Unitarian Universalist Church
First Church in 2008
First Church in Boston
is a
Unitarian Universalist Church
(originally
Congregationalist
) founded in 1630 by
John Winthrop
's original Puritan settlement in
Boston, Massachusetts
. The current building, located on 66 Marlborough Street in the
Back Bay
neighborhood, was designed by
Paul Rudolph
in a modernist style after a fire in 1968. It incorporates part of the earlier gothic revival building designed by
William Robert Ware
and
Henry Van Brunt
in 1867. The church has long been associated with
Harvard University
.
History
[
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]
The church congregation was established in 1630, when the settlers on the
Arbella
arrived at the site of present-day
Charlestown, Massachusetts
.
[1]
John Wilson
was the first minister, and the only minister while the church was in Charlestown. Two years later they constructed a meeting house across the
Charles River
near what is now
State Street
in Boston, and Wilson was officially installed as minister there. In 1633
John Cotton
arrived from England, and was a teaching elder at the church, helping to establish the foundation of the
Congregational Church
, the official
state church
of Massachusetts. In 1677
Dorcas ye blackmore
, a freed slave, became the first African American allowed to become a member of the church.
[2]
In the 18th century,
Charles Chauncy
was a minister at First Church for sixty years,
[3]
where he gained a reputation for opposing what he believed was the emotionalism of
Jonathan Edwards
during the
Great Awakening
.
[4]
A schism developed at the turn of the 19th century: this Trinitarian Christian church eventually transformed into a
Unitarian
congregation by the mid-19th century, as did many of the other state churches in Massachusetts.
[5]
Massachusetts' state churches (largely Unitarian and Congregationalist, including First Church), were officially disaffiliated from the government in 1833.
In the 19th century, the First Church moved to
Back Bay
in Boston. The building at 66 Marlborough Street in Boston dated from 1868, and was designed by Boston architects
William Robert Ware
and
Henry Van Brunt
.
Second Church
, also known as the "Church of the Mathers", was founded in 1649 when the population spread to the North End and justified an additional congregation sited closer to those individuals' homes. From 1664 to 1741, its clergy consisted of
Increase Mather
,
Cotton Mather
, and
Samuel Mather
. Both churches were examples of the westward movement of Boston churches from the crowded, older downtown area to the newer, more fashionable Back Bay. This area was developed for residential use after lowlands were filled in during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Second Church's Back Bay location in the Fenway was sold (it is now owned by the Ruggles St. Baptist congregation) just before the merger.
[6]
After a disastrous fire in 1968, First Church and Second Church merged and built a new building at the 66 Marlborough Street location.
Architecture
[
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]
The current building incorporates the ruined street facade and "
puddingstone
" steeple tower of the previous church on the site (by Ware & van Brunt, 1868), which had burned in 1968.
[7]
[8]
After a call for designs, the congregation voted for the proposal by
Paul Rudolph
, which was completed in 1972.
[8]
The light-flooded, soaring interior is finished with Rudolph's characteristic
bush hammered
"corduroy concrete" surfaces. Decades later, the interiors are immaculately preserved. Great care has been taken not to permanently change the walls, and to reproduce the original textile decorations.
[9]
Notable people associated with the church
[
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]
Gallery
[
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]
State St. (1632?1639)
[
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]
-
First meeting house, built 1632
-
John Wilson (pastor 1632?1667)
-
John Cotton (pastor 1633?1652)
Washington St. (1639?1808)
[
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]
-
Location near Old State House, 17th century
-
John Davenport (pastor 1668?1670)
-
Old Brick Church, Washington St., built 1713
-
John Clarke (pastor 1778?1798)
Chauncy Place (1808?1867)
[
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]
Marlborough St. (1868?present)
[
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]
See also
[
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]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Arthur Blake Ellis;
George Edward Ellis
(1881).
History of the First Church in Boston, 1630?1880
. Boston: Hall and Whiting.
- ^
Deborah Colleen McNally, "To Secure her Freedom: “Dorcas ye blackmore,” Race, Redemption, and the Dorchester First Church",
The New England Quarterly
, Volume 89 | Issue 4 | December 2016, p.533-555
- ^
Ellis and Ellis (1881), p. 191.
- ^
Ellis and Ellis (1881), pp. 202?203.
- ^
Paul Erasmus Lauer,
Church and State in New England
(Johns Hopkins Press, 1892), pp. 105?107. (accessed September 20, 2009)
- ^
See Second Church records.
- ^
Murphy, James A. (December 1973).
"Rebirth in Back Bay"
(PDF)
.
Progressive Architecture
. Reinhold Publishing Company, Inc
. Retrieved
2022-03-05
.
- ^
a
b
"1968.09 First Church of Boston"
.
Paul Rudolph Heritage Foundation
. Retrieved
2022-03-05
.
- ^
"First Church and Related Facilities, Boston, MA, 1968-1972"
.
Paul Rudolph & His Architecture
. University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Library
. Retrieved
2022-03-05
.
- ^
"Boston Pulpit"
.
Gleasons Pictorial
.
5
. Boston, Mass. 1853.
Further reading
[
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]
- Leo W. Collins.
This Is Our Church: The Seven Societies of the First Church in Boston 1630?2005
. Boston: Society of the First Church in Boston, 2005.
Google books
- Paul Rudolph & his architecture. A page from a website devoted to Rudolph's work, featuring photos of the church building.
Paul Rudolph & his architecture
External links
[
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]
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United States
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- Massachusetts
- All Souls Church
- Arlington Street Church
- Bernardston Congregational Unitarian Church
- Brattle Street Church
- First Parish in Cambridge
- First Church in Boston
- First Church in Roxbury
- First Church in Salem
- First Church of Christ, Unitarian
- First Parish Church (Duxbury, Massachusetts)
- First Parish Church (Taunton, Massachusetts)
- First Parish Church (Waltham, Massachusetts)
- First Parish Church in Plymouth
- First Parish Church of Dorchester
- First Parish Church, Arlington Massachusetts
- First Parish in Malden
- First Parish of Sudbury
- First Parish Unitarian Church
- First Parish Unitarian Universalist Church of Scituate
- First Religious Society Church and Parish Hall
- First Unitarian Church (Peabody, Massachusetts)
- First Unitarian Church (Somerville, Massachusetts)
- First Unitarian Church (Stoneham, Massachusetts)
- First Unitarian Society in Newton
- First Universalist Church (Provincetown, Massachusetts)
- First Universalist Church (Salem, Massachusetts)
- First Universalist Church (Somerville, Massachusetts)
- Follen Church Society-Unitarian Universalist
- Housatonic Congregational Church
- King's Chapel
- North Parish Church
- Old Ship Church
- Second Unitarian Church
- Theodore Parker Unitarian Universalist Church
- Unitarian Church of Barnstable
- Unitarian Memorial Church
- Unitarian Society
- Unitarian Universalist Church of Medford and the Osgood House
- United First Parish Church
- Universalist Society Meetinghouse
- Wollaston Unitarian Church
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42°21′13.7″N
71°4′28.3″W
/
42.353806°N 71.074528°W
/
42.353806; -71.074528