The Old West Church is a historic

United Methodist Church The United Methodist Church (UMC) is a worldwide mainline Protestant denomination based in the United States, and a major part of Methodism. In the 19th century, its main predecessor, the Methodist Episcopal Church, was a leader in evangelical ...

at 131 Cambridge Street in the West End of Boston, Massachusetts. It was built in 1806 to designs by architect

Asher Benjamin Asher Benjamin (June 15, 1773July 26, 1845) was an American architect and author whose work transitioned between Federal architecture and the later Greek Revival architecture. His seven handbooks on design deeply influenced the look of cities a ...

, and is considered one of his finest works. It is a monumentally-scaled example of ecclesiastical

Federal architecture Federal-style architecture is the name for the classicizing architecture built in the newly founded United States between 1780 and 1830, and particularly from 1785 to 1815, which was heavily based on the works of Andrea Palladio with several inn ...

, whose design was widely copied throughout New England.

Description and history

The first church on this site was built in 1737 as a wood-frame building, and was occupied as a barracks by British troops during their occupation of the city prior to 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 Revolut ...

. The British destroyed its tower in 1775 when they suspected that American Colonials were signaling to

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

from the spire. In 1806 the congregation commissioned Asher Benjamin to design a new church building. As in the architect's earlier

Charles Street Meeting House The Charles Street Meeting House is an early-nineteenth-century historic church in Beacon Hill at 70 Charles Street, Boston, Massachusetts. The church has been used over its history by several Christian denominations, including Baptists, the ...

(1804), its -story brick entry tower is crowned with a

cupola In architecture, a cupola () is a relatively small, most often dome-like, tall structure on top of a building. Often used to provide a lookout or to admit light and air, it usually crowns a larger roof or dome. The word derives, via Italian, from ...

; the whole tower projects outward somewhat from the church hall behind. Four shallow brick

pilaster In classical architecture Classical architecture usually denotes architecture which is more or less consciously derived from the principles of Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, or sometimes even more specifically, from the ...

s, each two stories high and trimmed with white wood, separate the three entry doors. Each door is echoed by a window above it. The tower's third story is outfitted with pairs of

Doric Doric may refer to: * Doric, of or relating to the Dorians of ancient Greece ** Doric Greek, the dialects of the Dorians * Doric order, a style of ancient Greek architecture * Doric mode, a synonym of Dorian mode * Doric dialect (Scotland) * Doric ...

pilasters. On the final half-story beneath the cupola are clocks on each face of the tower, each adorned with a light swag. On the back wall, the original central pulpit window has been filled in with brickwork. Old West's preaching played a major role in American history.

Jonathan Mayhew Jonathan Mayhew (October 8, 1720 – July 9, 1766) was a noted American Congregational minister at Old West Church, Boston, Massachusetts. Early life Mayhew was born at Martha's Vineyard, being fifth in descent from Thomas Mayhew (1592–168 ...

, the church's second Congregational pastor, spoke out as early as 1750 about the justice of removing tyrannical leaders. His preaching was theologically radical as well, and is held by some Unitarians to have predated

William Ellery Channing William Ellery Channing (April 7, 1780 – October 2, 1842) was the foremost Unitarian preacher in the United States in the early nineteenth century and, along with Andrews Norton (1786–1853), one of Unitarianism's leading theologians. Channi ...

in his exposition of

anti-trinitarian Nontrinitarianism is a form of Christianity that rejects the mainstream Christian doctrine of the Trinity—the belief that God is three distinct hypostases or persons who are coeternal, coequal, and indivisibly united in one being, or essence ...

views. By the early 19th century, the resultant

Unitarianism Unitarianism (from Latin ''unitas'' "unity, oneness", from ''unus'' "one") is a nontrinitarian branch of Christian theology. Most other branches of Christianity and the major Churches accept the doctrine of the Trinity which states that there i ...

had converted 9 of Boston's original 13 orthodox

Congregational Congregational churches (also Congregationalist churches or Congregationalism) are Protestant churches in the Calvinist tradition practising congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs its ...

churches. Other notable pastors included Charles Lowell, and Cyrus Augustus Bartol. The church was originally and for 150 years Congregational. Between 1894 and 1960 the building served as a branch of the

Boston Public Library The Boston Public Library is a municipal public library system in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, founded in 1848. The Boston Public Library is also the Library for the Commonwealth (formerly ''library of last recourse'') of the Commonweal ...

. Since 1961, the building has been owned by the

. The building 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 listed ...

in 1970 for its architectural significance.

Gallery

File:1920 CambridgeSt Boston 2590352260.jpg, The church in 1920 File:Old West Church Boston.jpg,

Linocut Linocut, also known as lino print, lino printing or linoleum art, is a printmaking technique, a variant of woodcut in which a sheet of linoleum (sometimes mounted on a wooden block) is used for a relief surface. A design is cut into the linoleum s ...

of the church created by Stanley Scott in 1939 for the

Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...

File:Old West Church, Cambridge St. Boston.jpg, The facade of the church in 2012. File:2010 CambridgeSt Boston.jpg, The church neighbors the

First Harrison Gray Otis House The First Harrison Gray Otis House is a historic house museum and National Historic Landmark at 141 Cambridge Street in the West End of Boston, Massachusetts. The house, built in 1795–96, was the first of three houses designed by Charles Bu ...

References

External links

* http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/hhh.ma0487 * https://www.flickr.com/photos/boston_public_library/5415294659/
Old West Church web site
{{National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts Churches completed in 1806 Asher Benjamin buildings Churches in Boston National Historic Landmarks in Boston Towers in Massachusetts Clock towers in Massachusetts West End, Boston Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts Historic district contributing properties in Massachusetts National Register of Historic Places in Boston

Description and history

Gallery

See also

References

Further reading

External links