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Meeting House Hill

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Church, Adams, and Winter sts.
  • Meeting House Hill (Keith Morgan)

The historic center of Dorchester survives in the common and church on the hill above Eaton Square. The present First Parish Church, erected in 1897, replaced an 1816 structure that burned. Cabot, Everett and Mead designed the new church in a Federal style that duplicated the earlier building. The 1816 church had been patterned on the popular design published by Asher Benjamin, whose builder's guides were well known to Boston architects. The architects in their design for the new building incorporated various changes, such as the style of fenestration. Across from the church is Dorchester Park, a common that dates back to the seventeenth century. The granite obelisk opposite the church is a Civil War monument (1867, Benjamin F. Dwight). Behind the church stands the Mather School (1930, Cram, Goodhue and Ferguson). Early-nineteenth-century houses, including 34 Adams Street, built in 1804, and 29 Adams Street, the home of artist Lemuel Blackman, erected in 1820, overlook the park.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Keith N. Morgan
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Data

What's Nearby

St. Peter's Roman Catholic Church
M. Harriet McCormick Performing Arts Center (Strand Theater)
St. Mary's Episcopal Church
Dorchester North Burying Ground
Holy Family/St. Paul's Roman Catholic Church

Citation

Keith N. Morgan, "Meeting House Hill", [Boston, Massachusetts], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/MA-01-DR13.

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, 259-260.

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