Babe Ruth?s original sin was washed away in St. Peter?s baptismal font ? the font that welcomed thousands of Irish immigrants to Baltimore?s Catholic community.
When waves of Irish immigrants sailed into the city?s ports to escape Ireland?s famine from 1845 to 1851, St. Peter?s, known as the “Mother of the West,” was there to nurture them.
Samuel Eccleston, Baltimore?s Fifth Archbishop, commissioned St. Peter?s Church in 1842, according to records from the National Register of Historic Places. Eccleston asked Father Edward McColgan, a young priest from County Donegal in Ireland, to pastor the congregation. McColgan led the church for 56 years until his death.
St. Peter?s parishioners ? mostly Irish immigrants ? worked for the booming Baltimore and Ohio Railroad during the day as stokers, welders, blacksmiths and boilermakers, said Father Mark Carter, St. Peter?s pastor. “At night after work, they literally came [to the church] to lay brick upon brick,” he said.
At age 24, famous Baltimore architect Robert Carey Long designed St. Peter?s among farmlands and burgeoning industry to resemble the famous Theseus temple in Athens.
The church?s Goliath-sized façade boasts a double portico of granite with six columns and brick pilasters. The roof?s gentle slope is characteristic of the ancient Greek architecture, according to the NRHP. Hammered granite from Ellicott City quarries formed the church?s basement.
In the 1900s, St. Peter?s installed eight stained-glass windows made in Germany. The long windows are unusual, said Sister Suzan Baumgartner. Rather than a scene, each window depicts a single figure, including St. Peter, Mary and Jesus.
Docents from a neighboring museum, The Irish Shrine on Lemmon Street, guide visitors through St. Peter?s while touring landmarks significant to Irish immigrants in the mid-19th century.
“The church was the focal point of the Irish American community in West Baltimore,” said Ellen Talley, volunteer with the Museum.
Roughly 70 percent of the families who attend mass at St. Peter?s commute into the city for weekly services, said Fr. Carter. “Their families grew up here and they come back because this church is their home.”
IF YOU GO
» St. Peter the Apostle Church ? 848 Hollins Street, Baltimore; 410-685-5044; 8 a.m. Mass, Monday through Friday, 4 p.m. Mass, Saturday
» The Irish Shrine ? 920 Lemmon St.; Tours once a month, at 10:30 a.m. Saturdays; Free; 410-669-8154; www.irishshrine.org
