You are here

Metropolitan Boston » Cambridge » Central Square/Cambridgeport/Mid Cambridge » First Baptist Church

First Baptist Church

-A A +A
1881, Hartwell and Richardson. 5 Magazine St.

Standing at the apex of the intersection of Magazine and River streets with Massachusetts Avenue, First Baptist Church shines as one of the earliest projects by Hartwell and Richardson. The footprint conforms to the previous structure on the site, a High Victorian Gothic church designed by Woodcock and Meacham in 1866 that had burned down. Constructed of brick with sandstone and terra-cotta trim, the exterior of the Hartwell and Richardson church pays stylistic homage to its predecessor. However, instead of Ruskinian polychromy, the 1881 design employs bands of terra-cotta in reticulated patterns normally associated with Romanesque architecture. The corner tower with large arched belfry ends in a copper-clad steeple. The interior Gothic woodwork includes a great opentruss ceiling.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Keith N. Morgan
×

Data

What's Nearby

Central Square
Central Station
Cambridge City Hall District
Valentine Soap Workers' Cottages
Lafayette Square Fire Station

Citation

Keith N. Morgan, "First Baptist Church", [Cambridge, Massachusetts], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/MA-01-CS16.

Print Source

Cover: Buildings of Massachusetts

Buildings of Massachusetts: Metropolitan Boston, Keith N. Morgan, with Richard M. Candee, Naomi Miller, Roger G. Reed, and contributors. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2009, 297-298.

If SAH Archipedia has been useful to you, please consider supporting it.

SAH Archipedia tells the story of the United States through its buildings, landscapes, and cities. This freely available resource empowers the public with authoritative knowledge that deepens their understanding and appreciation of the built environment. But the Society of Architectural Historians, which created SAH Archipedia with University of Virginia Press, needs your support to maintain the high-caliber research, writing, photography, cartography, editing, design, and programming that make SAH Archipedia a trusted online resource available to all who value the history of place, heritage tourism, and learning.

,