You are here

Metropolitan Boston » Cambridge » Radcliffe College/Avon Hill » First Church Congregational

First Church Congregational

-A A +A
1870–1873, Abel C. Martin; 1938 tower redesign, Allen, Collens and Willis. 11 Garden St.
  • First Congregational Church (Keith Morgan)

Built for the Shepard Congregational Society, the First Church Congregational reflects changes in interpretations of Gothic architecture forty years after First Parish Church (RA2). Abel C. Martin trained under Arthur Gilman, an admirer of British Gothic Revival architect A. W. N. Pugin. Martin's design is an unusual combination of masonry that reflects the influence of the Venetian Gothic polychromy popularized by English critic John Ruskin with Romanesque architecture (seen in the windows and arcading), a frequent choice for Congregational churches at midcentury. The walls are a local slate, with the quoins, belt course, and coping of granite. Sandstone is used for the arches and collonnettes, and the roofs are banded in three colors of slate. In 1938 the spire was removed from the steeple, a major alteration that mars the proportions of the exterior; the weathercock survives from Boston's New Brick Meetinghouse (1721). The church is one of the most important remaining works by Martin.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Keith N. Morgan
×

Data

What's Nearby

Fay House, Radcliffe Yard
Radcliffe Yard
Burleigh House
Harvard School of Education Complex
Cambridge Common

Citation

Keith N. Morgan, "First Church Congregational", [Cambridge, Massachusetts], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/MA-01-RA4.

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, 341-342.

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.

,