Original Parish

To the people of Curtis Bay, St. Athanasius is "the church on the hill" overlooking the piers and plants where they work. From the steps of the church, you can look across the harbor to Highlandtown and Dundalk, and from the back window of the rectory you can see to the northwest the buildings of St. Mary's Seminary College in Catonsville and the hills of Howard County.

The parish was founded in 1890 to serve the German immigrants who landed in Curtis Bay and settled nearby. Soon a small brick church was built on top of the hill on Prudence Street. It is still there, though now used only for CCD classes.

At first, they wanted to build at the bottom of the hill, down on Patapsco Avenue, but luckily they changed their minds and build here with this beautiful view, but it is quite a climb, especially for old people in the winter, something like climbing that Cathedral Street hill to the Basilica.

After the turn of the century, when the German parishioners began to move away from St. Athanasius, and to the big German parishes of east Baltimore, a new wave of immigrants, this time from eastern Europe, landed and settled in Curtis Bay. Many of their descendants still live there.

During the first decade of our new century, St. Athanasius initiated a major renovation and renewal effort – restoring the structure to its full glory as seen here in this photograph taken at sunrise.