On Oct. 27, Philip H. Dorsey III was awarded the St. Mary’s County 2009 Preservation Project Award for the restoration and renovation done to historic St. Peters Chapel located at 22835 Washington St. in Leonardtown.
The award was presented to Dorsey because of the excellent restoration work completed in 2008 on the chapel which is part of his law firm’s offices. The award is sponsored by the Historic Preservation Commission of Land Use and Management.
According to Dorsey, the old church was deteriorating and he made the decision to restore to make it more safe while maintaining the look and feel of the historic landmark which has been in Leonardtown since being built by Thomas Greenwell and Messrs. Horne in 1870.
“The chapel had no footers of any kind. They built it on the flat ground and the structure was sagging and potentially dangerous,” said Dorsey.
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The Leonardtown attorney enlisted the help of his long-time friend and contractor, Paul Bennett to perform the necessary renovations and preservation. As part of the process, the chapel had to be lifted from its foundation and to have footers created in order to properly support the structure.
The work was done in pains-taking fashion with Bennett preserving as much of the original material as possible which would then be incorporated into the renovated structure. The same was done for the interior.
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“We sand blasted the ceilings to remove the lead paint,” said Dorsey. He indicated that they discovered the original tin ceiling intact. “We painted them as is. They were in great shape,” he continued.
Upon receiving the award Dorsey said, “We’re just glad to see St. Peter shining again. We’re very happy to receive this award, but all of the credit goes to that man right there, Paul Bennett. All I did was finance the project, but he did all the work.”
