The church holds some highly significant art[2][3] and was the scene of a fiery anti-revolutionary showdown that was close to erupting in violence.

[4] The church is located in the Brock Hall census-designated place in unincorporated Prince George's County, Maryland, and it has an Upper Marlboro postal address.

[9]The original St. Paul's Parish had contained a small log chapel,[1] in its northeast sections, on 2 acres (8,100 m2) of land owned by John and Mary Duvall.

[10][11] With this act, the chapel became a full-fledged congregation to meet the needs of the growing population in the area, creating the first St. Barnabas church.

[15] In 1737, Henderson gave 4 acres (16,000 m2) of land for the use of Queen Anne's Parish called "the Glebe whereon there is a Chapple now standing."

[13] Because of its location in one of the richest tobacco-producing regions in Colonial Maryland, its rectorship was one of the most highly prized assignments in the Anglican Church in the province.

[17] During this period, numerous dignitaries visited the church, including George Washington and his family, together with Royal Governor of Maryland Robert Eden, on October 4, 1772.

The narrow wood cornice is punctuated with dentil modillions and defined by bed and crown moldings.

Inscribed in one of the stretchers which frame the central first story window on the east facade is "AD July 3, 1774.

[2] In a fiery farewell sermon at St. Barnabas in 1775, he declared to a hostile crowd of 200, that "no power on earth should prevent him from praying and shouting God Save the King."

[1] In 1971, this "new Brick Church," was in need of repair and was carefully and authentically restored to its original colonial form as built by Lowndes including clear windows along with the addition of a new chapel under the direction of architect, Walter Macomber.

Queen Anne was a private, Episcopal-affiliated, co-educational day school for grades 7-12, located on a 50-acre (20 ha) campus adjacent to the new Brick Church.

[22] in 1994, the trust sold 109 acres containing the oldest trees to the state of Maryland as a nature preserve for $628,000.

It disappeared during the construction of the new Brick Church and did not surface again until it was discovered in a private collection in 1848[2] or 1914, when Charles Henry Hart identified it,[23] depending on which source one follows.