Our History

In the early 1960's, after accumulating over 1600 acres of land, the Crawford Corporation began building a new, gated community called Crofton along what is now known as Route 3. Crofton was anchored by a community golfcourse, which later became the Crofton Country Club, and was officially founded in the fall of 1964. It's hard to imagine, but at the time there were very few enterprises in the Crofton area; this included churches.

Over the next few years, as more and more residents flocked to the area, a sense of community developed and the people began to long for places of worship within their own community. Because there were very few, official, churches, people found themselves congregating at their homes to discuss religious beliefs and pay their respects to their maker. The original founding members of Prince of Peace were among the members of these groups and ultimately met in the ballroom of the Four Seasons Club because their numbers had grown to 118 individuals.  Eventually, they were inspired to approach the Baltimore Presbytery about funding the construction of a Presbyterian Church within the Crofton community.

After many meetings and much planning, on May 6, 1967 the Presbytery of Baltimore voted the funds to purchase a building site for a church within what is now known as the Crofton Parkway. Through a loose partnership with the Crawford Corporation, Prince of Peace was allotted 7 home-building sites along the Crofton Parkway thoroughfare. Although a formal building did not exist at the time, the 118 charter members formally consituted Prince of Peace United Presbyterian Church on the evening of December 17, 1967, the date since celebrated as the church's birthday. The new congregation purchased the house at 1651 Ardsley Place, today's Fellowship Hall, the following year. The building at 1657 Crofton Parkway, with the church's sanctuary and offices, was constructed in 1975 and the Christian education wing was added to it in 1992.

At the time of the foundation of the church, Reverend Leonard A. Dahl, the associate minister of Baltimore's Second Presbyterian Church, became first the church's organizing pastor and later its first full time minster. Since the time of Reverend Dahl, five other dedicated pastors have served the congregation: Frederick J. Wood, interim David C. Harris, Donald M. Brower, Jon Fregger, and interim Walter Harman. Currently, Elizabeth D. McLean is leading the congregation forward to a bright future.