The Seton Hill Open House Tour is a neighborhood tour event, hosted with the support of Live Baltimore and Healthy Neighborhoods to raise awareness of the historic significance of the neighborhood and to promote home ownership in the area. People throughout the region are invited to learn about the Seton Hill area and view some of its significant historic buildings.

Seton Hill, Baltimore’s old French quarter, is centered around the former St. Mary’s Seminary and College, which was founded by Sulpician priests fleeing the French Revolution around1791. It is the site of our Nation’s First Catholic Seminary. It was also the home of the first U.S. Born saint, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, in 1808. Today Saint Mary’s Park is situated where the former Seminary and College once stood. The neighborhood was designated as a Historic and Architectural Preservation District of Baltimore City in 1968, and was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975. Saint Mary’s Park, the heart of Seton Hill, is the largest open green space in downtown Baltimore on the West Side and is still surrounded by many small, early 19th Century homes.

One particularly significant structure located on the Seminary grounds is a small chapel, the Chapel of Our Lady of the Presentation, which was dedicated in 1808. This structure, designed by Maximilien Godefroy, a prominent architect of the time and teacher at the college, is the oldest remaining example of Gothic Revival architecture in the U.S. Both St. Elizabeth Ann Seton’s home and the Chapel will be part of the tour,

The area was also home to the original campus of Johns Hopkins University before the final move to the Homewood campus.