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 area in Compton, Maryland. It was the first historic district chosen in Saint Mary's County, which is known as the "Mother County" of Maryland. This district is important because it shows a key part of Maryland's religious history in the 1600s.
It was once a self-sufficient community run by the Jesuits, a Catholic religious order. They supported themselves with a large 700-acre farm around the church and manor house. The two main buildings in this district were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. Old items found by archaeologists show that people lived here as early as the mid-1600s.
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St. Francis Xavier Church
St. Francis Xavier Church is a very old Catholic church. It has been used continuously since it was built, making it the oldest Catholic church still in use from the original 13 English colonies.
Church History
The Jesuits started this religious community as a "mission" (a place to spread their faith) in 1640. This happened after Chitomacon, the king of the Piscataway Native American tribe, became Catholic. The community became an independent parish (a local church area) 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 Jesuits' 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 (called a vestibule) and a tall tower (steeple) were added to the church. These additions helped people recognize it as a church. Inside, the ceiling was changed to a curved, barrel-like shape. Later, in 1816, a sacristy (a room where priests prepare for services) was added, which also had rooms for visiting priests. The Jesuits later moved their communities and school to Georgetown, Washington, D.C..
Church Design and Features
St. Francis Xavier 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 used a method called dendrochronology (studying tree rings) to figure out it was built around 1731. The brick front entrance was added in 1766 or 1767. The brick sacristy was added in 1816.
The church has simple wooden decorations in the Federal style. It also has a special screen behind the altar from the mid-1700s, called a reredos. The ceiling has an elegant triple-vaulted design. The altar and reredos are topped with a small dome. The reredos holds a large painting of the church's patron saint, painted by Brother Francis Schroen, S.J., around 1910. This church building is still used today by the Saint Francis Xavier parish, 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 burned during the Revolutionary War. This house is a two-and-a-half-story building made of brick. It has five sections (bays) across the front and two chimneys at each end.
The house originally had a gambrel roof (a roof with two different slopes on each side). In 1816, the roof was raised and changed to its current shape. The house belongs to the church parish, but no one lives in it right now.
Gallery
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Newtown Manor House, July 2009
See also
- List of Jesuit sites
