Motorists driving along Bellona Avenue through Ruxton can catch a glimpse of a 19th- century gray frame Gothic Revival church with tall green shutters sitting on a slight, tree-capped hill above the light rail tracks.

What they're looking at is St. John's African Methodist Episcopal Church, with its one-floor fieldstone parsonage nearby.

Surrounding the buildings is a graveyard that constitutes the final resting place of generations of the Scott family from Bare Hills, who have been involved with the historic church since its founding by free blacks in 1833.

"It is a very special place and one of the principal African-American historic sites in Maryland. It's right up there near the top," said Peter Kurtz, administrator of the National Register program at the Maryland Historical Trust.

"It's also remained in the Scott family since its founding and has been passed down to descendants of the Rev. Aquila Scott," said Kurtz, a former caretaker and tenant who cared for the property for several years.

Scott, a blacksmith, wheelwright and son of a freed slave, moved from St. Mary's County to Bare Hills in the 1820s, where he settled with his wife and 12 children.

When the Baltimore & Susquehanna Railroad (today's light rail line) was building its line north through Ruxton toward Pennsylvania in the early 1830s, the right of way cut off an "extreme northeastern quarter-acre of Hector's Hopyard," wrote Joseph M. Coale III in his book, The Middling Planters of Ruxton: 1694-1850.

On Oct. 28, 1833, Elijah Fishpaw, owner of Hector's Hopyard, a farm and mill, sold the land for $15 in "good and lawful money of the United States of North America" to "several freed slaves," wrote Coale.

"The trustees of the church, described as 'descendants from Africa,' were sold the land with the restriction that it was to be used solely as a burying ground and a meeting house. If ever used for any other purpose, the property was to revert back to Fishpaw or his descendants," wrote Coale.

And it has remained so for the ensuing 175 years.

The first church built on the site was a log cabin and was originally called the Bethel Episcopal Methodist Religious Society in the deed of conveyance, Coale said.

Aquila Scott, who died in 1858, is buried in the small churchyard; he rests under an engraved marble tombstone with the inscription: "In memory of Revd. Aquila Scott, who passed away while in the church below, to join the church above."

Believed to be the oldest black congregation in Baltimore County, in its early years, members walked through woods and fields from Bare Hills, and after Lake Roland was created in 1861, they were forced to come by horse and carriage or train.

The original church burned in 1876, with the present church erected on the site of the old in 1886.

The church was a natural center for African-Americans who lived in Bare Hills or worked as servants in the large country homes of Ruxton and Riderwood.

The congregation flourished until the 1960s, when lack of attendance closed its doors. It had a rebirth in the early 1980s, when Ruxton residents and Scott family members, aided by grants from the Maryland Historical Trust and federal planning funds, were able to restore the old church to its former glory.

Carolyn Scott Levere, a descendant of Aquila Scott who oversees the church, lives in Catonsville.

"You know, the Scotts have been in Maryland since the 17th century," Levere said in a telephone interview yesterday. She was 3 years old when she first visited the church.

"That was in the early 1940s. I remember it clearly," she said.

"We don't have services every Sunday, but we do gather about five times a year. It's awfully cold in the winter, so we hold services in the spring, summer and fall," she said.

"There are still about 10 Scott descendants who come. We also let people use the church for a small fee for weddings or christenings. The local community association holds a carol sing there at Christmas," she said.

"We will probably hold our first service of the new year before February is out so we can count our blessings," she said. "We want to be thankful for all of the things we have, like a roof over our heads, clothes to wear and food to eat."

Levere, who is a nurse, is a trained lay reader.

"I do some of the services. I went to school for that," she proudly said.

Behind the pulpit and painted on the wall is a greeting: "Welcome to all."

"I'm always telling people that when we're going to have a service, to come as you are. You don't have to get dressed up to worship in our church. Just come and have a good time," Levere said.

fred.rasmussen@baltsun.com