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Description:
Ceres Bethel AME Church, a frame building on a stone foundation constructed in 1870, was the mountainside spiritual refuge for African Americans in the Burkittsville area of Frederick County, Maryland for more than 100 years. The property was conveyed to church trustees in 1858, and was probably improved with a small log church building initially. Following the construction of the new church in 1870, the old building was apparently converted to use as a school building in 1873. The school building, identified on the 1873 Atlas map, is no longer extant. The still-active cemetery has burials identified as early as 1871. The church is a gable-front frame building on a stone foundation. The roof is corrugated metal sheets, rusted but mostly intact, except on the northeast corner where the covering is gone and a hole is open. The principal façade, facing south, is three bays with a double front entrance of wood panel doors surmounted by a four-light transom, flanked by a 6/6 sash window on either side. There are two arched 6-light windows in the gable peak above the door. The building was constructed on a hillslope, with the west side upslope of the east side. The west façade is one story while the east façade is two stories with a walk-out lower story within the stone foundation wall. Because of the aspect of the hillside, the south entrance is approximately 4 to 5 feet above ground level. The entrance is accessed via a concrete block and poured concrete stair and porch area, approximately 6 feet wide by 7 feet deep. A ca. 1940 enameled metal lamp hangs from the southeast corner of the south façade. The engraved marble datestone, located in the southeast corner of the foundation, reads: “Ceres Bethel / of A.M.E. Church / 1870. / L. Benson, Pastor.” The original siding was apparently vertical board-and-batten, but the battens were later removed, probably around 1940, and the boards covered with green asphalt shingles in a diamond or fish scale pattern. Original vertical boards can be seen from an exposed section inside the church upper story in the northeast corner. The north gable end façade contains two 6/6 sash windows. The one-story west façade is three bays in length, with 6/6 sash windows in the center and southernmost bays. The northernmost bay on this façade is occupied by a door with a four-light transom. An exterior concrete block chimney on a concrete-and-brick foundation stands between the southernmost and middle window bays. A pile of brick on the ground near the chimney, along with evidence in the roof, indicates an exterior brick chimney was previously at this location. The two-story east façade has three 6/6 sash windows in the upper story. Part of the exposed foundation wall on the east side was removed ca. 1930 and replaced with a frame wall including two window openings. There is an entrance to the lower level room in the southernmost bay. The sanctuary is a single open room with wood floorboards applied with cut nails. The plaster-and-lath walls have been covered with wallboard, and have tongue-in-groove wainscoting. Some of the original lath is exposed in the northeast corner where a hole in the roof has caused extreme decay of the walls and floor. A winder stair descends to the basement in the northwest corner, through an opening in the floor enclosed on three sides with a post and three-board railing. The room was heated with an “Allen’s Parlor Furnace” coal-burning stove, connected to the exterior chimney on the west wall by an exposed pipe passing through a flue hole. The sanctuary is arranged with a center aisle and two rows of wooden pews painted gray facing the chancel on the north end. The chancel is a two-level platform projecting from the north wall. The larger low platform is approximately 6” high and has curved front corners originally enclosed by a curved railing with turned balusters across the front, most of which has been removed by vandals, though a few balusters remain scattered on the floor. The higher second platform also projects from the north wall and is centered on the lower platform. This higher platform is accessed via two sets of steps on the east and west sides at the wall junction. The higher platform has decorative panels and trim across the front. Along the top front edge is a centered square base, probably the base of a lectern, and a round base sits at the two front corners, probably bases for candle or flower pedestals. The wainscoting behind the chancel is raised to approximately double height. A dilapidated pump organ sits on the higher chancel platform. In the northeast corner of the sanctuary is a completely collapsed piano.
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Significance:
The Ceres Bethel AME church, its adjoining cemetery and school site, are historically significant on the local level for their role in the lives of Frederick County, Maryland, African Americans, initially both enslaved and free, who lived in the Burkittsville Area. The Petersville District of Frederick County (District 12), which included Burkittsville and the large Lee family landholdings and the Horsey Distillery, was among the larger slave-holding districts of Frederick County in the 19th century. Beginning about 1838, Rev. Thomas Henry organized a congregation in the Burkittsville area under Pastor Resin Oltron, meeting first in a school and later in a “white church.” By 1858 the congregation had grown large enough to purchase land for their own church on the east side of South Mountain below Crampton’s Gap. Four years later, on September 15, 1862, their house of worship was enveloped by the Civil War battle that unfolded over South Mountain. In 1870, the new entirely free congregation constructed a new church building under the guidance of Pastor L. Benson. A county school for African American students was established by 1873 in another building on the property, likely the old church building. The school building is no longer extant, however, the site remains on the church property. The Ceres Bethel AME Church congregation was active until 1984 when the church was closed and the remaining members transferred to other area churches. The cemetery, which is an integral part of the church property, is still functional with the most recent burial occurring in 2014. The church and cemetery property continues under the ownership of the AME Church, Inc. and thus National Register Criteria Consideration “a” is applied to this nomination. The period of significance begins in 1858 with the purchase of the church property and continues through the active life of the congregation until 1984 when the church was closed.
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