Greenwood Union Church is a historic church at 4 Oak Street in

Wakefield, Massachusetts Wakefield is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, incorporated in 1812 and located about north-northwest of Downtown Boston. Wakefield's population was 27,090 at the 2020 census. Wakefield offers ...

. The church was built in 1884 and added to 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 v ...

in 1989.

History and description

The early beginnings of the Greenwood Union Church can be traced through historical records to the mid-1850s when the

Sunday School A Sunday school is an educational institution, usually (but not always) Christian in character. Other religions including Buddhism, Islam, and Judaism have also organised Sunday schools in their temples and mosques, particularly in the West. Su ...

was organized under the leadership of Henry Degan. The founders met in the unoccupied room of the Greenwood School House (also referred to as the old Hose House). After the First Congregational Society of Greenwood was organized in 1873, the members immediately began planning for a building of their own. When the school department needed their meeting room, they set out to find land, subsequently purchasing some land from the Joseph Eaton estate on Oak Street. Architects

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were commissioned to design the church,''American Architect and Building News'' 24 Jan. 1885. Boston. and the foundation was laid in November 1884. The ground floor of the building was in use by 1885. The upper floors were not completed until 1895, with a dedication held on February 27, 1895. The Greenwood Union Church was organized on November 19, 1903. In 1907, a one-story addition provided classrooms and a two-story addition provided a

parlor A parlour (or parlor) is a reception room or public space. In medieval Christian Europe, the "outer parlour" was the room where the monks or nuns conducted business with those outside the monastery and the "inner parlour" was used for necessar ...

for the Ladies' Aid society. Extensive remodeling and another addition, which extended the building closer to Oak Street, began in 1920. The front of the sanctuary became the side and the new front faced back to the hill. The dedication was held on April 16, 1922. In 1944, a Parish House Fund was established which resulted in the purchase of the neighboring Willard Eaton property in 1952. In January 1956, the church secured the corner lot at Oak and Main Street for further expansion, and the cornerstone of the new building was laid on September 25, 1960. The

dedication Dedication is the act of consecrating an altar, temple, church, or other sacred building. Feast of Dedication The Feast of Dedication, today Hanukkah, once also called "Feast of the Maccabees," is a Jewish festival observed for eight days fr ...

took place in March 1961. As of 2021, the church has been purchased and renamed Restoration Road Church.

References

{{Authority control Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts Churches in Middlesex County, Massachusetts Buildings and structures in Wakefield, Massachusetts National Register of Historic Places in Wakefield, Massachusetts

History and description

See also

References