St. Mary Star of the Sea, Golden Hill, MD

Before a chapel was established at Meekin's Neck, whole families embarked early Sunday morning for Saint Ignatius church at Saint Mary's City. Even before Saint Francis Xavier was established in 1704, they came from Old Bohemia In all likelihood, Mass was said in the Tubman home, built in 1660 and rebuilt in 1740, as the house contained a special priests room which functioned as a chapel. In 1706, the sheriffs from several counties were ordered by the State Assembly to make a listing of all the Catholics in their counties. The number of Catholics in Dorchester County as this time was 79 souls. The original Saint Mary Star of the Sea was built by Richard Tubman, II on the corner of his plantation in 1767. The small wooden church, now called the Tubman Chapel, was built under the supervision of Father Mosley of Saint Joseph in Cordova. He counted the his Dorset flock as his second largest congregation that he visited with 150 to 175 souls. The church was altered in the early 1810s with the removal of a small altar apse, the addition of two small rooms. By 1842, there were regularly two services a month at St. Mary Star of the Sea. Prior to this date, there were irregular services, depending on when a priest from Saint Joseph in Cordova or Saint Peter in Queenstown was available to visit. The church was further modified in 1867 with the building of a gallery and an arch over the altar.

The congregation was growing so fast that it was deemed necessary to build a new and larger building. With the completion of the new church, the Tubman Chapel was sold to the School Commissioners of Dorchester County in August of 1874. It was used as a school for the next 50 years, when it was sold to the neighboring family. About 1960, the land and chapel were deeded back to the Church. A restoration project was organized, and Mass was said for the first time since 1874 in the chapel by the Most Reverend Thomas J. Mardaga, sixth Bishop of Wilmington, on November 14, 1976. The original chapel is probably the third or fourth oldest Catholic church structure built in the English speaking colonies.