Category: Churches

St. Bernard’s Roman Catholic Church (1840)

by Dan//Churches, Concord, Italianate

The St. Bernard’s Catholic Church at 12 Monument Square in Concord was originally erected in 1840 or 1842 by the First Universalist Society in Concord. The small congregation encountered financial difficulties and ended its services in the early 1850s. The church stood empty until the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston purchased it in December 1863. Since the early 1850s, Concord’s growing Irish Catholic community had been a mission of St. Mary’s Parish in Waltham. Now the parish had its own church, St. Bernard’s, which became an independent parish in 1867. At the time, the church was still in its original location, separated from the common by the “old green store.” In 1870, the parish purchased the store in order to move the church forward towards the common. The church was also turned ninety degrees to face southwest toward the foot of Main Street and enlarged with a basement and extended to the rear to accommodate a new vestibule and sanctuary.

Renovations in 1889, designed in the Italianate style by local architect John Chapman, added a steeple and again enlarged the church. Changes were made to the front facade and new front stairs were added in 1959-1960, but another major renovation in 1996-1997 restored the church as much as possible to its late nineteenth-century appearance.

Our Lady Help of Christians Church was built in the industrial area of West Concord in 1904 and became a separate parish in 1908. The two Concord parishes merged in 2004 to form Holy Family Parish, based at St. Bernard’s Church. More recently, Holy Family Parish and St. Irene’s Church in Carlisle joined to form a new parish collaborative.

Old Methodist Church, Westfield (1843)

by Dan//Churches, Commercial, Greek Revival, Westfield

Former Methodist Church in Westfield

The building at 24-26 Elm Street in Westfield was erected as a Methodist Church (the congregation‘s second church building) in 1843. Commercial businesses were located on the ground floor of the building with the church above, a not unusual practice for urban churches of the time. When a new Methodist Church was completed on Court Street in 1875, the Elm Street building became exclusively commercial and the post office moved into the basement. The cupola, roof and third story were razed in the 1940s.

United Congregational Church, Holyoke (1885)

by Dan//Churches, Gothic, Holyoke, Romanesque Revival

United Congregational Church, Holyoke

The Second Congregational Church (now United Congregational Church) of Holyoke was organized in 1849 as the First Congregational Society of Ireland Depot, taking the name of Second Congregational the following year when Holyoke became a town. Its first church, designed by New Haven architect Henry Austin, was erected in 1853 at the northeast corner of High and Dwight streets. A new church, located at 395 High Street, was erected in 1882-1885. It was designed by P. B. Johnson. By 1868 the congregation was the largest Congregational church in New England, and the fifth largest in the country. Attached to the 1885 church is the Skinner Memorial Chapel, designed by Allen and Collens and completed in 1912. A fire in 1919 destroyed the church, but left the bell tower and chapel standing. A new church, matching the architecture of the chapel, was soon built, also designed by Allen and Collens. In 1996 Second Congregational merged with Grace United Church (itself a 1973 merger of Grace Church and First United Congregational Church) to form the United Congregational Church of Holyoke.

French Congregational Church – First Spiritualist Church (1887)

by Dan//Churches, Gothic, Springfield

First Spiritualist Church

The picture above was taken in 2012, four years before the recent move of what was once the French Congregational Church and then the First Spiritualist Church. This spring, the building was moved 600 feet from its original address at 33-37 Bliss Street to a new location closer to Union Street to make way for construction of the new MGM Springfield Casino. The High Victorian Gothic-style church was erected in 1887 through the leadership of Springfield industrialist Daniel B. Wesson to benefit French Canadian Huguenots who were employed by the Smith and Wesson Company. In 1909, the French Protestants gave up the church and Wesson sold it to the Congregational Union. In 1918 the church was acquired by the First Spiritualist Society, formed in 1898, which incorporated in 1919 as the First Spiritualist Church of Springfield. The Church sold the building in 2013 and moved to a new location in Chicopee, where it is now known as the Healing Hands of Light Spiritualist Church. UPDATE: The relocated Church, which now faces Union Street, is part of the MGM Springfield Casino complex.
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South Congregational Church, Pittsfield (1850)

by Dan//Churches, Greek Revival, Italianate, Pittsfield

South Congregational Church, Pittsfield

Pittsfield’s South Congregational Church was formed in 1848 because of the enlarged membership of the First Congregational Church. Work soon began on the new church building at 110 South Street, but in September, 1849 a fire destroyed the partially completed structure. Work started over and the completed church was dedicated on November 13, 1850. The steeple has twice been blown down, in 1859 and in 1882.