St Charles

The Parish was founded in 1848 as a mission of the Cathedral by the Reverend Charles White. Pikesville itself had been founded only a few years earlier in an area of landed estates tended by immigrants and slaves. Several prominent Catholic families, including the Carrolls, had land in the area and spent their summers here in the cool countryside.... Besides not wanting to go back into the sweltering city for Mass, they also wanted their dependents, especially the German and Irish Catholic immigrants, to be able to hear the gospel regularly. Before Fr. White, itinerant priests said Masses and heard Confessions in homes or private chapels every few months. The original Church building was in desperate shape by the 1880's. We have no pictures of the original altar, but in 1888 a new main altar and side altars were added but this did not help the structure itself and in 1898 a new building, the one we have now, was finished. The stained glass window from the original Church can be seen in the sacristy. The 1888 altar was retained. It is the one we use today. As Pikesville grew, Fr. White, a strong advocate for education, briefly established a school for boys at St. Charles, but it did not thrive. It was not until after the start of the twentieth century that the St. Charles School most parishioners remember was started. Previously Religious education or Sunday school was taught in parishioners' homes. The original school building is now St. Charles House, a facility administered by Associated Catholic Charities. The Catholic community in the area grew and the Parish, which once stretched north to the state line, propagated two new parishes, St. Ambrose and Sacred Heart of Glyndon. The changes in the Faith Community of St. Charles reflected the social and religious changes throughout its history. The baby boom after WWII saw about 2000 families worshiping at St. Charles. By the 1960's there was a new school building, a new rectory and a new convent and many active ministries, especially Sodality and Holy Name ...Read More