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First Parish Church in Plymouth
Town Square Plymouth.JPG
The current First Parish Church building, built in 1899, in Plymouth is located downtown on Town Square at the base of Burial Hill (on the right)
Location 12 Church St., Plymouth, Massachusetts
Country USA
Denomination Unitarian Universalist
Membership 64 (2016)
History
Status Active
Founded 1606
Architecture
Heritage designation National Register of Historic Places
Designated 2014
Architectural type Neo-Romanesque
Years built 1899

First Parish Church in Plymouth is a historic Unitarian Universalist church at the base of Burial Hill on the town square off Leyden Street in Plymouth, Massachusetts. The congregation was founded in 1620 by the Pilgrims in Plymouth. The current building was constructed in 1899.

History

Congregation

The congregation was founded in the English community of Scrooby in 1606 by the Pilgrims, a group of Protestant Christians. After they emigrated to North America in 1620, the Separatist congregation established a church in Plymouth which became a parish church of Massachusetts' state church, the Congregational church. Eventually, a schism developed in 1801, when much of the congregation adopted Unitarianism along with many of the other state churches in Massachusetts; the Congregationalist dissenters broke away to form the Church of the Pilgrimage. All state churches were disaffiliated with the government by 1834. The congregation is currently affiliated with the Unitarian Universalist Association and has 64 members as of 2016.

Buildings

Originally, the congregation held Christian services on the Mayflower and then at a fort on Burial Hill from 1621 until 1648. The fort was also used for other colony events including meetings of the Plymouth General Court. In 1648 the first of four church buildings on the town square was constructed. Later churches were built in 1684, 1744, and 1831. Hartwell, Richardson & Driver designed the current Romanesque-style building, completed 1899, which replaced the 1831 wooden Gothic structure. The 1899 building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2014. It has Tiffany stained glass windows illustrating the Pilgrim story. The sanctuary features carved quarter-sawn oak and is one of the finest examples of hammer beam construction in the United States.

Gallery

  • Burial Hill Fort in Plymouth MA

    Burial Hill Fort, ca. 1621, housed the original church in Plymouth

  • William Harlow House in Plymouth MA

    William Harlow House, built in 1677 in Plymouth, made of timbers from the Burial Hill Fort, (meeting place of First Parish Church)

  • 1683 First Parish Meeting House in Plymouth MA

    1683 First Parish Meeting House

  • 1744 First Parish Meeting House in Plymouth MA

    1744 First Parish Meeting House

  • Plymouth Meeting House 1831

    1831 First Parish Meeting House

  • First Parish Church in Plymouth MA

    1899 First Parish Meeting House

  • PlymouthMA TownSq 1910

    First Parish Church in Town Square, ca. 1905

  • First Parish Church in Plymouth Mass

    First Parish is at the rear, while the white church to the right is the Church of the Pilgrimage

  • First Parish Church interior in Plymouth Mass

    interior

See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Primera iglesia parroquial en Plymouth para niños

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