It was not until 1824 that the name "Towsontown" appears in assessment records. Some fifteen years later, in 1839, the Methodists established Epsom Chapel on East Joppa Road. Catholics had not been numerous in the Towson area. Baltimore City had but a single parish in colonial times. St. Peter's, founded in 1770, later became the Cathedral parish in 1806 when Father John Carroll was elected the first American bishop. Catholics living in Long Green Valley met for Mass at the Jenkins Homestead before building this county's first church on Carroll Manor Road in 1822. A little closer to Towson, St. James the Less was established on Aisquith Street, Baltimore, in 1838, followed by St. Mary's in Govanstown, in 1849, and St. Joseph's, Texas, 1852. Catholics who resided in the Towsontown area traveled long distances to attend Mass at the Church Lane in Texas or to Homewood Avenue and Charles Street; some of them walked several miles, and even those families affluent enough to have carriages and wagons faced jolting trips over dirt roads or along the graveled turnpikes where a fee was demanded at each toll gate.

Msgr. Lyman, R.D.

On May 14, 1881, the Maryland Journal 2 reported that the Catholics had purchased a lot on the west side of Highland Avenue between Chesapeake and Pennsylvania Avenues. Two weeks later, on May 19, the Very Reverend Dwight E. Lyman, R.D., Pastor of St. Mary's Church, called a meeting at the parish to plan for erecting a "small chapel" in Towsontown. The committee members, N. C. Burke, Julius Rudiger, L. H. Urban and S. C. Tomay, assumed responsibility for raising the $5,000 needed for the project. The Journal commented that a new church "would enhance the value of the lots in the section in which it is built."3

Despite "gratifying progress in the matter of subscriptions," the committee was unable to buy the Highland Avenue lot. A letter from Rev. Lyman found in the Archdiocesan archives disclosed that the attempt to get up a new church in Towsontown was a complete failure as no one was willing to give more than a few dollars, even to buy the land. "So we had to abandon the project until better times or some persons settle there who will show more interest and generosity towards it." Two years later, no lot had been purchased, but Monsignor Lyman established a mission in the second story of a store owned by Mary Shealey, a brick building erected in 1879 on the site of the former shops at "Flat Iron Square." During the week, the hall was used as the Armory of the Towsontown Guards, a State militia unit composed of veterans of both armies of the Civil War. This inauspicious site was the birthplace of our parish, also serving as Burgoyne's Band Hall and in 1893, with a new tower, became the Towson Engine House, serving as the fire department until 1955.4 By April 15, 1883, Mrs. Julius Rudiger had organized the first Sunday Schools of the fledgling parish. On April 29,

Rev. Manley

the Reverend Dominic Manley, chaplain of Notre Dame College Convent, who had been assigned to the mission, using a "temporary altar and kneeling Stools,"6 celebrated a low Mass for 150 people, the first recorded Catholic service in or near present-day Towson. By June of 1884, the congregation had purchased a lot on Ware Avenue, and according to the Maryland Journal, "preparations for the foundations of a frame edifice to cost about $2,000 has been commenced."7 It was purposed to erect a frame building which could later be used as a school. Mr. William Kennedy was the architect for the building.