Arlington Street Church
Arlington Street Church | |
---|---|
Unitarian Universalist | |
Website | www |
Architecture | |
Architect(s) | Arthur Gilman |
Architectural type | 18th-century English |
Arlington Street Church | |
Area | 0.5 acres (0.20 ha) |
Built | 1861 |
Part of | Back Bay Historic District (ID73001948) |
NRHP reference No. | 73000313[1] |
Significant dates | |
Added to NRHP | May 4, 1973 |
Designated CP | August 14, 1973 |
The Arlington Street Church is a
On May 17, 2004, the Arlington Street Church was the site of the first state-sanctioned same-sex marriage in the United States.[4]
History of the congregation
The congregation was founded in 1729 as the "Church of the
In the 1960s, the congregation became active in the
Arlington Street church building
As the population of Boston grew and land became scarce,
The building is supported by 999 wooden pilings driven into the mud of Back Bay, and brownstone ashlar for its exterior was quarried in New Jersey.[2] The bell tower stands 190 feet (58 meters) tall and contains a set of 16 bells, each with a Biblical inscription.[2] It is one of only four sets in the city of Boston still rung by hand.[2] The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973[1] and designated a Boston Landmark by the Boston Landmarks Commission in 1978.[7]
Landscaping for the church was designed by Mabel Keyes Babcock.[citation needed]
Interior
The sanctuary, with its
Originally, all of the sanctuary windows were glazed with clear glass. In 1898, the congregation voted to start installation of memorial
The Tiffany windows were designed by Frederick Wilson (1858–1932), Tiffany's chief designer for ecclesiastical windows.[5][9] He made extensive use of Tiffany's special glassmaking technologies, including confetti glass, iridescent glass, 3D-textured "drapery glass", pastel colors for "painting in glass", and the trademark opalescent “Favrile” glass.[5][9] There are as many as six or seven layers of glass in a Tiffany window, producing visual textures that would otherwise have to be painted in.[5] Only some fine details impractical to produce in glass were hand-painted, in permanent enamel.[5] The Arlington Street Church holds the complete set of Wilson's original watercolor design drawings for all the windows.[10]
The windows on the lower level feature incidents from the early life of Jesus, while the windows for the galleries on the upper level feature his Beatitudes, or blessings.[5][9] Each window has a border of decorative acanthus-leaf scrolls, echoing the capitals of the Corinthian columns of the sanctuary.[9] Full-color images of all the Tiffany windows can be seen at the Arlington Street Tiffany Education Center website.[11]
After vandalism destroyed a memorial dedication pane in the 1970s,
After a 50-year period when the Tiffany windows were only viewed by the congregation, the church is now open to the general public from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily from mid-May through the end of October, except Sunday and when special events are scheduled.[13] Guided tours and self-guided tours (with optional smartphone audio) are available, as well as group tours by prearrangement.[13]
The Aeolian-Skinner organ was installed in 1955–1957.[2] Since the Aeolian-Skinner Company was shut down in the 1970s, the organ is regarded as an irreplaceable historic instrument from the 20th century.[5]
Most of the main floor is wheelchair accessible.
Governance and association
Arlington Street Church is a member congregation of the Unitarian Universalist Association, a denomination created in 1961 by the consolidation of the American Unitarian Association and the Universalist Church of America.[2] The denomination is organized on the basis of congregational church government. Each congregation is self-governing, deciding on its form of worship, professional and lay leadership, programs, and business. Congregations are members of the Unitarian Universalist Association and are united by a statement of Purposes and Principles. Each congregation elects delegates to a yearly General Assembly where the congregational delegates vote on matters of denominational importance and on resolutions of social witness. Congregations are served by programs provided by the Association at the continental and regional levels.[2]
Preservation and restoration of the church building and its Tiffany windows are supported by The Foundation for the Preservation of 20 Arlington Street Inc, a separate, non-sectarian
Gallery
-
Arlington St. Church, 19th-century photo by John P. Soule
-
the Public Garden
-
Arlington Street Church, 2013
See also
- Church of the Covenant (Boston) – nearby Boston church with a Tiffany-designed interior
- Federal Street Church (Boston)
- National Register of Historic Places listings in northern Boston, Massachusetts
References
- ^ a b "National Register Information System – (#73000313)". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n "Our History: Tracing our Congregation from 1729 to Today" (PDF). Arlington Street Church. Retrieved May 16, 2017.
- ^ "Tiffany Census, Arlington Street Church". Tiffany Census. Retrieved August 2, 2021.
- ^ Mehren, Elizabeth (May 18, 2004). "Gay Couples Tie the Knot in Massachusetts". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved April 20, 2015.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n "About Tiffany Windows". Croma. Retrieved May 16, 2017.
- ^ "MACRIS inventory record for Arlington Street Church". Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Retrieved May 30, 2014.
- ^ City of Boston. "Arlington Street Church, Landmarks Commission Study Report" (PDF).
- ^ a b c "Our Windows: A Guide to the Historic Collection of Tiffany Windows" (PDF). Arlington Street Church. Retrieved May 16, 2017.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-7148-6551-5.
- ^ "The Foundation for the Preservation of 20 Arlington Street". Croma. Retrieved March 8, 2019.
- ^ "All Our Windows at-a-Glance". Tiffany Windows Education Center at Arlington Street Church. Retrieved March 8, 2019.
- ^ "News and Updates". Tiffany Windows Education Center at Arlington Street Church. Retrieved March 8, 2019.
- ^ a b c "Visit". Croma. Retrieved May 16, 2017.
- ^ "Welcome to Arlington Street Church!". Arlington Street Church. Retrieved May 16, 2017.
External links
- Arlington Street Church official website
- The historical records of and correspondence and collected resources on social and religious movements kept by the Arlington Street Church are in the Harvard Divinity School Library at Harvard Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
- City of Boston, Boston Landmarks Commission Arlington Street Church Study Report