Rehobeth Presbyterian Church

Historic church in Maryland, United States

United States historic place


Rehoboth Presbyterian Church
U.S. National Register of Historic Places


38°2′21″N 75°39′53″W / 38.03917°N 75.66472°W / 38.03917; -75.66472
Area	less than one acre
Built	1706 (1706)
NRHP reference No.	74000964^[1]
Added to NRHP	November 5, 1974

Rehoboth Presbyterian Church is a historic Presbyterian church located at Rehoboth, Maryland in Somerset County near the Pocomoke River and Chesapeake Bay.

Founded by Francis Makemie in 1683, the Rehoboth Church is the oldest continuously Presbyterian church in America. The current church structure was built by Makemie on his own land at personal expense in 1706. The building received extensive interior modifications and rearrangement of some windows and doors in 1888, and further renovations were completed in 1956.

William Stevens, an influential Somerset County citizen and member of the established Church of England (attending at the nearby Coventry Parish Ruins) issued a call to the Reverend Francis Makemie (1658–1708), an Ulster Scots clergyman who arrived in the colony and became known as the "Father of American Presbyterianism."^[2]

The old church is a simple one-story Flemish bond brick building, three bays wide by three deep, constructed about 1706. It was remodeled in 1888, and the original clear glass windows were replaced with the present leaded ones. The interior features a barrel-vault wooden ceiling, box pews with single raised panel on the ends, and a paneled gallery. A cemetery surrounds it, and several other buildings in complementary styles were erected nearby.

It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.^[1]

References

^ ^a ^b "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
^ Ann E. Hill and Lois Snyderman (January 1974). "National Register of Historic Places Registration: Rehobeth Presbyterian Church" (PDF). Maryland Historical Trust. Retrieved 2016-03-01.