St. John's Church
About this property
St. John's Church, St. John's Episcopal Church, or St. John's Episcopal Church, Broad Creek (formerly King George's Parish), is a historic Episcopal church located at 9801 Livingston Road in Fort Washington, Prince George's County, Maryland. It is a rectangular Flemish bond brick structure with a bell hipped roof. The interior features a barrel vaulted ceiling with an intricate support system. This is the oldest church site in Prince George's County, and one of the "Original 30 Parishes". The General Assembly by the Act of June 2, 1692 in the colonial Province of Maryland established King George's Parish (also known as the "Parish of Piscataway") of the Church of England. The Parish name reflects the local Piscataway tribe. The local freeholders at Broad Creek then chose a "select" vestry and completed parish organization on January 20, 1693, authorizing Col. John Addison to purchase 78 acres of ground and obtain a contractor to build a church. The Parish at that time included a considerable portion of the future Episcopal Diocese of Washington, including all of the District of Columbia. It endured until 1726, when "Prince George's Parish" was established. Piscataway then became known as St. John's, although officially its title was "King George's Parish". Its first church at Broad Creek, begun in May 1695 of wood, and which was soon called the "Broad Creek Church". This original church was replaced in 1713 by a second wooden structure, and was in turn replaced by a third structure in 1723, which was enlarged between 1764 and 1768. The present brick building, is the fourth structure built on the same site, was completed in 1767–1768. The congregation still holds their weekly services in this building. Meanwhile, two other churches or Chapels of Ease were soon built within the parish, to serve communities too far removed from Broad Creek for convenient attendance at worship. "Addison Chapel" at Seat Pleasant, now St. Matthews, Addison Parish, started in 1696 in a log house. A chapel at Accokeek, which was briefly known as St. John's Church and now Christ Church (Accokeek, Maryland), was erected in 1698. The congregation is considered a "Mother Church" for Episcopal and Anglican parishes in suburban Prince George's County as well as Montgomery County, and Washington and the District of Columbia. In 1719, a Chapel of Ease to Piscataway was erected at "Eastern Branch Hundred", which ultimately evolved into St. Paul's Parish at Rock Creek near Rock Creek which flows south through the National Capital and Georgetown to the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal and ultimately the Potomac River. Rev. Henry T. Addison became Broad Creek's rector in 1743 and served until the Revolution in 1776. However, Frederick County, Maryland and a corresponding parish, part of which became Montgomery County, Maryland split off in 1748, and 1776 respectively. Therefore, his successors, Rev. (then Bishop) Thomas Claggett and Rev. Walter Addison oversaw growth of the new capital city within this parish. Bishop Claggett, who also served as the Parish's rector until 1809, in 1793 became the first bishop consecrated within the newly formed Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America (itself organized in 1789), at a ceremony held at Trinity Church in Manhattan, in the then-capital city, New York City. A few months later, Rev. Addison became the first priest (presbyter) ordained in America, by Bishop Claggett, whose assistant he became. Bishop Claggett also oversaw in 1793 the first confirmation of young people in the new Protestant Episcopal Church, a class of forty-four presented by the parish's third rector, the Rev. Joseph Messenger.
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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).
Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
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Questions about this property
When was St. John's Church listed on the National Register?
St. John's Church was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on April 7, 1974.
What type of historic resource is St. John's Church?
St. John's Church is classified as a building in the National Register of Historic Places.
What is the period of significance for St. John's Church?
The period of significance for St. John's Church is recorded as the industrial era.
Can I research the history near St. John's Church?
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