First Baptist Church (Boston, Massachusetts)
First Baptist Church | |
Back Bay Historic District (ID73001948) | |
NRHP reference No. | 72000146[1] |
---|---|
Significant dates | |
Added to NRHP | February 23, 1972 |
Designated CP | August 14, 1973 |
The First Baptist Church (or "Brattle Square Church") is a historic
History
1665–1837
The congregation was founded in 1665 despite a Massachusetts law prohibiting opposition to
In 1682, under the watch of William Screven, the church organised a spinoff mission in present-day Kittery, Maine; as a result of issues with Congregationalism in the 1690s, the church moved to Charleston, South Carolina and is the modern day First Baptist Church meeting in James Island, South Carolina.
1837–1882
In 1837 the First Baptist congregation moved into a new brick church building (fourth meeting house) on the corner of Hanover Street and
1882–present
The current church building (fifth meeting house) was designed by the notable architect Henry Hobson Richardson and built in 1869–71. It opened in 1872 to serve the Unitarian congregation of the Brattle Street Church, also known as the Church in Brattle Square, which had been demolished in 1872.[5] The Unitarian congregation dissolved soon after moving to this building.[6] The First Baptist congregation bought the building in 1881 for a sum of $100,000.00. The historic and prominent tower with distinctive friezes carved "in-situ" by Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi (sculptor of the Statue of Liberty) representing four sacraments, with faces of famous Bostonians (including Longfellow and Hawthorne), Abraham Lincoln, and Bartholdi's friends of that era, (including Garibaldi). This building was Richardson's first church in Boston before he designed his masterpiece, Trinity Church. This church was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. The congregation is affiliated with the American Baptist Churches USA.
See also
- National Register of Historic Places listings in northern Boston, Massachusetts
References
- ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. April 15, 2008.
- ^ a b c "History of the First Baptist Church of Boston - Since 1665". www.firstbaptistchurchofboston.org. Archived from the original on August 11, 2002.
- ^ "Boston Pulpit". Gleasons Pictorial. 5. Boston, Mass. 1853.
- ^ Boston Directory. 1850
- Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities. Archived from the original(PDF) on October 3, 2006.
- ^ "Church in Brattle Square (Boston, Mass.) Records (bMS 1): Register". Harvard University Library. 1969. Retrieved October 18, 2009.
Further reading
- Rollin Heber Neale. An address delivered on the two hundredth anniversary of the organization of the First Baptist church, Boston, June 7, 1865. Gould and Lincoln, 1865.
- Nathan Eusebius Wood. The history of the First Baptist Church of Boston (1665–1899). American Baptist Publication Society, 1899.
External links
- First Baptist Church of Boston Official Website Archived 2016-06-03 at the Wayback Machine