Mount Vernon Cultural Walk: St. Paul's Episcopal Church

Be Here Stories

The Mount Vernon Cultural Walk is created by The Baltimore National Heritage Area (BNHA), which promotes, preserves, and enhances Baltimore's historic and cultural legacy and natural resources for current and future generations. A walking tour of this and other destinations is available at www.explorebaltimore.org/tours. Located at Charles at Saratoga Streets Old St. Paul’s Church is the mother church of Baltimore’s Episcopalian congregations. One of the original 30 parishes of the Church of England in Maryland, it dates to 1692. After Baltimore was founded in 1729, St. Paul’s erected the town’s first public place of worship on a hill overlooking the harbor. It is the only property that has remained under the same ownership since Baltimore began. The present Italian Romanesque structure, completed in 1856, is the fourth church building on the site. Above the portico can be seen bas relief plaques of Moses and Jesus salvaged from the third church building, which was destroyed by fire. The plaques were carved by Antonio Capellano, whose work graces the U.S. Capitol. The church interior boasts a spectacular Tiffany altarpiece. A ring of 23 bells was installed in the north tower in 1990. In 2013, a thorough restoration of the church uncovered long-forgotten architectural details and replicated the radiant Victorian paint scheme. Just up the street at 24 West Saratoga stands the St. Paul’s rectory, completed in 1791 and enlarged in 1829. One of the oldest surviving homes in the city, the late-Georgian/Federal-style mansion housed the church’s clergy for almost 200 years.