Grace and St. Peter's Church

Founded in 1802, St. Peter’s Church was the second-oldest Episcopal congregation in the city after Old Saint Paul’s (1692). The organizing vestry received a charter from the city of Baltimore “to solicit and receive subscriptions and donations, not exceeding twenty-five thousand dollars for the purpose of purchasing a lot of land […] for the building [of] a Protestant Episcopal church, to be called St. Peter’s."[3] The first building, on Sharp and German Streets was consecrated May 27, 1804 by Bishop Claggett, and occupied until June 28, 1868. South Sharp Street (which is now called Hopkins Plaza at that latitude), and German Street (now called Redwood Street) no longer intersect. Most of the original neighborhood was demolished in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries to make way for business districts. (That area is currently occupied by the University of Maryland Medical Center and Royal Farms Arena.)

St. Peter's Church, c. 1870

Eventually, with "the Westward growth of the city necessitating the abandonment of the original site," St. Peter's decamped to a temporary home in the New Assembly Rooms and broke ground on a building at the corner of Druid Hill Avenue and Lanvale Street on September 15, 1868.[3] The church was designed in the style of the "Norman period of English Gothic" by Nathaniel Henry Hutton and John Murdoch. The cornerstone was laid on April 29, 1869, and the church was opened in October 1870.[3]

St. Peter's was founded by congregants of Old Saint Paul's, who brought with them a distinctly Low Church, evangelical orientation. One of the first Rectors of St. Peter's, The Rev. George Dashiell (1780–1852) would actually attempt to establish his own "Evangelical Episcopal Church," in protest against the consecration of James Kemp as Bishop Suffragan of Maryland. Dashiell was deposed on December 8, 1815, as a result.[4] More than a half-century later, another former Rector of St. Peter's would defect, largely in protest against Ritualism and emerging Anglo-Catholic tendencies in the Church: in 1873, The Rt. Rev. George David Cummins, then Assistant Bishop of Kentucky, resigned his call to found the Reformed Episcopal Church.[5]

In spite of the political tensions in the wake of the Civil War, as well as the changing nature of the congregation's Churchmanship, St. Peter's remained an active force in the surrounding areas of Reservoir Hill, Bolton Hill (also served by Memorial Episcopal), Madison Park, and Upton from 1870 to 1911. In 1910, however, Baltimore enacted the first set of Residential Segregation Ordinances in the United States. Couched in the melioristic language of the Progressive Era, the ordinances' purported aim was "preserving peace, preventing conflict and ill feeling" between races, and "promoting the general welfare of the city."[6] The blunt effect, however, was a severe, physical inscription of racial segregation on Baltimore's landscape.[6][7]

St. Peter's lay on a dividing line between an affluent, white neighborhood and––to the west––a neighborhood with a burgeoning African American middle class. Apparently rejecting Bishop Paret's entreaty to stay, the congregation sold their building to Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church and began searching for a new site.[8][9] Unable to find one, the congregation merged with Grace Church the next year. Bethel A. M. E. Church continues to worship in the building at Druid Hill Avenue and Lanvale Street to the present day.[10]

Grace Church began its ministry as a mission parish of St. Peter's, at the encouragement of Bishop Whittingham. Organized on February 15 and incorporated on May 30, 1850, the new Grace Church was designed by John Rudolph Niernsee and James Crawford Neilson, and situated at the corner of West Monument Street and Park Avenue. On July 20, 1850, The Rev. Thomas Atkinson, Rector of St. Peter's laid the cornerstone of the new church. Atkinson left St. Peter's to take charge of Grace Church, but within a year was elected Bishop of North Carolina.[3] Atkinson was succeeded by The Rev. Arthur Cleveland Coxe (later Bishop of Western New York). Educated at the General Theological Seminary, Coxe brought High church sympathies to Grace and inaugurated a trend toward Anglo-Catholicism that continues in the parish today.

Nearly a decade long, Coxe's incumbency (1854–1863) was successful but still marked by internal divisions and controversy: during the American Civil War, Grace Church, like many white Maryland parishes, had divided loyalties. Tensions were especially high during the Union occupation of the city, and in one––possibly apocryphal––incident, a "prominent society woman [...] haughtily and publicly rebuked an usher for 'daring to seat' a Federal officer in her pew" at Grace.[11]

In the years after the Civil War, Grace Church became instrumental in a variety of charitable foundations in the city, including the Church Home and Hospital, the Deaf-Mute Mission, and the 'Church of the Advent in Federal Hill in South Baltimore.[8]

In 1912, the two congregations merged, making the 1850 Grace Church (at West Monument Street and Park Avenue) their permanent home. The Rev. Arthur Chilton Powell of Grace and The Rev. Romilly F. Humphries of St. Peter's served as co-Rectors of the new parish until Powell retired in 1913. Humphries, who later oversaw the work of the Episcopal Mission in schools, hospitals, and prisons, is probably responsible for a reinvigoration in outreach and social good programs in the church at that time. In 1919 he left for the Cathedral of the Incarnation as the Diocese's new Archdeacon. On Ash Wednesday 1932, Humphries suffered a heart attack while in the pulpit. Though the attack would later kill him, he still rose to finish his sermon.[12][13]

Grace & St. Peter’s grew significantly in the 1920s, reaching some 1700 communicants. Under the rectorship of The Rev. H. P. Almon Abbott significant additions were made to the church and parish house, including a new Austin organ.[8] Abbott also developed a Church School for the Chinese community in the congregation. In 1929, Abbott was elected Bishop of Kentucky.

The mid-twentieth century was a period of significant change within the congregation. The incumbency of The Rev. Robert Chalmers coincided with the Great Depression and some considerable financial difficulties for the church.[8] After his death, these practical concerns––along with more theological tensions––resulted in a fraught search process for a new Rector. The Rev. Reginald Mallett (1936–1944) and his successor, The Rev.Daniel Corrigan (1944–1948) practically settled any remaining disputes over Churchmanship, firmly establishing the church as an Anglo-Catholic center. Both men would leave Grace & St. Peter’s to take up Bishoprics.

Under The Rev. Rex Bozarth Wilkes (1949–1974), the congregation became steadily more diverse (with a new influx of African-American and Chinese families), and the church developed an active community ministry in Mount Vernon. Wilkes also formally established the Grace & St. Peter’s School, which was later renamed in his honor. The school––first organized in 1940––was racially integrated from its inception when many other parochial schools in Baltimore were not. It closed June 30, 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic.[8] Wilkes was succeeded by The Rev. Edward Palmer Rementer (1975–1987) and then The Rev. Frederick Shepherd Thomas (1988–2016).[14] The current Rector is The Rev. Christopher V. Pyles, who trained for ministry at the General Theological Seminary.[15]

Since the 1930s, Grace & St. Peter's Church has had a distinctly Anglo-Catholic orientation in worship. The church continues to use the Hymnal 1940 as opposed to the now more common Hymnal 1982. For many years after the authorization of The Book of Common Prayer (1979), Grace & St. Peter's also continued to use the previous 1928 revision (not to be confused with the proposed––but unratified––Book of Common Prayer (1928) in the Church of England). In recent years, the church has varyingly used The Anglican Service Book and several versions of The English Missal and The Anglican Missal in the American Edition.[21]

The church celebrates Solemn High Mass on Sundays and Feast Days as well as a Low Mass on Tuesdays and Wednesdays (choosing this more Catholic language, as opposed to the more Protestant Episcopal designations of "Holy Eucharist" or "The Office of Holy Communion" that appear in the Book of Common Prayer).[21] Services often involve incense, both a Deacon and Subdeacon, as well as a Master of Ceremonies, servers, and a vested choir. Services often end with the Last Gospel and the Angelus, sung to a tone from St Mary's, Bourne Street.

The Blessed Sacrament is reserved in the Lady Chapel.

Grace & St. Peter's claims the patronage of both Saint Peter and Our Lady of Grace, one of the titles of Mary. The Marian association of "Grace" appears to be a mid-twentieth-century innovation, dating from the arrival of a new shrine to the Virgin Mary around 1940. Given its evangelical roots, it is very unlikely that the church was founded with this understanding. Like many other Episcopal churches of the same name, the original Grace Church undoubtedly understood "Grace" in the more abstract sense ("The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ," (2 Corinthians 13:14)).

At various periods in its history, Grace & St. Peter's had a professional Choir of Men and Boys, with the choristers drawn from the church's school. The church now has a mixed, professional octet. There are two organs in the sanctuary, a large 1922 Austin in the chancel, and a modern M. P. Moller at the rear of the nave (dedicated in 2007).[22][23] Previous instruments in the space were built by E. and G.G. Hook & Hastings (1856) and Roosevelt Organ Works (1886).[24]

Partial list:

• 1803–1815 (?): The Rev. George Dashiell
• 1817–1843: The Rt. Rev. John Prentiss Kewley Henshaw, D.D. (Later Bishop of Rhode Island)
• 1843–1852: The Rt. Rev. Thomas Atkinson, D.D., LL.D (Later Bishop of North Carolina)
• 1853–1858: The Rev. James H. Morrison, D.D.
• 1858–1863: The Rt. Rev. George David Cummins, D.D. (Later Assistant Bishop of Kentucky)
• 1864–1892: The Rev. Julius E. Grammar, D.D.
• 1906–1912: The Rev. Romilly F. Humphries, D.D.

Partial list:

• 1852–1853: The Rt. Rev. Thomas Atkinson, D.D., LL.D (Later Bishop of North Carolina)
• 1854–1863: The Rt. Rev. Arthur Cleveland Coxe, D.D. (Later Bishop of Western New York)
• 1866–1885: The Rev. George Leeds, D.D.
• 1885–1888: The Rt. Rev. Chauncey B. Brewster (Later Bishop of Connecticut)
• 1888–1912: The Rev. Arthur Chilton Powell, D.D.

• 1912–1913: The Rev. Arthur Chilton Powell, D.D. (Associate Rector)
• 1912–1913: The Rev. Romilly F. Humphries, D.D. (Associate Rector)
• 1913–1919: The Rev. Romilly F. Humphries, D.D. (Rector)
• 1919–1928: The Rt. Rev. Henry P. Almon Abbott, D.D. (Later Bishop of Lexington, KY)
• 1930–1935: The Rev. Robert Scott Chalmers, D.D.
• 1936–1944: The Rt. Rev. Reginald Mallett, D.D. (Later Bishop of Northern Indiana)
• 1944–1948: The Rt. Rev. Daniel Corrigan, D.D. (Later Bishop Suffragan of Colorado)
• 1949–1974: The Rev. Rex Bozarth Wilkes, D.D.
• 1975–1987: The Rev. Edward P. Rementer (Assistant Rector, 1966–68; Associate Rector, 1968–75)
• 1988–2016: The Rev. Frederick S. Thomas (Assistant Rector, 1977–86; Rector-Elect, 1987)
• 2017–Present: The Rev. Christopher V. Pyles (Rector)