Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
in England, Europe and from other parts of the world must be relied upon.
Information about the people who executed the design and construction
would normally be invaluable but we unfortunately know nothing about them.
Most of the masons were likely English trained and the designer of the Chapel
was almost certainly a Jesuit, since they owned the church, and Jesuits typically
planned their churches throughout the world. All English Jesuits had continen-
tal education and experience and were familiar with the current styles of Jesuit
religious architecture.
The HSMC museum's research efforts resulted in a solid general sense of
what the original building was like (7) but the project required the services of
professional architects with substantial experience on historic structures to fully
design a reconstruction. In 1997, the museum solicited bids from qualified firms
in the United States and after evaluation of the applicants, the firm of Mesick,
Cohen, Wilson, and Baker, Architects, Inc. of Albany, New York was hired. Lead
architects were John Mesick and Jeffrey Baker and they came to St. Mary's City
to begin planning for a reconstruction. When completed, the building is not
intended to be a church but a museum exhibit that presents the compelling
Chapel story and the rise and fall of religious freedom in early America. As
a permanent exhibit, the reconstruction has to reflect the best available schol-
arship, must consider the unique political and social setting of early Maryland,
and would be built using the most authentic materials and methods possible.
John Mesick suggested and the museum agreed that the project could serve as
an experiment in historical building technology, using the effort to relearn for-
gotten skills and testing hypotheses about colonial construction.
Citations
1. Krugler, John D.
English and Catholic: The Lords Baltimore in the Seventeenth Century.
Baltimore: John's Hopkins University Press, 2004.
2. This history is summarized in Riordan, Timothy B., Silas D. Hurry and Henry M.
Miller
'A Good Brick Chappell': The Archaeology of the c. 1667 Catholic Chapel at St. Mary's
City, Maryland
. Report on file at the Department of Research, Historic St. Mary's City,
St. Mary's City, Maryland, 1995.
3. Forman, Henry Chandlee,
Jamestown and St. Mary's: Buried Cities of Romance
.
Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1938.
4. Miller, Henry M., Silas D. Hurry and Timothy B. Riordan, 'The Lead Coffins of
St. Mary's City: An Exploration of Life and Death in Early Maryland.
Maryland
Historical Magazine
99(3): 351-373. 2004.
5. The Nicholson quote is found in
Archives of Maryland
23: 81.
6. All the archaeological evidence for the chapel is presented in the manuscript report
by Riordan, Hurry and Miller
'A Good Brick Chappell': The Archaeology of the c.1667
Catholic Chapel at St. Mary's City, Maryland
. 1995.
7. The basic design information is summarized in Miller, Henry M.
Architectural Design
of the ca. 1667 Brick Chapel Exhibit at St. Mary's City
. Final Grant Report prepare for
the Maryland Historical Trust, Annapolis, Maryland. 1997.
