Historic Holiday Tour 2023

Join the Howard County Historical Society for our holiday event. This year, we will be hosting a holiday house tour featuring historic Carrollton Hall (HO-16) and St. Anthony’s Shrine. Completed in 1832, Carrollton Hall was built by Charles Carroll of Carrollton for his granddaughter Emily Caton McTavish. Not yet open to the public, be among the first to view this spectacular property decorated for the holidays. The Shrine of St. Anthony, built in 1931, was designed as a small replica of Sacro Convento of Assisi, the friary and burial place in Italy of St. Francis of Assisi.

St. Anthony’s Shrine

Located in scenic Howard County, Maryland, just 30 miles west of Baltimore, the St. Joseph Cupertino Friary, home to the Shrine of St. Anthony, has been owned by the Franciscan Friars for nearly 100 years. Designed as a miniature version of the Sacro Convento of Assisi, the friary in Italy
where St. Francis is buried, construction on the Friary building began in 1930 and was completed in 1931.

In its long life, the Friary has been home to many friars and has served as a student residence, a house of philosophy, and a novitiate. In 1995, the Friary received a first class relic of St. Anthony from the Basilica of St. Anthony in Padua, Italy and in 2005 the site was designated the official Shrine of St. Anthony in the Archdiocese of Baltimore. The Shrine of St. Anthony offers Mass, workshops, seminars, and tours. The grounds feature a grotto to Our Lady of Lourdes, an outdoor shrine to St. Maximilian Kolbe, the newly dedicated St. Anthony Garden of Eternity, as well as scenic walking trails.