Graceham Moravian Church and Parsonage

Graceham Moravian Church and Parsonage is a historic church building and parsonage located at 8231 Rocky Ridge Road, MD 77 in Graceham, east of Thurmont, Frederick County, Maryland. It is a two-story Flemish bond brick church built in 1822, and covered with white stucco because of deteriorated masonry. The church was built as an addition to the adjacent meeting house and parsonage built in 1797. This building and the church's cemetery having uniform flat gravestones (called God's Acre by the Moravians) represents Maryland's only remaining 18th century Moravian settlement.

Graceham Moravian Church and Parsonage
July 14, 1996
Nearest cityThurmont, Maryland
Coordinates39°36′59″N 77°22′43″W
Area15 acres (6.1 ha)
Built1749 (1749)
NRHP reference No.76000995[1]
Added to NRHPMay 13, 1976

History

The Moravian Church originated in Bohemia and Moravia in the 1400s, with the first Moravians settling in North America in the 1700s. The first Moravian settlements were in Pennsylvania, but Moravians began to move south to Maryland, Virginia, and Salem, North Carolina. The Moravians who settled in Maryland were one of the groups to move south during the mid-1700s, travelling from Pennsylvania to Maryland via an Indian road.[2]

The Graceham congregation was formally organized by Bishop Matthaeus Gottfried Hehl on October 8, 1758 as "Manakosy" (Monocacy) Moravian Church.[3] Their first place of worship, a Gemeinhaus (English: "congregation house"), had been constructed in 1749. A second church edifice was dedicated on October 16, 1773, before being replaced by the current edifice that was dedicated on October 27, 1822.[4] The official name change of the village took place in 1785, following the recommendation of Johannes von Watteville, who wrote (transl.), "May this village be a hamlet, or little town of the Lord's, in which grace abides, with simplicity and a childlike spirit,"[5] hence the name Graceham.

It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.[1]

References
  1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
  2. George J. Andreve (May 1975). "National Register of Historic Places Registration: Graceham Moravian Church and Parsonage" (PDF). Maryland Historical Trust. Retrieved 2016-01-01.
  3. Oerter, A. L. (1913). "Graceham, Frederick County, Md. AN HISTORICAL SKETCH". Transactions of the Moravian Historical Society. Vol. 9, No. 3/4 (3/4): 119–305. JSTOR 41179664.
  4. Provincial Elders Conference of the Moravian Church in North America, Congregations Book [MSS.], vol. 1, p. 31, preserved at the Moravian Archives, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
  5. Oerter, A. L. (1913). "Graceham, Frederick County, Md. AN HISTORICAL SKETCH". Transactions of the Moravian Historical Society. Vol. 9, No. 3/4 (3/4): 156. JSTOR 41179664.
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