Architecture

The Old Salem Church building is one-story, with outside dimensions about 31 by 45 feet and is constructed of rubble field stone masonry with ashlar granite quoins at the corners.  The architecture is of no particular formal style and could best be described as country Gothic.  Electrical service in the building added during the restoration is available for utilitarian purposes.  There is no water or sewer service.

At the main entrance is a covered stone parch which was added to the original building in 1869.  Immediately over this entrance is a replica of the original rose window.  This replica was donated in 1990 by the H. Dwight Wahaus family in memory of family members.

On either side elevation are three narrow pivoted wood windows with brick Gothic arches at the head.  The sash is divided into small diamond lights with narrow muntins.  The sills are concrete.

The first restoration work was begun in 1979.  The restored roof is split wood shingles, which approximates the original roof.  At the peak of the roof at the front elevation is a copper sheathed belfrey which was rebuilt at that time.  The heavy wood molded cornice was repaired and the interior and exterior of the building were repaired and painted during the restoration.  The bell installed in 1853 is still in place.

The interior is essentially one space of approximately 1,100 square feet in area.  The original painted pews with grained wood ends, seating 120, are still in the nave.  The floor is tongue and groove random width wood boards.  There is a narrow wood stairway at the rear leading to a small gallery.  In the gallery is a hand-pumped tracker organ which was restored in 1987 through gifts from the Greif Foundation, Dorothy Maisel Reis and other individual donors.

At the front of the nave is a simple chancel with choir stalls on either side.  To the left is the original small-scale marble baptismal font with a turned wood cover.  There is an engaged altar attached to the reredos.  Over the altar is a pulpit reached by a steep stair located in the small sacristy to the rear of the altar.

Illumination for the interior is provided by hanging glass oil lamps clustered in cast iron brackets.  A wood chunk stove is located in the nave among the pews near the back of the church.

Surrounding the church is a graveyard, referred top in the records of the church as God's Acre, which is the burying ground of the families of many of the founders.  Burials occur from time to time in existing grave sites, though no new lots are available for purchase.

Historical Old Salem was fortunate in obtaining the wrought iron gates and fence panels which had been removed from the gravesite of one of the church's founders, Gustav W. Lurman, who is buried in the Greenmount Cemetery in Baltimore.  These gates and panels were restored and modifed to construct a gateway to the Old Salem property.

The Old Salem Church is certified and entered in the National Register of Historic Places.  It is the scene of many weddings, services, recitals and community meetings.  It is a valued landmark of the Catonsville community.