Tag: Congregational

College Hall, Amherst (1828)

by Dan//Amherst, Churches, Collegiate, Greek Revival

College Hall in Amherst was built in 1828-1829 as the third meeting house of the First Congregational Church of Amherst. It was built on land donated by Amherst College in return for the right to hold commencement and other ceremonies in the church. When a new Congregational church was built on Main Street in 1867-1868, the College purchased the old church building, which was expanded and remodeled (with the addition of new columns to the front) and rededicated in 1905. Continue reading “College Hall, Amherst (1828)”

First Church of Danvers (1980)

by Dan//Churches, Danvers, Postmodern

The First Church of Danvers was established in 1672, when the area was still a part of Salem and was known as Salem Village. Instead of traveling every Sunday to Salem, the people of Salem Village wanted their own meeting house, which was built over several years at what is now the intersection of Forest and Hobart Streets. This building was the site of most of the examinations at the start of the 1692 Salem withcraft hysteria. The original meeting house was abandoned in 1701 and new one was built on the site of the current First Church of Danvers. This second meeting house stood until 1785, and a new and larger one was then built on the same spot the following year. This building lasted twenty years, until it burned down in 1805. Its replacement, built in 1806, was constructed of brick. Concerns about some cracking and settling of the brick walls led to its being replaced in 1839 by yet another new structure. Remodeled in 1869 and again in 1889, this fifth building burned to the ground in 1890. The next church building was dedicated in 1891 and the seventh and current building opened in 1980.

First Congregational Church of Amherst (1868)

by Dan//Amherst, Churches, Gothic

The Congregational Church in Amherst dates back to 1739, when the future town was still a part of Hadley. There have been four successive meeting houses for the church. The original meeting house, built around 1740, stood on the hill where the Amherst College Octagon would later be built. It was replaced, on the same site, by a more elaborate building, completed in 1788. The third meeting house was built across South Pleasant Street in 1829; since remodeled, it is now owned by Amherst College and is known as College Hall. The current First Congregational Church was built of Monson granite in 1867-1868. The architect was George Hathorne of Springfield and the local contractor was C.W. Lessey, who lived nearby; neighbor William Austin Dickinson supervised the construction. The same team would then begin construction of Walker Hall at Amherst College in 1868. Since its construction, the church has been much altered over the years, both inside and out.

Southwick Congregational Church (1824)

by Dan//Churches, Federal, Greek Revival, Southwick

The original meeting house in Southwick of 1773, located in Southwick‘s central village, burned in August 1823 and was replaced with the current meeting house, built in 1824-1825. A Federal/Greek Revival structure, the Southwick Congregational Church is considered to be one of the finest works of its architect, Isaac Damon of Northampton. According to George C. Gardener, writing in The American Architect and Building News (Vol. XLVII, No. 996, Jan. 26, 1895):

Capt. Isaac Damon appears to have been the leading architect of Western Massachusetts from 1812 to 1840, his influence on public and ecclesiastical work being even greater than [Asher] Benjamin’s on domestic. He designed and built at least thirteen churches in this region and nearly all the town-halls and court-houses; his specialty, however, was bridges, and there are several of his drawings still preserved

As the church neared completion, on November 6, 1824, two letters signed by the men working on the church were placed in a box inside one of the columns. These were rediscovered during a restoration in 1950 (see pdf article) and reveal that the workers came, not from Southwick, but from many other towns in the region.

First Church in Cambridge (1871)

by Dan//Cambridge, Churches, Gothic

Merry Christmas from Historic Buildings of Massachusetts!!! Today, Let’s look at a church with a long history. The current church, or meeting house, of the First Church in Cambridge, is the congregation’s sixth and was built in 1871. The first meeting house was built in 1632 at Mount Auburn and Dunster Streets. This congregation eventually left for Hartford, Connecticut under Rev. Thomas Hooker and a new congregation was gathered in Cambridge in 1636. A second meeting house was built in 1650 in the center of Harvard Square and was replaced by the third, at the same location, in 1706. The fourth was built at the corner of Church Street and Massachusetts Avenue in 1757 and was used until 1829, when there was a split in the congregation between Congregationalists and Unitarians. The Congregationalists, taking the name of the Shepard Congregational Society, built their own separate fifth meeting house (the Shepard Memorial Church), at Mount Auburn and Holyoke Streets in 1831. Outgrowing this, they built the current church, at Garden and Mason Streets, in 1872. In 1899, the two churches agreed to be separately known as the First Church in Cambridge (Congregational) and the First Church in Cambridge (Unitarian), now called the First Parish Cambridge. In the 1920s, a Parish House with a chapel, offices, classrooms and meeting halls were added to the Congregational Church. The church has a brass cockerel weathervane, which was made by famed coppersmith Shem Drowne in 1821 for the New Brick Church, known as the Cockerel Church, on Hanover Street, Boston and was purchased for the Cambridge church in 1873. Continue reading “First Church in Cambridge (1871)”

Old North Congregational Church, Marblehead (1825)

by Dan//Churches, Federal, Marblehead

Marblehead’s first meeting house was built in 1648, when the town was still part of Salem. In 1684, the church in Marblehead became separate from the First Church in Salem. In 1695, the original wood meeting house on Old Burial Hill was replaced by a new building on Franklin Street. A lot was purchased on Washington Street in 1821 and the current stone church building was constructed in 1824-1825. It is known as Old North Congregational Church because a separate second congregation was later formed to the south. The church originally had brown ashlar walls on all four sides, but the granite front facade was added later. The church has a golden cod weather vane. In 1969, the church’s silver, including a baptismal bowl made by Paul Revere, was stolen and eventually returned upon payment of ransom money.

West Granville Congregational Church (1778)

by Dan//Churches, Gothic, Granville, Greek Revival

In 1778, residents of West Granville volunteered many hours and much labor to construct a Congregational church. The long distance required to travel to the meeting house in Granville Center had led the people of West Granville to decide to form their own parish, which was officially established in 1781 as the Granville’s Second Congregational Church. Around 1845, the church was remodeled so that it has a transitional Greek Revival/Gothic Revival exterior.