National Register of Historic Places Registration Form
The Frederick Historic District is significant for its role as the seat of Frederick County and as a regional market and industrial center in Maryland's Piedmont area from the 18th century to the mid 20th century. Represented by a wealth of commercial, residential, public and civic, and religious architecture in a variety of styles and forms, the district is also architecturally significant. Found here are important examples of most of the major architectural styles that characterize the middle Atlantic region. these styles range from Federal and Greek Revival, through Italianate, Romanesque, and Queen Anne, to the Colonial and Spanish Revivals of the first half of the 20th century. During the Civil War, both Union and Confederate armies passed through this city on their way to Antietam in 1862; and parts of the Union army went north through here on the way to Gettysburg in 1863. Confederate Gen. Jubal Early extorted a $200,000 ransom from the city before fighting near the Monocacy River just south. Large numbers of wounded soldiers were brought to the city following the large battles fought nearby.
Resource Inventory No. F-3-39; Period/Date of Construction: 1745-1941
Resources: 343 contributing, 7 non-contributing
Contributing building:
118 E Second Street, Resource No. FHD-744—St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church
Registration Form Page 10
The ecclesiastical building throughout the historic district represent a strong architectural statement which heightens the integrity of the district. A wide variety of architectural styles ranging from Greek Revival to Richardsonian Romanesque distinguish the ecclesiastical buildings in Frederick. The ionic pilasters on St. John’s Church (East Second Street) bring design to the streetscape.
From the church website: (
visit link)
History — St. John the Evangelist (stjohn-frederick.org)
In 1789, Pope Pius VI created the first Roman Catholic Diocese in the United States, the Diocese of Baltimore. During the Jesuit suppression which began in 1773, Rev. John DuBois was named pastor for the area that included all Catholics from Frederick, Maryland, to Saint Louis, Missouri. He laid the cornerstone for the first St. John’s Church on the north side of Second Street; it bore the inscription: “The first stone of St. John’s Catholic Church was laid by Rev. John DuBois on the 15th day of May, 1800.” The stone, unearthed in 1904 in what is now Chapel Alley, sits in the plaza just to the right of the front doors.
Rev. John McElroy, S.J., became the pastor of St. John’s in 1822. The decision was made to tear down the old church and rebuild on the south side of Second Street. Work began in 1833 on what was to be the largest parish church in the United States at that time. On April 26, 1837, St. John the Evangelist became the first consecrated Catholic Church in the Archdiocese of Baltimore.