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In the 1870's, Anne Arundel Methodists established Bethel Methodist Episcopal
Church, South in a wooden building two miles west of Odenton in what is
now Camp Meade. The congregation continued to worship there through World
War I. Shortly after the war, the Army purchased their land as part of
the permanent Camp Meade installation. The Bethel congregation moved to
Odenton, and with funds from the sale of their property they erected a
neo-Gothic, rusticated concrete block building at the corner of Second
Avenue and Watts Avenue (now Waco Avenue and Becknel Avenue). The year
1922 is inscribed on the church bell, and the church was consecrated in
1923. In 1942, the Bethel congregation merged with Nichols Memorial Methodist
Protestant Church, which was located beside the Methodist cemetery on
Route 175 near the railroad bridge in Odenton. The combined congregation
met at the Nichols location. A then recently-formed Lutheran congregation
purchased Old Bethel Church and worshipped there until 1957, when they
built the present First Evangelical Lutheran Church at the intersection
of Odenton Road and Piney Orchard Parkway.
The Lutherans moved the 1922 Bethel church bell into the new building,
where it still rings today.
In 1962, The Soroptimist Club of Severn Run (Mabel Whitmore, president)
purchased Old Bethel Church from the Lutherans. The former church building
served as the Soroptimists meeting place and Odenton's first public library,
operated by the Annapolis and Anne Arundel County library system. The
library remained there until 1969, when the present facility opened at
1270 Odenton Road. The Soroptimist Club of Severn Run generously donated
Old Bethel Church to the Odenton Heritage Society in 2001.
Much of the church building is original and unchanged, including the
rusticated cast concrete block walls, wooden porch and entrance, and pressed
metal ceiling. Interior partitions have been added, and tile flooring
has been installed on top of the original wooden floorboards. The belfry,
stained glass windows and altar were removed when it became evident that
the building would no longer be used as a church; the building presently
has clear glass windows.
Photo of Old Bethel Church
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