Christ Church, at Zero Garden Street in

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, ...

, U.S., is a

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or ...

of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts. Built in 1760–61, it was designated a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places liste ...

as one of the few buildings unambiguously attributable to Peter Harrison, the first formally trained architect to work in the British colonies.

History

The congregation was founded in 1759 by members of the

King's Chapel King's Chapel is an American independent Christian unitarian congregation affiliated with the Unitarian Universalist Association that is "unitarian Christian in theology, Anglican in worship, and congregational in governance." It is housed i ...

who lived in Cambridge to have a church closer to their homes and to provide

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Brit ...

services to students at

Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate college of Harvard University, an Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636, Harvard College is the original school of Harvard University, the oldest institution of higher ...

across Cambridge Common. The church's first rector was East Apthorp, and most of the founding members lived along the nearby

Tory Row Tory Row is the nickname historically given by some to the part of Brattle Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts where many Loyalists had mansions at the time of the American Revolutionary War, and given by others to seven Colonial mansions along Br ...

, now called Brattle Street. The church was designed by noted colonial era architect Peter Harrison, who also designed the

in Boston, and is one of a small number of surviving buildings attributable to him. It is built in Georgian style. Its wooden frame rests on a granite foundation built from ballast stones from ships arriving at

Boston Harbor Boston Harbor is a natural harbor and estuary of Massachusetts Bay, and is located adjacent to the city of Boston, Massachusetts. It is home to the Port of Boston, a major shipping facility in the northeastern United States. History ...

. The church was originally finished in a sanded paint treatment to give the appearance of a traditional English stone church. During the

American Revolution The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revoluti ...

Christ Church was attacked by dissenting colonials for its Tory leanings, but it was also the site of a prayer service which George and

Martha Washington Martha Dandridge Custis Washington (June 21, 1731 — May 22, 1802) was the wife of George Washington, the first president of the United States. Although the title was not coined until after her death, Martha Washington served as the inaugural ...

attended while quartered in the nearby mansion now known as

Longfellow House–Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site The Longfellow House–Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site (also known as the Vassall-Craigie-Longfellow House and, until December 2010, Longfellow National Historic Site) is a historic site located at 105 Brattle Street in Cambridge ...

. The church was closed, and its organ melted down for bullets during the Revolution. For several years after the American Revolution, the church stood empty. In the later years of the eighteenth century the church was re-opened as an Episcopal Church and has remained so. The original chapel was expanded in 1857 to accommodate a larger congregation and to help raise funds for the church by expanding pew rental income. The church was dramatically redecorated in 1883, but it was restored to its original simplicity in 1920.http://www.cccambridge.org/History.html Generations of Harvard students from

Richard Henry Dana Jr. Richard Henry Dana Jr. (August 1, 1815 – January 6, 1882) was an American lawyer and politician from Massachusetts, a descendant of a colonial family, who gained renown as the author of the classic American memoir ''Two Years Before the Mast''. ...

, author of ''

Two Years Before the Mast ''Two Years Before the Mast'' is a memoir by the American author Richard Henry Dana Jr., published in 1840, having been written after a two-year sea voyage from Boston to California on a merchant ship starting in 1834. A film adaptation under the ...

'', to

Teddy Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt Jr. ( ; October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), often referred to as Teddy or by his initials, T. R., was an American politician, statesman, soldier, conservationist, naturalist, historian, and writer who served as the 26t ...

, who was asked not to continue as a Sunday School teacher because he would not become an Episcopalian, have made Christ Church their parish home during their studies. The church was declared a

in 1960,Patricia Heintzelman and Charles Snell (October 10, 1975) , National Park Service and and was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

in 1966. To the east adjacent to the church at the corner of Garden Street and Massachusetts Avenue is a separate historic landmark known as the Old Burying Ground, not affiliated with the chapel or any other church; it pre-dates the present church by over a century. Christ Church has a long history of social activism, supporting the

civil rights movement The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional racial segregation, discrimination, and disenfranchisement throughout the Unite ...

, the

peace movement A peace movement is a social movement which seeks to achieve ideals, such as the ending of a particular war (or wars) or minimizing inter-human violence in a particular place or situation. They are often linked to the goal of achieving world pe ...

, and ministries of social justice. In April 1967 the Reverend

Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist, one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968 ...

and Doctor

Benjamin Spock Benjamin McLane Spock (May 2, 1903 – March 15, 1998) was an American pediatrician and left-wing political activist whose book '' Baby and Child Care'' (1946) is one of the best-selling books of the twentieth century, selling 500,000 copies ...

were denied access to a building at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of highe ...

to hold a press conference denouncing the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

, but the Reverend Murray Kenney welcomed them to Christ Church; a plaque in the parish hall commemorates the event. Another activist to speak at Christ Church was

Jesse Jackson Jesse Louis Jackson (né Burns; born October 8, 1941) is an American political activist, Baptist minister, and politician. He was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988 and served as a shadow U.S. senato ...

, who spoke as part of a Martin Luther King Jr. celebration in 2004.

Gallery

File:Christ Church, Cambridge, MA - interior.JPG, Church interior. File:Cambridge Common from the Seat of Caleb Gannett 1808.jpg, View of the Cambridge Common, ca. 1808–09, with

on the left and Christ Church on the right. File:CambridgeMA ChristChurch.jpg, Exterior in 2012. File:Christ Church, 1759-61 - DPLA - d42eedb3186db943e362de3732c93bf4.jpg, Christ Church, 1759–61, ca. 1895–1905. Archive of Photographic Documentation of Early Massachusetts Architecture, Boston Public Library.

References

External links

*
Christ Church Website

Illus. by Winslow Homer
of bells {{National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts National Historic Landmarks in Cambridge, Massachusetts Episcopal church buildings in Massachusetts Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts Churches in Cambridge, Massachusetts Harvard Square 18th-century Episcopal church buildings Historic district contributing properties in Massachusetts National Register of Historic Places in Cambridge, Massachusetts Georgian architecture in Massachusetts

History

Gallery

See also

References

External links