Terra Maria Ruins

Historic college campus remains right in the middle of a neighborhood 😮

Very surprising to find these ruins in this nice neighborhood. The neighborhood association has done and amazing job maintaining these ruins for everyone to enjoy.

This place is a hidden gem 💎. As soon as you turn off route 144 Frederick road, you instantly feel the entire area is historical with the Terra ruins poised as the community's crown jewel.

Interesting Ruins, pleasant neighborhood walk and fun Geocache site. Be respectful of the folks who live there, especially since they are the ones that maintain the ruins.

The remains of buildings destroyed by fire in 1911. It represents the center of the Terra Maria residential community. The HOA maintains the structure. No government funding. One can drive by the building but is not open grounds for viewing.

What a fantastic idea! Keeping these historical ruins immortalizes the memory of the seminary as well as provides a unique location for community events drawing neighbors together in a quint setting: On March 16, 1911, disaster struck: the college was completely destroyed by fire started in the cellar under the chapel. Miraculously, none of the 200+ faculty and students were killed or injured. Sacred vessels and vestments, along with thousands of priceless manuscripts and books were all lost. The burned-out shell was pulled down, and the salvageable building materials were transported to Catonsville, where the college was quickly rebuilt. All that remained standing were the ruins of the 1906 Recreation Hall.[6][Note 1]

After the fire, the heirs of the Carroll family requested that the 250 acres (100 ha) of land be returned, since it was not then used as a college, by selling off the land and dividing the profits among the family.[7] The area was purchased by Howard County Planning Board member William Phillip Brendel, who ran Brendel Manor Park opening in 1942.[8] Brendel's Manor Park (also known as Gospel Park) hosted the first Howard County Fair onsite for a single year in 1946 and 1950 with prison labor used to build structures.[9] In the early 1970s, it was the home of Robert G. Millar's Christian Identity community. It has since been upzoned and developed into a suburban housing community. The property was subdivided several times, with Robert J. Lanceolott and Synergy Development Corp. developing over the historic ruins of the first college buildings in 1991 to build the "Terra Maria Community". The ruins of the old minor seminary's recreation hall and laundry are now located in the middle of Terra Maria Way circle with the grotto removed for a stormwater retention pond.

This ruin was a building of St. Charles College and is listed as inventory number HO-993 for the Maryland Historical Trust, Inventory Maryland Inventory of Historic Properties. According to the historic records, the 16 March 1911 fire destroyed the main college building, and the ruins are of the assembly hall room addition to the main building. The land and $5000 were donated to start the college by Charles Carroll of Carrollton, one of four Marylanders to sign the Declaration of Independence. The college was incorporated in 1829, and the cornerstone was laid by Carroll in 1831. He died in 1832 before construction completed, but it opened in 1848. Currently, local residents help maintain the ruins and use them for some community events.