https://www.brunswickmdhistory.com/index.php?action=history&feed=atom&title=File%3ACeres_Bethel_African_Methodist_Episcopal_%28AME%29_Church.jpgFile:Ceres Bethel African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church.jpg - Revision history2026-06-04T12:19:16ZRevision history for this page on the wikiMediaWiki 1.43.8https://www.brunswickmdhistory.com/index.php?title=File:Ceres_Bethel_African_Methodist_Episcopal_(AME)_Church.jpg&diff=66726&oldid=prevHistoryCommission2: The Ceres Bethel African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church sits just outside of Burkittsville just before you reach Gapland. Situated next to a vineyard, the site includes a church and a cemetery. Graves in the cemetery date from 1870-2010 and it is the...2019-11-19T17:23:29Z<p>The Ceres Bethel African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church sits just outside of Burkittsville just before you reach Gapland. Situated next to a vineyard, the site includes a church and a cemetery. Graves in the cemetery date from 1870-2010 and it is the...</p>
<p><b>New page</b></p><div>== Summary ==<br />
The Ceres Bethel African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church sits just outside of Burkittsville just before you reach Gapland. Situated next to a vineyard, the site includes a church and a cemetery. Graves in the cemetery date from 1870-2010 and it is the final resting place for some prominent African-Americans from Frederick County.<br />
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The church and cemetery together are a great example of a post American Civil War African-American rural church. Ceres Bethel AME Church was an active congregation of free blacks in 1858 when it acquired the parcel of land where it is currently located today.<br />
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The congregation stayed together throughout the Civil War and by 1870 was both large and affluent enough to build and sustain a church building of this size.<br />
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Today this church stands as an example of rural church architecture and as a testament to the size and influence of the African-American community in the area in the late 1800's. The building has been vacant and vandalized since 1984.<br />
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(Information excerpted from http://endangeredmaryland.org/site.php?5)<br />
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You can read more about the church here:<br />
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http://ww2.gazette.net/stories/021408/frednew71332_32379.shtml<br />
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(Photo by Peter Wenner)<br />
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[[Category:Smoketown African American Heritage]]</div>HistoryCommission2