New photos of hotel cocktail bar at former high altar available, co-developer doubles-down on design

CV NEWS FEED // More photos are now available of the new Maryland hotel cocktail bar that is situated at a deconsecrated Catholic high altar, depicting a structure that was once was vital for Holy Mass now standing as the backdrop for drink orders.

The Marriott Visitation Hotel in Frederick, Maryland, opened in December 2024 on the former site of Visitation Academy, which was an all-girls Catholic school that included a chapel. Archbishop William E. Lori issued a Recognition of Deconsecration for the chapel, according to an open letter from the Hotel.

Elyssa Koren, a concerned alumnus of the Academy, started a petition on change.org that so far has nearly 4,000 signatures asking the hotel’s owners to remove both the altar and tabernacle from the space now being used as a cocktail bar, or to relocate the bar itself. However, the open letter from the Hotel states that officials from the Archdiocese of Baltimore removed the tabernacle before the sale of the property. 

>> Maryland community petitions against cocktail bar on high altar of historic former chapel << 

Koren wrote in the petition, “Even though the chapel was properly deconsecrated – for the girls of Visitation, for Christians, and for people of goodwill everywhere, this is an evident and painful misuse of the space.”

Visitation Hotel video screengrab (@visitationhotel) / Instagram

Jim O’Hare is co-developer of the Visitation Hotel and a Catholic, according to the Hotel’s open letter, which stated that O’Hare said it was important “to repurpose the former Chapel in a manner respectful to its historical use.” 

According to a Jan. 3 report from FOX News, O’Hare said that the stations of the cross and crucifixes from the chapel have been donated to churches in the area, and the developers removed the post-Vatican II altar. 

“And, we very purposely have constructed the bar to be separate from the historic altar,” he added.

Commenting on the petition, O’Hare said, “The alumni that started the petition have not seen our efforts in person.”

“They are reacting to pictures in the local paper,” he continued. “I encourage them and anyone who has concerns to come see for themselves the great care we have taken to respectfully repurpose the chapel.”

In the petition, Koren urges the hotel’s owners to listen to the signatories’ concerns, noting what the location means to the many women who graduated from the Academy.

“We wish you the best with this venture,” she wrote, “and ask for your serious consideration given the importance of this place to generations of women and their families from Frederick and beyond.”