African-American Historic and Cultural Resources in Prince George’s County, Maryland

87B-36-12

St. Phillip’s Episcopal Church Site and Cemetery 16205 St. Phillip’s Road Historic site; 1878–1976

This is the site of the first chapel established for black Episcopalians in Prince George’s County. The church itself no longer stands, but the old bell survives, enclosed in a freestanding bellcote on the edge of the graveyard. St. Mary’s Episcopal Church was established in Woodville (Aquasco) in the midnineteenth century, a mission chapel of St. Paul’s at Baden and part of St. Paul’s Parish. There were blacks numbered among the congregation of St. Mary’s, as there were in other Episcopal churches, but after the Civil War, the congregation divided along racial lines. In 1878, under the leadership of the Reverend Josiah Perry, rector of St. Paul’s Parish, the vestry purchased one acre of land on the west side of Aquasco. St. Phillip’s chapel was erected there soon afterwards for the use of the black Episcopalians of the Aquasco area. It was a small, front-gabled meetinghouse with entrance through a vestibule in the gable front, and four pointed-arch stained-glass windows lighting each side of the nave. In 1894, the second Episcopal chapel for black communicants in the county, St. Simon’s in Croom, was established, out of the congregation of St. Thomas’ at Croom. St. Phillip’s Chapel was repaired and remodeled in 1932, with the construction of a low apse on the south gable end and the enlargement of the north vestibule. Like St. Simon’s in Croom, St. Phillip’s had a sizeable and active congregation through the middle of the twentieth century; in 1964, St. Simon’s Chapel was closed and its members merged again with the St. Thomas’ congregation. Services continued at St. Phillip’s until 1976 when the chapel was destroyed by fire. Since that time, the congregation has maintained the old graveyard and its grounds, and has purchased and taken over the old St. Michael’s Catholic Church building in Baden. There are approximately 108 marked graves and an unknown number of unmarked graves in the cemetery, which is still in use.

WOODVILLE/AQUASCO African-American Historic and Cultural Resources

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African-American Historic and Cultural Resources in Prince George’s County, Maryland

Published on Feb 9, 2012

Maryland-National Capital Park & Planning Commission

Th is book presents individual properties and communities that are signifi cant to the African-American history of Prince George’s County. Th e 181 properties include residences, churches and cemeteries, schools, fraternal lodges, a monument, an airfi eld, an amusement park, archeological sites, and commercial establishments; the 19 historic communities include both urban subdivisions and rural villages, as well as early towns and retreat communities. For most individual properties there is at least one illustration or photograph, an architectural description, and a summary of the resource’s historic signifi cance. For each community, there is a map, graphic illustrations, and a history of the community’s development and signifi cance.