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dergarten was started, the steeple was completed

with a struck clock, chimes, night illumination; air conditioning was installed in the sanctuary. A library was organized and a Stair-Glide elevator was installed. Rev. Charles Ely, Dr. Norman Trott, Rev. William Warner, Rev. John Hamilton, and Rev. Harry Ledgard served during these improvements. Late in 1989, First Methodist Church joined with the New York Hill Methodist Church to form the Brunswick United Methodist Cooperative Parish, with each congregation continuing to meet in their respective buildings but sharing one pastor, Rev. George Earl.

mentary grades - one · through eight - were offered. The school continued in operation until it closed its doors in 1938. The brass bell that is on display at the entrance of St. Francis Church was originally cast for the church on Seventh Avenue, and bears the following inscription: St. Francis Church Brunswick, Md. Leo XIII, Pope James Gibbons, Card. Arch. B. of Baltimore, Md. Cast March 20th, 1895 W-BLC

S - Georgia and Lavenia Hood

WHH

W-BRH

GRACE EPISCOPAL CHURCH

SAINT FRANCIS OF ASSISI CATHOLIC CHURCH

Brunswick's first Episcopalians attended St. Mark's in Petersville, but as growth of the new railroad town quickly out-paced that of Petersville, the need for a church in Brunswick readily became apparent. Grace Chapel was built in 1892 at the sou thwest corner of "A" Street and Second Avenue and was consecrated September 12, 1893, in services conducted by Bishop Paret and rector Rev. E.T. Helfenstein (later to become f ,ishop of Maryland), among others. The brick chapel was about one-fourth the area of the present church. Bricks from earlier edifices of the mother church at St. Mark's were used in its foundation. The late E. Virginia Wenner, born in 1892, was the first baby baptized in the chapel. The chapel was razed in 1922 to make room for a larger church on the same site. The cornerstone of present Grace Episcopal Church was placed May 31, 1922, in services conducted by Rt. Rev. John Gardner Murray, DD, Bishop of Maryland, assisted by Rev.Edward Elliott Burgess, rector. The new church had a seating capacity of about 320 and was dedicated on May 21, 1923. After the debt had been paid, the church was consecrated on May 21, 1928. Charles T. Meyer directed the choir and Mrs. Thelma Nixon was organist. Mrs. Nome (Julia) Conway, organist, and Mrs. Charles (Faye) Gross, director and organist, were other long-term choir leaders. Mr. Frank R. Watson of Philadelphia was architect of this medieval, modified Gothic English, countrystyle church. Four large round pillars support the nave roof and the arches that separate the nave from the side section; the masons insisted to the architect

Saint Francis of Assisi Catholic Church was originally the mission church of St. Mary's in Petersville, which was the original Catholic house of faith in the area. In 1890 a small church was begun on Seventh Avenue in Brunswick by Fr. John M. Barry, and it was completed in 1894. Its cornerstone was laid by James Cardinal Gibbons. Lillian Wenner Rice remembers the vacant church still standing but vacant around 1908 on "Catholic I-lill." Ernestine Wenner Phillips recalls the empty decaying house in her young childhood in the 1930s. The children of the neighborhood used to play in and around the church, calling it the haunted house. When Laura Ambrose (Mrs. George) moved to that area in 1933, only a shell remained, and by the time she moved away in 1941, that too was removed. In 1901 a church, rectory, school and convent were built on the present site at B Street and First A venue under the direction of Fr. James O'Connell. Lay teachers taught at the Parochial School from 1904 until the Baltimore Ursuline Sisters took charge of the school in 1910. There were four sisters who resided in the convent house adjacent to the school, and these four sisters taught all twelve grades, each teaching three grades per classroom. By 1922 the school had an enrollment of 82 pupils 40 girls and 42 boys - according to records in the Archdiocese of Baltimore archives. In the very late 1920s the Sisters left the school and the little parochial school was again under the tutelage of lay teachers. At that time, only the ele-

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