St. Francis Xavier Church and Newtown Manor House Historic District facts for kids
Quick facts for kids |
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St. Francis Xavier Church and Newtown Manor House Historic District (Compton, MD)
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 Location in Maryland
Location in the United States
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| Location | S of Compton on MD 243, Compton, Maryland |
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| Built | 1731 (1767) |
| NRHP reference No. | 72001485 |
| Added to NRHP | November 9, 1972 |
The St. Francis Xavier Church and Newtown Manor House Historic District is a special historical area in Compton, Maryland. It's close to Leonardtown, the main town in Saint Mary's County. This district is important because it shows how a community of Jesuit priests lived and worked long ago.
The Jesuits are a group of Catholic priests. They had a church and a manor house here, and they supported themselves with a large farm of about 700 acres. The church and manor house are very old buildings. They were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. People have also found old things from the mid-1600s here, showing how long this place has been important.
Contents
St. Francis Xavier Church
Church History
St. Francis Xavier Church is the oldest Catholic church in the original 13 English colonies that has been used continuously. The Jesuits started this community as a mission in 1640. This happened after Chitomacon, the king of the Piscataway Native Americans, became Catholic. The church became its own parish in 1661.
The very first church building was located where the St. Francis Xavier Catholic Cemetery is today. The church building you see now, at the Newtown Manor site, was built in 1731. Back then, Catholics often had to meet in secret places to worship safely.
In 1767, a front entrance (vestibule) and a tall tower (steeple) were added to the west end of the church. These additions helped people recognize it as a church. Inside, the main part of the church (nave) got a special curved ceiling called barrel vaulting. Later, in 1816, a sacristy was added. This was a room where priests prepared for services, and it also had space for visiting priests to stay. The Jesuits eventually moved their communities and school from this area to Georgetown, Washington, D.C..
Church Design
Saint Francis Xavier's Church is a rectangular building made of wood. It has two brick additions that are shaped like octagons. The church is located on a piece of land that sticks out, making it easy for early worshippers to arrive by boat. The middle wooden part of the church is the oldest section. Experts have studied the wood and believe it was built around 1731.
The brick front entrance, shaped like half an octagon, was added in 1766 or 1767. The sacristy, also shaped like half an octagon, was added in 1816. The church has simple wooden decorations from the Federal style. It also has a beautiful altar screen (reredos) from the mid-1700s. The ceiling has an elegant triple-vaulted design. The altar and reredos are topped with a small dome.
The reredos features a large painting of the church's patron saint. This painting was created around 1910 by Brother Francis Schroen, a Jesuit. The church building is still used today by the parish of Saint Francis Xavier, which is part of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington.
Newtown Manor House
The Newtown Manor House that stands today was built in 1789. It replaced an older house that might have been destroyed during the Revolutionary War. This house is made of brick and has two and a half stories. It has five sections (bays) across the front and two chimneys on each end.
The house originally had a gambrel roof, which is a roof with two different slopes on each side. In 1816, the roof was changed to its current shape and made taller. The Newtown Manor House belongs to the church parish. It is not currently occupied.
Gallery
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Newtown Manor House, July 2009
See also
- List of Jesuit sites
