Church sights in Boston
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Christ Church
Cambridge’s oldest church was designed in 1761 by America’s first formally trained architect, Peter Harrison (who also did King’s Chapel in Boston). Washington’s troops used it as a barracks after its Tory congregation fled.
Christ Church’s favorite son is Teddy Roosevelt, who taught Sunday school here when he was a student at Harvard. An interesting addendum to that story is that the future president was actually discharged because he refused to convert to Episcopalianism but chose to remain a member of the Dutch Reformed Church. Adjacent to the church, the Old Burying Ground is a tranquil revolutionary-era cemetery, where Harvard’s first eight presidents…
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Park Street Church
Shortly after the construction of Park St Church, powder for the War of 1812 was stored in the basement, earning this location the moniker ‘Brimstone Corner.’ But that was hardly the most inflammatory event that took place here. Noted for its graceful, 217ft steeple, this Boston landmark has been hosting historic lectures and musical performances since its founding.
In 1829 William Lloyd Garrison railed against slavery from the church’s pulpit. And on Independence Day in 1831, Samuel Francis Smith’s hymn ‘America’ ('My Country ‘Tis of Thee') was first sung. These days, Park St is a conservative congregational church.
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Arlington Street Church
The first public building erected in Back Bay in 1861, this graceful church features extraordinary Tiffany windows and 16 bells in its steeple. The church’s Unitarian Universalist ministry is purely progressive, as it has been since Rev William Ellery Channing preached here in the early 19th century. (A statue in his honor is across the street in the Public Garden.)
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New Old South Church
This magnificent puddingstone Venetian Gothic church on Copley Sq is called the ‘new’ Old South because up until 1875, the congregation worshiped in the Old South Church on Milk St (now the Old South Meeting House). The Congregational church has an impressive collection of stained-glass windows, all shipped from London, and an organ that was rescued from a Minneapolis church just before demolition.
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Cathedral of the Holy Cross
When this neo-Gothic cathedral was built in 1875, it was America’s largest Catholic cathedral, as big as London's Westminster Abbey. It serves as the main cathedral for the archdiocese of Boston and the seat of the archbishop. The exquisite rose window features King David playing his harp, while the rest of the cross-shaped building is peppered with stained-glass windows and traditional church art.
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Christian Science Church
Known to adherents as the ‘Mother Church,’ this is the international home base for the Church of Christ, Scientist (Christian Science), founded by Mary Baker Eddy in 1866. Tour the grand classical revival basilica, which can seat 3000 worshippers, listen to the 14,000-pipe organ, and linger on the expansive plaza with its 670ft-long reflecting pool.
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Old North Church
‘One if by land, Two if by sea…’ Everyone knows the line from Longfellow’s poem, Paul Revere’s Ride. It was here, on the night of April 18, 1775, that the sexton hung two lanterns from the steeple, as a signal that the British would march on Lexington and Concord via the sea route. Also called Christ Church, this 1723 place of worship is Boston’s oldest church. Many of the tall pew boxes bear the brass nameplates of early parishioners who had to purchase their pews. The brass chandeliers used today were first lit on Christmas in 1724. Note the candles – there is no electric lighting in the church. This remains an active church; the grand organ is played at the 11am Sunday…
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Trinity Church
The ornate French-Romanesque Trinity Church is the masterwork of architect HH Richardson.
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