Archaeologists detail 30-year effort to reconstruct and interpret Saint Mary's City chapel
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Summary
An archaeologist with Historic Saint Mary's City outlined decades of excavation, the reconstruction of a seventeenth‑century Jesuit chapel on its original foundation, the recovery and reinterment of lead coffins, and how the site will display original fabric and burials to visitors.
An archaeologist with Historic Saint Mary's City described a decades‑long project to reconstruct a seventeenth‑century Jesuit chapel at Saint Mary's City and to document the burials and material culture found beneath and around the foundation. The lecture, part of a St. Mary's County Historic Preservation Commission program, summarized fieldwork begun in 1988 and earlier excavations and set out how the site will be interpreted for visitors.
The presenter said archaeologists uncovered the chapel's brick foundation and measured it at roughly 57 feet wide by 54 feet deep, with a construction trench about 5 feet deep and walls approximately 3 feet thick. Using dimensions and comparative colonial examples, the team estimated the original building may have stood about 20 feet tall. "It's complicated," the presenter said of reconstructing the chapel from fragmentary evidence.
The project drew on earlier fieldwork by Henry Chandlee Foreman, who exposed portions of a cruciform foundation in 1938. Beginning in 1988 Historic Saint Mary's City ran a long‑term field school, excavating a series of 5‑by‑5‑foot units that revealed the full foundation and associated features. Sifting and analysis of artifacts such as imported flat tile and diamond‑shaped window glass helped researchers infer construction details and stylistic references to contemporary Jesuit churches in Europe.
Archaeologists documented human burials across the site; they excavated 64 burials for the reconstruction work and said many more graves are present in the surrounding field. The presenter said ground‑penetrating radar suggests "maybe as many as 500" burials, but cautioned that radar cannot resolve how many individuals are represented without excavation. The team developed a mapping method, led by Dr. Tim Reardon, to record coffin nails and infer coffin construction; that work identified at least eight coffin styles on the site.
Three lead coffins found during earlier excavations were particularly significant. The presenter said the coffins contained Philip Calvert, his first wife Anne Woolsey Calvert, and an infant assumed to be a child of Philip Calvert; DNA analysis completed in 2017 supported a father–son relationship between Philip Calvert and the infant. The lead coffins were re‑interred in a below‑ground vault inside the reconstructed chapel in 2017 or 2018, and a separate glass viewing plate was installed to display original brickwork from Foreman's 1930s pit.
The reconstructed building, the presenter said, was built directly on the original foundation and incorporates some of the original colonial bricks where appropriate. Master stonemason Jimmy Price led masonry work; conservators and architectural historians, including Dr. Henry Miller, contributed research on altar form and finishes. Analysis by Smithsonian conservators identified wood species and historical surface treatments on a historic tabernacle piece; local craftsmen reproduced missing elements for installation.
Fundraising for the interior finishes and exhibit installation drew broad community support. The presenter said more than 1,000 people gave donations ranging from $5 to gifts of $100,000 or more, and that the project received a Save America's Treasures grant tied to Rep. Steny Hoyer, totaling about $250,000. Before reconstruction the team estimated they would need roughly $3 million to $5 million; the presenter said the project spent what was raised and supplemented labor by in‑house staff and volunteers.
During audience questions, the presenter confirmed that the reconstructed chapel is treated as an exhibit and is not consecrated for Catholic worship; the facility is rented for weddings and performances but "not actually a church any longer." On engineering concerns, the presenter said the project relied on the architectural firm Miesick & Baker and judged the deep foundation and wide walls to be structurally substantial, though she did not specify which compression or material tests (if any) were performed. She emphasized that all excavation work was carefully recorded and that specialists from the Smithsonian assisted with analysis.
The presenter closed by noting the limited documentary record — a few entries from the 1660s–1680s — and by thanking hundreds of contributors and collaborators. "It's truly a special place in Saint Mary's County, Maryland," she said as the event ended.
