Tour 3
Northern Maryland
Northern Maryland includes Howard, Carroll, Harford and upper Baltimore Counties.
Much of the history in this part of the Conference stems from the ministry of Robert Strawbridge, including those structures preserved on the Strawbridge Shrine, a historic park maintained by the Strawbridge Shrine Association. In Strawbridge's day Philip Wm. Otterbein's brethren, still within the Reformed Church, were his neighbors.
After Strawbridge, Methodists opened colleges and camp meetings and more.
Much of the history in this part of the Conference stems from the ministry of Robert Strawbridge, including those structures preserved on the Strawbridge Shrine, a historic park maintained by the Strawbridge Shrine Association. In Strawbridge's day Philip Wm. Otterbein's brethren, still within the Reformed Church, were his neighbors.
After Strawbridge, Methodists opened colleges and camp meetings and more.
Wesley Chapel and Freedom Church
Liberty Road (Maryland 26) west of Johnsville Rd.
Eldersburg, Maryland
A Class had been organized in Eldersburg as early as 1780 among Anglicans attending Holy Trinity Chapel. After Independence the chapel was abandoned by the now dis-established church but Methodists continued meeting there. The Protestant Episcopal Church fell heir to the property and, though they wouldn’t re-open it for worship until 1843, the Methodist Episcopal Church had vacated Holy Trinity before building Wesley Chapel nearby in 1822. Wesley Chapel has remained remarkably well preserved and unaltered for 190 years. It was entered on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984 (MD.CARR-167).
On the south side of the road (appropriately) at Johnsville Rd. stands a larger edifice that once housed the Freedom Church, built after the Civil War by former Wesley members who had affiliated with Methodist Episcopal Church, South. It was the center of the vast Freedom Circuit which included a church in Baltimore County and several in Howard County. Methodist reunification brought Wesley and Freedom together after 1940 as the Wesley-Freedom Church, which now includes a modern church building behind the Old Freedom Church.
Strawbridge Cluster [United Methodist HIstoric Site no. 491]:
Bethel Church (New Hope UMC)
3002 Hooper Rd. (at Sam's Creek Rd.)
New Windsor, Maryland 21776
Robert Strawbridge, an immigrant farmer, began organized Methodism in America in the 1760s. The original congregation of Bethel was an extension of Robert Strawbridge’s first society. The extant building was erected in 1821 and renovated in 1860.
Log Meetinghouse Site
Marston Rd. (MD 407)
New Windsor, Maryland
It was on this site that America’s first meetinghouse was built circa 1760. A monument was erected in 1914 as the base for an intended statue of Robert Strawbridge, and in 1934 an inscribed limestone block was placed on top to commemorate the site’s importance to American Methodism. A replica of the building is located near the John Evans House at the Strawbridge Shrine.
Strawbridge Shrine
2650 Strawbridge Lane
New Windsor, Maryland 21776
Henry Willis House (private residence – not accessible)
farm on northeast corner of Wakefield Valley Road & New Windsor Pike (MD-31)
East of New Windsor, Maryland
This was the private home of Henry Willis, traveling preacher and Francis Asbury favorite. The home was used as the meeting place for the 1801 Baltimore Conference because a yellow fever epidemic had driven members out of Baltimore. It was during that conference that Asbury wrote in his Journal, “Here Robert Strawbridge formed the First Society in Maryland and America.”
Poulson House (private residence – not accessible)
Nicodemus Rd. at Brick Church Rd.
New Windsor, Maryland
The original house was the meeting place of Robert Strawbridge’s second class, 1760s. That class later built Stone Chapel. Andrew Poulson’s wife, Prudence Poulson, was the sister of the first convert, John Evans. The Strawbridge Oak, under which Robert Strawbridge is said to have preached, was located on the property.
Stone Chapel
Stone Chapel Road and Bowersox Road
New Windsor, Maryland
A roof stone notes that the original chapel was erected in 1783 and rebuilt in 1800. The structure has undergone renovation several times since that date. In 1816 John Wesley Bond listed120 black and white members, organized into five classes, making it one of the largest societies in Frederick County.
Old Western Maryland College
and Westminster Theological Seminary
Main Street & Old New Windsor Pk.,
Westminster, Maryland
Now McDaniel College and no longer church affiliated, Old Western Maryland was established with funding by the owners of the Western Maryland Railway and loosely affiliated with the Methodist Protestant Church under the leadership of John Ward in 1867. Joining it on “the Hill” In 1882 was Westminster Theological Seminary, the only seminary of the Methodist Protestant Church. Renamed Wesley Theological Seminary after Methodist reunion, it relocated to the campus of American University in Washington.
Emory Grove Campground
Waugh Avenue
Glyndon, Maryland
Since 1868 when the Western Maryland Railway began conveying Baltimore Methodists here, campers have assembled each summer at “the Grove” where tents on platforms were replaced by frame cottages. During camp meetings until the 1930s prominent leaders attracted thousands. The closed 1870s hotel remains as a place of assembly and the tabernacle has summer Sunday school night and midweek services. Summer residents vacate each fall and the grounds close. Emory Grove is the oldest part of the Glyndon National Historic District placed on the National Register (MD.BA-2210) in 1973
Fork Church
12800 Fork Rd. (at Brinton Rd.)
Fork, Maryland
Here at “the forks of the Gunpowder” Robert Strawbridge formed a class. Later, James Baker gave this land, now home to the oldest Methodist congregation in Maryland worshipping at its original site. In his Journal for 9 February 1773, Francis Asbury notes advising the congregation on recording a deed, though the deed was not officially recorded until 1846.
Cokesbury College Site [United Methodist Heritage Landmark]
1304 Abingdon Rd.
Abingdon, MD 21009
The first Methodist College in America opened on December 6, 1787, with an enrollment of 25 students and a faculty of three teachers. On December 7, 1795, a fire destroyed the college building and its contents, though the nearby chapel survived and has continued to the present as Cokesbury Church. Reopened in Baltimore, a second fire almost exactly a year later, destroyed the college, the neighboring Light Street Church and the hopes for Methodist higher education for a generation .
Thomas Run Church [Watters Meetinghouse site]
Thomas Run Road,
Churchville, Maryland
The Watters Meetinghouse was built on this remote site around the time of the American Revolution and the Conference of 1777 was held here. After the log meetinghouse burned down, Thomas Run Church replaced it about 1840 and it was placed with Rock Run and Darlington churches on the Darlington Charge. Services at Thomas Run ceased after World War II. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places (MD.HA-49) in 1978 and attractively restored by the Thomas Run Foundation. The Thomas Run site is in the care of Darlington Church.
Bush Chapel site
Stephney Road,
Aberdeen, Maryland
This is the site of the second chapel established by Robert Strawbridge in 1769. Benjamin Herbert gave the site to “the Reverends John and Charles Wesley [and] the yearly Conference of the people called Methodists in England.” The log chapel was replaced in 1842 by a stone chapel, the remnants of which remain. This was in turn replaced by a frame chapel in 1878. In 1856, about five miles away in the growing town of Aberdeen, a new church had opened. Now Grace Church, it absorbed Bush Chapel in 1925 at which time the frame church was dismantled and a stone marker placed near the ruins of the old chapel
Gunpowder Neck Chapel (on military reservation - restricted access)
Bldg. 5717, Magnolia Rd. at Canal Creek
Edgewood Arsenal, Maryland
The chapel was built on the site of the 1772 Presbury Meetinghouse and served until about 1887 when it was replaced by the Magnolia Church (which, when later merged into the Edgewood Church, reclaimed its historic name as Presbury Church). The Gunpowder Neck Chapel was acquired by the Washington Conference and served an African-American congregation from 1890 until World War I when it was commandeered by the U.S. Army and incorporated into Edgewood Arsenal.
It was listed in the National Register of Historic Places (MD.HA-357) in 1974 and is maintained by the Army.
Liberty Road (Maryland 26) west of Johnsville Rd.
Eldersburg, Maryland
A Class had been organized in Eldersburg as early as 1780 among Anglicans attending Holy Trinity Chapel. After Independence the chapel was abandoned by the now dis-established church but Methodists continued meeting there. The Protestant Episcopal Church fell heir to the property and, though they wouldn’t re-open it for worship until 1843, the Methodist Episcopal Church had vacated Holy Trinity before building Wesley Chapel nearby in 1822. Wesley Chapel has remained remarkably well preserved and unaltered for 190 years. It was entered on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984 (MD.CARR-167).
On the south side of the road (appropriately) at Johnsville Rd. stands a larger edifice that once housed the Freedom Church, built after the Civil War by former Wesley members who had affiliated with Methodist Episcopal Church, South. It was the center of the vast Freedom Circuit which included a church in Baltimore County and several in Howard County. Methodist reunification brought Wesley and Freedom together after 1940 as the Wesley-Freedom Church, which now includes a modern church building behind the Old Freedom Church.
Strawbridge Cluster [United Methodist HIstoric Site no. 491]:
Bethel Church (New Hope UMC)
3002 Hooper Rd. (at Sam's Creek Rd.)
New Windsor, Maryland 21776
Robert Strawbridge, an immigrant farmer, began organized Methodism in America in the 1760s. The original congregation of Bethel was an extension of Robert Strawbridge’s first society. The extant building was erected in 1821 and renovated in 1860.
Log Meetinghouse Site
Marston Rd. (MD 407)
New Windsor, Maryland
It was on this site that America’s first meetinghouse was built circa 1760. A monument was erected in 1914 as the base for an intended statue of Robert Strawbridge, and in 1934 an inscribed limestone block was placed on top to commemorate the site’s importance to American Methodism. A replica of the building is located near the John Evans House at the Strawbridge Shrine.
Strawbridge Shrine
2650 Strawbridge Lane
New Windsor, Maryland 21776
- Robert Strawbridge House [United Methodist Heritage Landmark]
The original portion of the Strawbridge House was built in 1764 as the home of Robert and Elizabeth Strawbridge, emigrants from Ireland where both had heard the preaching of John Wesley and joined his Methodist Society. Robert began the first Methodist Class in America here, "the First Home of American Methodism".
- John Evans House
This is a 1764 log structure that was the home of John Evans. Evans found faith following the witness of Elizabeth Strawbridge to him as he ate lunch in her kitchen. Evans is credited with being Strawbridge’s first convert and the first Methodist convert in America. The first class of American Methodism met in the Evans house from 1768 through 1809. George W. Albaugh donated the house to the Baltimore Conference Historical Society in 1897. The building was moved from its original site (Route 407 off of Route 27, 2.5 miles from Taylorsville) to its present location at the Shrine to ensure its preservation and to allow access to visitors.
Henry Willis House (private residence – not accessible)
farm on northeast corner of Wakefield Valley Road & New Windsor Pike (MD-31)
East of New Windsor, Maryland
This was the private home of Henry Willis, traveling preacher and Francis Asbury favorite. The home was used as the meeting place for the 1801 Baltimore Conference because a yellow fever epidemic had driven members out of Baltimore. It was during that conference that Asbury wrote in his Journal, “Here Robert Strawbridge formed the First Society in Maryland and America.”
Poulson House (private residence – not accessible)
Nicodemus Rd. at Brick Church Rd.
New Windsor, Maryland
The original house was the meeting place of Robert Strawbridge’s second class, 1760s. That class later built Stone Chapel. Andrew Poulson’s wife, Prudence Poulson, was the sister of the first convert, John Evans. The Strawbridge Oak, under which Robert Strawbridge is said to have preached, was located on the property.
Stone Chapel
Stone Chapel Road and Bowersox Road
New Windsor, Maryland
A roof stone notes that the original chapel was erected in 1783 and rebuilt in 1800. The structure has undergone renovation several times since that date. In 1816 John Wesley Bond listed120 black and white members, organized into five classes, making it one of the largest societies in Frederick County.
Old Western Maryland College
and Westminster Theological Seminary
Main Street & Old New Windsor Pk.,
Westminster, Maryland
Now McDaniel College and no longer church affiliated, Old Western Maryland was established with funding by the owners of the Western Maryland Railway and loosely affiliated with the Methodist Protestant Church under the leadership of John Ward in 1867. Joining it on “the Hill” In 1882 was Westminster Theological Seminary, the only seminary of the Methodist Protestant Church. Renamed Wesley Theological Seminary after Methodist reunion, it relocated to the campus of American University in Washington.
Emory Grove Campground
Waugh Avenue
Glyndon, Maryland
Since 1868 when the Western Maryland Railway began conveying Baltimore Methodists here, campers have assembled each summer at “the Grove” where tents on platforms were replaced by frame cottages. During camp meetings until the 1930s prominent leaders attracted thousands. The closed 1870s hotel remains as a place of assembly and the tabernacle has summer Sunday school night and midweek services. Summer residents vacate each fall and the grounds close. Emory Grove is the oldest part of the Glyndon National Historic District placed on the National Register (MD.BA-2210) in 1973
Fork Church
12800 Fork Rd. (at Brinton Rd.)
Fork, Maryland
Here at “the forks of the Gunpowder” Robert Strawbridge formed a class. Later, James Baker gave this land, now home to the oldest Methodist congregation in Maryland worshipping at its original site. In his Journal for 9 February 1773, Francis Asbury notes advising the congregation on recording a deed, though the deed was not officially recorded until 1846.
Cokesbury College Site [United Methodist Heritage Landmark]
1304 Abingdon Rd.
Abingdon, MD 21009
The first Methodist College in America opened on December 6, 1787, with an enrollment of 25 students and a faculty of three teachers. On December 7, 1795, a fire destroyed the college building and its contents, though the nearby chapel survived and has continued to the present as Cokesbury Church. Reopened in Baltimore, a second fire almost exactly a year later, destroyed the college, the neighboring Light Street Church and the hopes for Methodist higher education for a generation .
Thomas Run Church [Watters Meetinghouse site]
Thomas Run Road,
Churchville, Maryland
The Watters Meetinghouse was built on this remote site around the time of the American Revolution and the Conference of 1777 was held here. After the log meetinghouse burned down, Thomas Run Church replaced it about 1840 and it was placed with Rock Run and Darlington churches on the Darlington Charge. Services at Thomas Run ceased after World War II. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places (MD.HA-49) in 1978 and attractively restored by the Thomas Run Foundation. The Thomas Run site is in the care of Darlington Church.
Bush Chapel site
Stephney Road,
Aberdeen, Maryland
This is the site of the second chapel established by Robert Strawbridge in 1769. Benjamin Herbert gave the site to “the Reverends John and Charles Wesley [and] the yearly Conference of the people called Methodists in England.” The log chapel was replaced in 1842 by a stone chapel, the remnants of which remain. This was in turn replaced by a frame chapel in 1878. In 1856, about five miles away in the growing town of Aberdeen, a new church had opened. Now Grace Church, it absorbed Bush Chapel in 1925 at which time the frame church was dismantled and a stone marker placed near the ruins of the old chapel
Gunpowder Neck Chapel (on military reservation - restricted access)
Bldg. 5717, Magnolia Rd. at Canal Creek
Edgewood Arsenal, Maryland
The chapel was built on the site of the 1772 Presbury Meetinghouse and served until about 1887 when it was replaced by the Magnolia Church (which, when later merged into the Edgewood Church, reclaimed its historic name as Presbury Church). The Gunpowder Neck Chapel was acquired by the Washington Conference and served an African-American congregation from 1890 until World War I when it was commandeered by the U.S. Army and incorporated into Edgewood Arsenal.
It was listed in the National Register of Historic Places (MD.HA-357) in 1974 and is maintained by the Army.