and
the Leaders Who Created the World Around Them. New York: Universe,
Inc.: 2003.
Smith, James, Vital Facts Concerning the African Methodist
Episcopal Church: A Socratic Exposition. Publisher Unknown,
1939.
Williams, Gilbert Anthony. The Christian Recorder, Newspaper
of the African Methodist Episcopal Church: History of a Forum
for Ideas, 1854-1902, Jefferson, North Carolina:
McFarland and Company, Inc, 1996. |
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