St. Stephen's Church (Boston, Massachusetts) facts for kids
Quick facts for kids |
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St. Stephen's Church
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St. Stephen's Church, Boston
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| Location | 401 Hanover Street Boston, Massachusetts |
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| Built | 1804 |
| Architect | Charles Bulfinch |
| Architectural style | Federal |
| NRHP reference No. | 75000300 |
| Added to NRHP | April 14, 1975 |
St. Stephen's Church is a very old and important church in the North End area of Boston. It was built between 1802 and 1804. When it was first built, it was called the New North Church or New North Meeting House.
A famous architect named Charles Bulfinch designed it. He designed five churches in Boston, but St. Stephen's is the only one still standing today! The church you see now replaced an older one from 1714. This church started as a Congregationalist church. Later, in 1813, it became a Unitarian church. In 1862, it was sold to the Roman Catholic Church and renamed St. Stephen's. The church was fixed up and made new again in 1964-65. It was added to the list of important historic places in 1975.
Contents
Building the Church
This church is made of red brick with white pillars on the front. It has a clock tower and a belfry (where bells are kept) on top. The church was built for a Congregationalist group.
Workers started building it on September 23, 1802. The church was officially opened on May 2, 1804. A newspaper at the time said the outside looked "bold and commanding." It had stone pillars and a tall tower about 100 feet high. The inside was almost a perfect square, about 72 feet by 72 feet. It had two rows of columns supporting the ceiling, which curved upwards in the middle.
Charles Bulfinch designed the church to be almost square inside. Some wood from the old church (built in 1714) was used in the new one. When the church was fixed up in the 1960s, its foundation was still very strong. However, the roof wasn't built as well. It leaked a lot until it was fixed with new slate tiles a few years after it opened.
The church cost about $26,570 to build. Most of this money came from selling seats (called pews) inside the church. People at the time thought it was a "good style" building.
Church Changes Over Time
Becoming Unitarian
Many churches in Boston changed their beliefs around this time. The New North Church became Unitarian in 1813. From 1813 to 1849, a minister named Francis Parkman led the church. He was the father of a famous historian.
By 1822, the church noticed a problem. Young people who married and moved to other parts of Boston didn't want to come back to the North End for church. They felt it wasn't "fashionable" enough.
Becoming Catholic
In 1862, the North End area changed a lot. Many Irish Catholic families moved there. Because of this, the church was sold to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Boston. It was then renamed St. Stephen's.
When it became a Catholic church, some things changed. The old weathervane was taken off. A new peak was added to the dome, and a cross and a clock were put on the tower. Some arched windows inside were also covered up. In 1870, Hanover Street was made wider. The church building had to be moved back 16 feet and lifted more than 6 feet higher than its original foundation!
Today, St. Stephen's Church is home to the Missionary Society of St. James the Apostle. In 1992, it became part of St. Leonard's Parish.
Bringing Back the Old Look
In 1964, a church leader named Cardinal Richard James Cushing decided to restore St. Stephen's Church. The goal was to make it look more like Charles Bulfinch's original design. This included lowering the building back to its first foundation. They also rebuilt the cupola (the small dome on top) to look like Bulfinch's design.
The same company that moved the church almost 100 years earlier did the restoration work. During this project, they looked carefully for clues about the original building. They found the old copper dome hidden under a false cap. They also found the original side entrance doors, with their hardware, hidden behind bricks in the porch!
One writer, George E. Ryan, said that by 1965, St. Stephen's Church had been moved a total of 25 feet. It had moved up, down, and backwards over its history. The first move was in 1870, when the street was widened. The second move was to lift the building 6.5 feet. This allowed them to create a "lower church" for more space. The third move, in the 1960s, put the church back down to its original ground level.
The inside of the church isn't exactly like Bulfinch's original design. However, the pulpit and pews (church benches) are copies of old ones found in another church. The brown stone pillars on the front of the church were meant to be painted white to look like marble.
Kennedy Family Connections
At one time, John "Honey Fitz" Fitzgerald, who was a Mayor of Boston, went to St. Stephen's. His daughter, Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, was baptized here in 1890. Many years later, her funeral was also held at St. Stephen's in 1995.
See also
