The Beth Eden Baptist Church is a historic
Baptist church
Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christian believers only (believer's baptism), and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul compete ...
building at 84 Maple Street in
Waltham, Massachusetts
Waltham ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, and was an early center for the labor movement as well as a major contributor to the American Industrial Revolution. The original home of the Boston Manufacturing Company, th ...
. Built in 1891, it is a fine local example of Romanesque Revival architecture and is further notable as the oldest church on Waltham's South Side. The church was added to the
National Historic Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of Historic districts in the United States, districts, sites, buildings, struc ...
in 1989.
Its Settled Pastor is Rev. Dr. Esther Pearson.
Architecture and history
The church is located on the north side of Maple Street, just west of its junction with Moody Street. Maple Street is a major east-west route through Waltham's South Side, and Moody Street is its economic spine. The church is built principally of brick, but the lower half of the ground floor is fashioned out of uncoursed fieldstone. The gabled roof is oriented north-south, with a tall tower at the southwest corner, that has an open belfry topped by a pyramidal roof with gable-topped clock faces. The main entrance is housed inside a large round-arch opening at the base of the gabled section, and has two board-and-batten doors flanked by Romanesque windows with simple tracery.
[
The church was designed by ]William M. Butterfield
William M. Butterfield (1860–1932) was an American architect from New Hampshire.Shettleworth, Earle G., Jr. "Biographical Dictionary of Architects in Maine: Chesmon Butterfield, 1835-1881". ''http://www.state.me.us/mhpc/architects_bio.html'' ...
of Manchester, New Hampshire, and completed in 1891. It is the oldest surviving church building on Waltham's South Side, built during expansion related to the success of the Waltham Watch Company
The Waltham Watch Company, also known as the American Waltham Watch Co. and the American Watch Co., was a company that produced about 40 million watches, clocks, speedometers, compasses, time delay fuses, and other precision instruments in the Un ...
. The congregation was organized out of the city's First Baptist Church in 1887. The building suffered a major fire in 1908, from which it was rebuilt to largely the same plan, allowing increased space for an organ. The tower originally housed a city-owned clock.
See also
*
References
External links
Beth Eden Baptist Church
{{Authority control
Baptist churches in Massachusetts
Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts
Churches in Middlesex County, Massachusetts
Churches in Waltham, Massachusetts
National Register of Historic Places in Waltham, Massachusetts