All Churches, Cemeteries, Places of Worship

Built in 1887, the design of Mount Zion Memorial Church likely comes from plans sold by a catalogue architect named Benjamin D. Price. As an active church, it provided church services for the local African American community until Mt. Zion ceased to function as a church in 2002 and became a community center for the residents of Mt. Vernon, Oriole, Venton, Read more...

Originally founded in 1925 on Salisbury’s Main Street as Kahelas Israel Congregation, Beth Israel is the only conservative congregation on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. At the time, only nine Jewish families were present in the Salisbury area and the number of families remain few. Despite this and several migrations from building to building, the synagogue has survived as a safe Read more...

Stevenson United Methodist Church in Berlin has its roots in the Perdeaux Chapel in Sinepuxent Neck. When the congregations was reduced it was dubbed Cedar Chapel and a chapel was built in 1835 on South Main Street near today’s Buckingham Cemetery. By 1847 the congregation moved to North Main Street and a new church was built, this time called Stevenson. Read more...

Ancestors of members of this church worshipped during slavery in the balcony of St. Andrews Episcopal Church. In 1841, they organized a separate congregation and worshipped at that site until 1860. By 1861, the members purchased land and built a school and a church, the John Wesley Methodist Episcopal Church. In 1884, the Delaware Conference of the Episcopal Church granted Read more...

Located just off of Route 50 in Salisbury Maryland, Houston Cemetery is a historically Black cemetery established in part and named after the Houston family. Solomon Houston (some times spelled Huston) in particular was a significant figure on Delmarva. His father, Levin Houston, was one of the five founding freemen of the John Wesley Methodist Episcopal Church (now referred to Read more...

Thought to have been built in 1866, the Calvary M.E. Church (also referred to as Bishop Methodist Church) is a small church located in what remains of the Glass Hill community. Once the heart of the community, the church remains a symbol of Glass Hill and the African American community built around it. The old Glass Hill School, first built Read more...

Built in 1838, the Chipman Center is the oldest standing African-American church on Delmarva. It occupies the site of a former open meadow where slaves gathered for worship services conducted by Methodist circuit riders. In 1837 five local freedmen began holding services in a small red-pine slab building on the property of William Williams. Funds were raised to purchase the Read more...