United First Parish Church

United First Parish Church (Unitarian) of Quincy
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Landmark
The United First Parish Church, Quincy, Massachusetts
Show map of Massachusetts Show map of the United States
Location	1306 Hancock Street, Quincy, Massachusetts
Coordinates	42°15′4″N 71°0′11″W / 42.25111°N 71.00306°W / 42.25111; -71.00306
Built	1828
Architect	Parris, Alexander
Architectural style	Greek Revival
NRHP reference No.	70000734[1]
Significant dates
Added to NRHP	December 30, 1970
Designated NHL	December 30, 1970

United First Parish Church is an American

United First Parish Church is called the Church of the Presidents because two

The 1828 church is constructed of locally quarried granite, and is one of the finest Greek Revival church buildings in New England. It has a Greek temple front, supported by four monolithic granite columns which may have been the largest set in the United States at the time. Each column is 25 feet (7.6 m) tall and weighs an estimated 25 tons. Above the main facade rises a two-stage tower. Its lower section is oblong and unadorned, while the second stage is stepped back and square. It has clock faces on each side, and is topped by an open cupola with eight columns and a dome.^[2]

President

Since 2004, the United First Parish Church has hosted the Prison Book Program in the church basement. The origins of the PBP started in 1972, in the Red Book Store Collective in Cambridge, where it disseminated progressive literature, and advocated for the well being of prisoners. It was influential in creating a legal primer, and prison resource list that prisoners can request by letter, along with the other works of literature the PBP offers. The PBP is not associated with the UFPC and is a secular organization, however the UFPC supports the work the PBP does.[3]

• 
  The church as depicted in a c. 1851–1854 engraving
• 
  2005 view of the interior and its decorative plaster domed ceiling

See also

• Church of the Presidents, Long Branch, New Jersey
• Adams National Historical Park
• List of National Historic Landmarks in Massachusetts
• National Register of Historic Places listings in Quincy, Massachusetts

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to United First Parish Church (Unitarian) of Quincy.

External links

• United First Parish Church website
• United First Parish Church (Unitarian) Of Quincy's National Historic Landmark summary description
• Historical records for the United First Parish Church are in the Andover-Harvard Theological Library at Harvard Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts.