Baltimore's "Firsts" in Faith

Baltimore has a long history of religious tolerance stretching back to its founding in 1729, and even before. That acceptance allowed a number of different faiths to grow and flourish here, including Judaism, Presbyterian, Methodist, Unitarian, Episcopal, Lutheran and Roman Catholic. Several of Baltimore's first houses of worship are still standing today and tell the story of the significant role their congregations have played not only within their own faiths, but in the culture of the city and nation.

Baltimore has claim to many notable "firsts" among these religious groups. In American Catholicism, Baltimore became the site of the nation’s first diocese in 1789 and first archdiocese in 1808, with Maryland native John Carroll as the first American bishop and archbishop. In 1806, he laid the cornerstone for the nation’s first Catholic cathedral, the Baltimore Basilica, which was completed in 1821. Today, the Basilica hosts thousands of visitors every year for guided tours, making it one of Baltimore’s top tourist destinations.

Baltimore was home to America's first Catholic seminary, Saint Mary’s, which opened in 1791. The only remaining structure of the seminary is the Historic Chapel, which is now part of the Saint Mary's Spiritual Center. This is where Elizabeth Ann Seton, the first U.S.-born canonized saint, took her vows in 1809. Visitors can tour the chapel and the home in which Mother Seton lived from 1808-1809.

In the 1790s, Haitian refugees fled to Baltimore and were among the first Black Catholics in the city. Their arrival laid the roots for the nation’s first African American order of nuns, the Oblate Sisters of Providence, founded in 1829, as well as the establishment of the nation's first African America Catholic Church, St. Francis Xavier, in 1863. The Oblate Sisters still serve in Baltimore to this day, and St. Francis Xavier's thriving congregation continues to worship in Baltimore 160 years after it was founded.

Protestants also have achieved notable “firsts” here in Baltimore. In December 1784, a new denomination, American Methodism, was born at Baltimore’s Lovely Lane Meeting House on Redwood Street, now the site of the Merchants Club. Today the Lovely Lane congregation's church home is on St. Paul Street. Unitarianism in the United States got its start in Baltimore as well, after Dr. William Ellery Channing delivered his “Baltimore Sermon” at the First Unitarian Church in 1819. Old Otterbein Church, built in 1785, is the mother church of the United Brethren in Christ and the oldest church edifice in continuous use in the city of Baltimore. (Old Otterbein is a 10-minute walk from Rachael's Dowry, just on the other side of Camden Yards.)

The first Jewish organization to be chartered by Maryland was the Baltimore Hebrew Congregation, which also build the first synagogue in the state in 1845. (The Lloyd Street Synagogue is now part of the Jewish Museum of Maryland.) Baltimore Hebrew became home to the nation’s first ordained rabbi when it hired Rabbi Abraham Rice in 1840. Two years later, a small group of Jews broke from Baltimore Hebrew to form Har Sinai, the first American congregation founded on the principles of Reform Judaism. (In 2019, Har Sinai combined with Oheb Shalom to form one congregation based on the traditions of these two historic Baltimore Reform synagogues.)

Baltimore's places of worship have paved the way for generations of faithful people to practice their spiritual beliefs based on some of the earliest religious traditions here in America. During your next getaway to Rachael's Dowry Bed and Breakfast, we encourage you to visit these operating churches, national landmarks and museums that are home to so many firsts in American faith.