Brown Memorial Presbyterian Church

Brown Memorial Park Avenue Presbyterian Church
Country	United States
Denomination	Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
Website	http://www.browndowntown.org
History
Dedicated	December 4, 1870
Architecture
Architect(s)	Hutton and Murdock (1870) Ralph Adams Cram (1931)
Style	Gothic Revival
Clergy
Minister(s)	Rev. Andrew Foster Connors, Senior Pastor Rev. Kate F. Connors, Parish Associate Rev. Dr. Ed Richardson, Parish Associate Tim Hughes, Associate Pastor for Youth Michael Britt, Minister of Music Dr. John Walker, Minister of Music Emeritus
Laity
Religious education coordinator	Rachel Cunningham

Brown Memorial Park Avenue Presbyterian Church of Baltimore, Maryland, U.S., is a large, Gothic Revival-style church built in 1870 and located at Park and Lafayette Avenues in the city's Bolton Hill section. Named in memory of a 19th-century Baltimore financier, the ornate church is noted for its exquisite stained glass windows by renowned artist Louis Comfort Tiffany, soaring vaulted ceiling, and the prominent persons associated with its history. Maltbie Babcock, who was the church's pastor 1887–1900, wrote the familiar hymn, This is My Father's World. Storied virtuoso concert performer Virgil Fox was organist at Brown Memorial early in his career (1936–1946).

Called "one of the most significant buildings in this city, a treasure of art and architecture" by Baltimore Magazine, the church underwent a $1.8 million restoration between 2001–2003. It is part of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) denomination.

The Brown Memorial Presbyterian Church building was dedicated on December 4, 1870, in memory of George Brown, chairman of the Baltimore-based investment firm, Alex. Brown & Sons, and one of the founders of the pioneering Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in 1827. Construction was funded by a gift of $150,000 from his widow, Isabella McLanahan Brown, an amount equivalent to more than $4 million in 2009. George Brown was described by a Baltimore historian as a successful businessman and civic leader who "regarded religion as preeminent above all other things and loved his church with all the ardor of his noble nature". John Sparhawk Jones was the church's first pastor, serving from 1870 to 1884. Several of his collected sermons were later published in such books as Seeing Darkly, The Invisible Things, and Saved by Hope.

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