St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church still marks the skyline as the Greek Revival parish that dominates downtown Frederick, right in front of you. The parish was founded in 1763 and first worshipped in a brick house on the north side of Second Street. Catholics had been in Maryland since 1634, when Lord Baltimore, Cecil Calvert, established the province, but British penal laws once forbade the open practice of Catholicism.
The Jesuits administered this community until their suppression by the pope in 1773 and resumed their involvement in 1814. The present Greek Revival church was completed in 1837; at its opening it was the largest parish church in the United States and the first Catholic church consecrated in the Diocese of Baltimore. The parish is part of the Archdiocese of Baltimore.
The history you see layered here also notes the repeal of the penal laws and that, following their repeal in 1776, Pope Pius VI established the Diocese of Baltimore in whose territory the church lay. Today this building still marks the skyline — it remains the tallest building in the city of Frederick. The steeple and the streets wait quietly above you.