Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-02-03
Historic Church Site.
New Chapel Going Up Near Langdon D. c., on Site of
Old Colonial House of Worship

Adjoining the Langdon school house on
the west Rev. FATHER Southgate of st.
Anthony's Catholic Church, in Brookland,
is having erected neat brick chapel which
1t Is hoped to have dedicated in a few
months 1t Is not often that a new church
takes the place Of one about which there
Is SO interesting history as is woven
around old Queens chapel, near Langdon
and Winthrop Heights.
Three times in its life Of a century and a
half 1t was destroyed by fire, and after the
lapse of nearly fifty years, in which the
graveyard attached was nearly efraced, a
neat brick chapel Is being erected. in which
will worship many descendants Of the
communicates Of colonial and revolutionary
times. After the civil war the place was
neglected, save by the descendants OF a
few loved ones buried there in Enclosed
lots, who kept these little spaces clear. So
dense was the growth Of tree and vine,
however. that these lots were difficult to
find.
Having apparently been abandoned, in
1901 some Of the heirs of Chas. 1. Queen
asked that the records Of the District be
changed so as to place the two acres in
their names instead Of Cardinal Gibbons,
In whom 1t was asserted there was no title.
The Star Of March %, 1901, noted this, and
gave history and description Of the place.
At this period the land surrounding it had
been improved. the east plated into streets
squares and lots. on which were many
houses and the village of Langdon To-
Gated, and there had been suggestions to
plat and sell at least a portion of 1t.
While this application was pending other
members Of the Queen family and others
were not idle, and. examination of the cd
records being made. it was found in the
records of Prince George county at Marl-
boro that whatever interest in the land in
question the Queens may have had had
been vested in the authorities Of the Ro-
man Catholic Church. The will of Richard
Queen. who died in 1894, dated 1893, left to
his friend, Ri. Rev. John Carroll, bishop
of Baltimore, two acres of land on which
the Roman Catholic Church now stands,
Ito be solely employed and used for the
Church" He also directed that the land
be laid off under the eye Of the bishop or
his agent and marked, and the stones
then placed are at the corners of the lot
This site is within the patent for Had
docks Hills granted by the crown in 1885,
Subsequently tracts known as Barbados"
'Seamans Delight and Enclosure" were
carved out. The names of Barbados"
and "Seamans Delight suggest the sea,
and perhaps, as Bladensburg was then
gale his eyes by view of his land when
sailing to or from port. Enclosure be-
came the property of Richard Queen in
1922, and hence the name of Queens
borough attached, and has come down to
this day. Mr. Queen and family, who were
devout Catholics, and others, including
slaves as well, for the purpose of worship,
erected a chapel on his place. This, it is
said among the descendants, was about
1855, and some two hundred yards south
of the present site. Here until some time
in the revolution the families of the faith
and their slaves worshiped. Occasional