St. Thomas Aquinas Church will become Hampden Mennonite Church

St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Hampden, home to a Catholic parish for more than 150 years but closed for the past year, has a new owner.

Urban Mennonite Ministries, an organization affiliated with Hampden Mennonite Church and Hampden Christian School in Baltimore, last week acquired the former Catholic church and three other buildings on a 1.2-acre parcel bounded by Roland Avenue on the east, 37^th Street on the south, Hickory Avenue on the west and an alley that subdivides the block on the north.

The former St. Thomas Aquinas School at 3700 Roland Ave. was also part of the sale. The parcel compasses the entire north side of 37^th Street from Hickory Avenue to Roland Avenue.

The seller was the Archdiocese of Baltimore. The properties were listed for sale in June of 2025 as part of the archdiocese’s “Seek the City to Come” initiative to realign parishes and sell surplus properties in the city.  The last Mass at the church was held in late 2024 and the school has been closed for a decade. The real estate settlement took place on April 13.

“Future Site of Hampden Mennonite Church and Hampden Christian School,” reads a sign at the northwest corner of Roland Avenue and 37^th Street, announcing the sale.

Nathan Zook, the pastor of Hampden Mennonite Church, said the sale included the Nineteenth Century church at 1008 W. 37^th St.; the three-story school; a rectory, a convent, a small outdoor play area and 47 off-street parking spaces.

Zook said Urban Mennonite Ministries Inc. took title to the real estate and is making it available to two entities: Hampden Mennonite Church will occupy the church at the west end of the site and the adjoining rectory. Hampden Christian School, which has a separate board but a close relationship with the church, will occupy the school building and convent.

Urban Mennonite Ministries (ummschools.org) is a Baltimore-basednon-profit whose mission is: “Partnering with Anabaptist churches to establish sustainable urban educational centers.” The sale will provide much-needed expansion space for the church and the school, which are both currently located in the 1200 block of W. 36^th St.

This will be the third location for the church (hampdenmennonite.org), which was founded in 2010. It started in a duplex at 3617 Falls Road and moved in 2016 to its current location at 1234 W. 36^th St. The property has housed a succession of churches and schools over the years. Portions of it date back to the 1800s.

Zook, a founding member of the church, has been its pastor since 2014. He’s also a political science professor at Montgomery College in Rockville. Jeremiah Fox is the church’s deacon. According to its website, the church has grown over the years to include a Sunday School, a Vacation Bible School and a school-year children’s club. It shares its building with Hampden Christian School. Other Mennonite congregations in the city are North Baltimore Mennonite Church at 4615 Roland Ave. and Wilkens Avenue Mennonite Church at 1616 Wilkens Ave.

Designed by George Frederick

St. Thomas Aquinas Church was built on the site of a mansion owned by Irish Catholic immigrant Martin Kelly, one of the founders of what is now Hampden. St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) was an Italian Dominican friar and theologian recognized as one of the Catholic Church’s greatest philosophers. He is famous for synthesizing Aristotle’s philosophy with Christian doctrine in works such as the Summa Theologica, which argues that faith and reason are complementary.

The Rev. Thomas Foley laid the cornerstone for the 37^th Street church on May 12, 1867 and construction was completed on June 18, 1871 at a cost of $20,000. Archbishop Martin John Spauling attended the dedication. The building was designed by George Frederick, the architect of Baltimore’s City Hall. It is not part of a historic district or otherwise protected by landmark designation.

St. Thomas Aquinas School was founded in 1873 and the current brick building dates from 1937. According to Baltimore Heritage, it had 320 pupils in the late 1930s and a staff of eight, hired from the School Sisters of Notre Dame. The archdiocese closed it in 2016.

Zook said Hampden Mennonite Church has a congregation of about 70 and the church on 37^th Street has seating for about 260, offering room to grow and to accommodate funerals, weddings and other events. He said it will be renamed Hampden Mennonite Church.

Hampden Christian School and its day care have 84 children enrolled, infants to 8^th graders, and a staff of 17.

Zook said his congregation is eager to start holding worship services on 37^th Street, potentially within the next few weeks. He said the church is essentially in move-in condition and the congregation is waiting for city officials to issue an occupancy permit.

“We own it,” he said. “We’re in charge of the insurance and all the upkeep of it now. We can go in to do renovations but not to hold services [until the occupancy permit is issued]. Right now, if they would give us the go-ahead, we could probably be in in two Sundays, a week and a half. The church is ready to go.”

Zook said the school needs some renovations and the staff hopes to complete work and move in by early next year.

Members of the Mennonite congregation got a chance to tour the church last Tuesday, one day after the settlement with the archdiocese. Some members also toured the sanctuary and rectory on Sunday afternoon, trying out the pews and testing the acoustics. Hampden Christian School is having an Open House and BBQ on May 9 from 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

Initially came in second

Zook said his congregation wasn’t looking to move before it learned about the sale of the St. Thomas Aquinas property last June and almost didn’t get it. He said church members had been working towards building an addition to their current property on 36^th Street.

“The original goal was to help the school expand,” he said. “Meanwhile, attendance at our church has grown over the past since months.” In addition, he said, there are more than 50 households on a waiting list for day care for children ranging from infants to pre-K.

Zook said his board made an offer for the church in a sealed bid process last July but was notified it wasn’t the successful bidder.

Two months later, he said, the church’s real estate agent informed his group that the winning contract fell through and the archdiocese was willing to accept its Letter of Intent.

He said his group worked with the archdiocese from that point on to conduct a due diligence inspection and complete the sale. He said he had faith all along that that his group’s bid would prevail.

“When I heard we did not get it,” he said, “I still thought that we would get it. I just thought it was the right place for our church to move. I couldn’t see why we would not get it.”

Zook declined to disclose the sale price, which has not yet been recorded in state land records, but said he believes it was “a fair deal” given the market for church properties in Baltimore and the condition of the 37^th Street properties. He said he thought about buying Mount Vernon Place United Methodist Church when it went up for sale last year – another architecturally significant structure dating from the 1870s — but was concerned about the potentially high cost of roof repairs and other deferred maintenance items.

Zoned for a church

The sale means that the buildings will stay off the city and state property tax rolls. One factor working in the church’s favor is that the property is already zoned for a church, not commercial uses, and the land would have had to be rezoned if a buyer wanted to build offices, residences, a hotel or retail space on it. Some area residents have indicated they would not support any uses that would make parking in the area more difficult.

The buildings were sold in as-is condition. Before the sale, the archdiocese removed certain liturgical artifacts and examples of religious iconography, including the pulpit, statues, vestments and the Stations of the Cross.

The archdiocese left 13 stained glass windows, the church pews, two confessionals, a pipe organ and painted images above the altar depicting two angels and a dove. Other spaces in the church and rectory include a kitchen, library, church offices and meeting rooms with furniture. The school has an exercise area on its lower level.

“I’d say what they left behind dovetails pretty nicely” with the Mennonites’ needs, Zook said.

The sanctuary has “amazing” acoustics, he added.

“I can stand in the back of the stage and talk in my normal voice and somebody in one of the confessional booths can hear me speaking,” he said.

He said Mennonites don’t use confessionals in their services, but the ones in the sanctuary can be used as privacy areas for nursing mothers in the congregation. He said renovations to the school building are expected to cost about $750,000 and will be funded through a capital campaign.

Zook said the church property on 36^th Street is owned by Urban Mennonite Ministries and no decisions have been made about what will happen with it. He said the Vacation Bible School has been meeting at the Roosevelt Recreation Center at 1221 W. 36^th St. and likely will continue to do so for now.