St. Paul's Church (Fairlee, Maryland)
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St. Paul's Church
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St. Paul's in 1936
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| Location | 7579 Sandy Bottom Rd., Chestertown, Maryland |
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| Nearest city | Chestertown, Maryland |
| Coordinates | 39°11′11″N 76°10′47″W / 39.18639°N 76.17972°WCoordinates: 39°11′11″N 76°10′47″W / 39.18639°N 76.17972°W |
| Area | 12 acres (4.9 ha) |
| Built | ca. 1712 |
| NRHP Reference # | 80001820 |
| Added to NRHP | June 6, 1980 |
St. Paul's Church, is an historic Episcopal church located near Chestertown, Kent County, Maryland
It is the earliest existing Episcopal church building on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, except for the restored Trinity Church, Church Creek and one of the first parishes established by the Colonial Assembly in 1692 for the dissemination of the Church of England throughout the province.St. Paul's Parish, Kent was one of the original 30 Anglican parishes in the Province of Maryland.
St. Paul’s Parish was established in 1692 as one of the original 30 Anglican parishes in the Province of Maryland. The first church was a simple frame building which, by 1711, had deteriorated beyond repair. Plans were made for a brick structure to cost, in the “currency” of the region and day, 70,000 pounds of tobacco!
Opened in 1713, St. Paul’s is currently the oldest continuously used Episcopal church building in Maryland. It measures 30 by 40 feet (9.1 m × 12.2 m) with a semicircular apse on the east gable similar to the capitol in Williamsburg, VA. This would have required a highly skilled architect, but that name was not recorded. Additions occurred after 1841, when a robing room was built (later enlarged in 1967) then around 1908, when an organ room was built.
It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.[1]
A colorful cleric of the colonial period was the Revd. James Sterling who served from 1740-63. A poet, playwright, socialite, and entrepreneur, he also managed to be made customs collector for Chestertown!
In 1766, the Vestry House, where church meetings were held, was built. Once common in Maryland, this is one of only two surviving (the other in Perryman).
The Revolution led to the departure of the then-rector, the Revd. Robert Read, in 1777, and St. Paul’s was served by Dr. William Smith of Emmanuel, Chestertown. Dr. Smith embraced Independence and was instrumental in organizing the disenfranchised Church of England parishes into the new Protestant Episcopal Church, as well as founding Washington College.
St. Paul’s, however, declined with the upheavals caused by the war and the contemporary rise of Methodism. An 1806 report shows nine Methodists for every Episcopalian in the area.
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