St. Mary’s Church in Newport has been chosen as a featured site for this year’s Maryland House and Garden Pilgrimage, an annual tour that rotates between the counties of Maryland. This year, the tour is centered in Charles County.

This tour will take place Saturday, April 29, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Participants will be able to tour historic properties and their gardens in Charles County. Proceeds from the tour will benefit the restoration of the parish’s historic brick chapel, which will also be part of the tour.

The chapel, on the National Register of Historic Landmarks, was built in the late 1790s and completed in 1840 in the Greek Revival style and is believed to be the oldest, non-renovated, pre-Civil War building in Maryland. St. Mary’s was established in Newport by English Franciscan Father Basil Hobart, and is the only Franciscan-founded parish in Southern Maryland. The first chapel was constructed in 1697.

The interior of the brick chapel includes elaborate stenciling decorating the ceiling and walls, most of which survives intact. Organizers of the tour, on their website, noted that “the site is further enhanced by the largest and most intact pre-Civil War Catholic cemetery, holding an unusually large amount of highly artistic quality monuments.”

For more information, visit the Maryland House and Garden website or their Facebook page.