St. Peter the Apostle Church
Immigrants from many diverse nationalities have come to America to enjoy the freedom to worship as guaranteed by the United States Constitution. The immigrants who came to America's urban centers during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries often settled in ethnic neighborhoods, where they frequently built houses of worship. These were often focal points for social and educational activities as well as places of worship.

St. Peter the Apostle Church, dating from 1842, is the oldest Catholic Church in West Baltimore. Father Edward McColgan, pastor, hired a master architect, Robert Cary Long, Jr., to design the building. Many of the parishioners who worked all day in the B&O Railroad shops reported after work to the site of the rising church to help in placing the foundation, laying the bricks, etc. St. Peter's long history has seen several ethnic groups predominating, but the earliest baptismal records show an extraordinary number of Irish family names. The congregation grew through the first hundred years, after which the numbers gradually declined as families moved away (usually west and southwest of the parish). St. Peter's School began as soon as the parish was established. Classes were first conducted in the church basement, then in a house behind the convent of Poppleton Street, as well as in an addition to the original convent. The Sisters of Mercy opened the "new" school at 16 S. Poppleton Street in 1917. A few current parishioners were students when the move took place. In the 1930's, St. Peter's Commercial School (later, Business School) was added to the eight grades already in place. Because of a financial crunch, the schools had to be closed in the late 1960's, after which St. Peter's Christian Life Center was created as a Catholic social outreach presence in the parish. Today, St. Peter's still functions as a place of worship and which along with St. Jerome's and St. Martin, comprise the Tri-Parish Catholic Community.