Churches

Elliot Street, Springfield, Mass

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Looking down Elliot Street from Edwards Street, around 1892. Image from Picturesque Hampden (1892).

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The view in 2015:

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Most of the views of Springfield featured in Picturesque Hampden almost 125 years ago are now drastically changed, but thankfully very little is different about this view of Elliot Street. Aside from the one on the far left, all of the other buildings in this scene are still standing. The most prominent is the North Congregational Church, which was designed by noted architect Henry Hobson Richardson and completed in 1873. It was one of his earlier works, and is one of two of his buildings, along with the Hampden County Courthouse, that is still standing in Springfield. To the left is the William Mattoon House, which was built around 1870 and is the oldest building in the scene. It was owned by William Mattoon, who also owned the land behind it that was later developed as Mattoon Street. To the right in both photos is the duplex at 95-99 Elliot Street, which was built in 1887, only a few years before the first photo was taken. Today, all of these buildings have been restored and are part of the Quadrangle-Mattoon Street Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places.

Olivet Church, Springfield, Mass

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The Olivet Congregational Church on State Street in Springfield, around 1892. Image from Picturesque Hampden (1892).

The scene in 2015:

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For the first two centuries of Springfield’s history, most of the development was confined to the downtown area along Main Street, and it was not until the first half of the 19th century that other parts of the town began to see significant growth. Here on the “Hill” section of town, expansion of the Armory had spurred development along this part of State Street, and by the 1830s there was sufficient demand for a church.

The Fourth Congregational Church was established in 1833, and a year later they built this church here on State Street, directly opposite the Armory.  The building was extensively remodeled in 1854-1855, giving it the appearance as shown in the first photo, and it was renamed Olivet Congregational Church. By 1884, King’s Handbook of Springfield records that the church membership was up to 340, with plans to further expand the building. I don’t know whether the additions were ever carried out, but the church remained here for about 30 more years, until it was demolished to build Commerce High School around 1915.

Today, the 101 year old Commerce High School building is still used as a school.  The only building still standing from the first photo is the three story brick one on the left. It is visible just beyond the church in the first photo, with a three-story porch on the side.

First Baptist Church, Springfield, Mass

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First Baptist Church at the corner of State and Spring Streets in Springfield, around 1892. Image from Picturesque Hampden (1892).

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The scene in 2015:

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For several centuries, Congregationalism was the dominant religion in Massachusetts, including here in Springfield. It was the official state religion until 1780, and well into the 19th century the Congregational church was still publicly funded (this did not violate the First Amendment, which at the time only restricted Congress from establishing a religion, not the individual states). Minority churches such as Methodists and Baptists were permitted, but were generally small, as was the case in Springfield.

The First Baptist Church was officially organized in 1811 with 19 members, and for the first ten years of its existence the congregation met in homes or schoolhouses. Their first permanent meeting house was built on Central Street in 1821, and later in the decade they moved to a larger building at the corner of Maple and Mulberry Streets. At the time, these locations were on the outskirts of the town, which reflected their still somewhat marginalized status in a town still dominated by Congregationalism. This changed in 1847, though, when the growing church opened a new building right in the middle of downtown, at the corner of Main Street and Harrison Avenue. This building, which was in use until around 1888, can be seen in the distance of the photo in this earlier post.

By the late 1880s, Springfield had nearly quadrupled in size from its population when the old Baptist church was built, and Main Street had by then become primarily commercial. However, State Street was becoming the city’s cultural center, with a number of churches including Christ Church Cathedral, St. Michael’s Cathedral, Church of the Unity, and the State Street Methodist Episcopal Church. All of these churches were located within a quarter mile of each other, and around 1888 the First Baptist Church joined them by relocating to a new building at the corner of State and Spring Streets, as seen in the first photo. Built in the Romanesque style that was popular at the time, its architecture featured gratuitous use of arches and turrets, and later photos of the building show ivy covering the walls, giving the building an almost medieval appearance. Part of the church can be seen in the photo in this post, which was taken about 20 years later from the opposite direction.

Despite the grand architecture of their new building, First Baptist Church  remained here for only about 20 years. Around 1907 they merged with Highland Baptist Church, and this building was sold to St. Paul’s Universalist Church. It was still standing in the late 1930s, but at some point after that it was demolished and replaced by a two-story parking garage that stands on the site now. Interestingly, though, a part of one of the walls appears to have been incorporated into the parking garage; from Spring Street, a part of the rear wall (the side opposite State Street) is made of stone that matches the church’s rough-hewn stone exterior.

Old West Church, Boston

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The Old West Church on Cambridge Street in Boston, probably in the late 1800s or early 1900s. Image courtesy of the Boston Public Library.

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The church in 2015:

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Old West Church was established in 1737, as one of Boston’s many Congregational churches. This particular building was built in 1806, and was designed by prominent early American architect Asher Benjamin. It is architecturally very similar to one of Benjamin’s earlier Boston churches, the Charles Street Meeting House, which is still standing on the opposite side of Beacon Hill from here. The church closed in 1892, but the historic building was saved from demolition and put to a new use as a branch library for the Boston Public Library. It was one of the few buildings to survive the urban renewal project of the 1950s that destroyed most of the West End, and after the library closed in 1960 it was purchased by the United Methodist Church. The interior was restored to its original appearance and reopened in 1964, and today it remains in use as a Methodist church.

Bowdoin Square Baptist Church, Boston

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The Bowdoin Square Baptist Church in Boston, around 1860. Image taken by Josiah Johnson Hawes, courtesy of the Boston Public Library.

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Bowdoin Square in 2015:

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This scene shows Bowdoin Square facing the opposite direction from the one in the previous post, facing east on Cambridge Street toward Government Center. The most prominent building in the first photo is the Bowdoin Square Baptist Church, a Gothic Revival style church that was built in 1840. Its design is very similar to several other churches that were built in Boston around the same time, including the old Trinity Church on Summer Street and the nearby Bowdoin Street Congregational Church, which is still standing today as the Saint John the Evangelist Mission Church.

The church here at Bowdoin Square gained some notoriety in 1885, when the congregation split after the pastor, William W. Downs, was found in what was alleged to be a “compromising position” with a woman from his church. The scandal was well-publicized in newspapers across the country, and the church split into two factions, with one supporting his removal and the other believing his claims that he was the victim of a conspiracy. He was eventually dismissed from his position, and the church closed, but he maintained his innocence and several years later won a lawsuit against his accusers, with the jury awarding him $10,000 in damages.

Following the Downs scandal, the church became the Bowdoin Square Baptist Tabernacle, and it was extensively remodeled on the exterior and interior in 1898. However, the church sold the building in 1916 to the New England Telephone and Telegraph Company. Around 1930, they demolished the church and the neighboring Coolidge Building to the right, in order to build their new Boston headquarters, which is still standing in the 2015 photo. None of the other buildings remain from the 1860 photo, either; most of this section of Boston was demolished in the 1950s and 1960s as part of the West End and Government Center urban renewal projects.

New South Church, Boston

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New South Church at the corner of Summer and Bedford Streets in Boston, around 1855-1868. Image courtesy of the Boston Public Library.

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The scene in 2015:

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Not to be confused with the Old South Meeting House, or the New Old South Church, this church at the corner of Summer and Bedford Streets was known as the New South Church. It was octagonal in shape and made of granite, and it was designed by Charles Bulfinch, a prominent early American architect who designed a number of buildings in Boston, including the Massachusetts State House, the expanded Faneuil Hall, and Boylston Market.

When the church was completed in 1814, this neighborhood in the present-day financial district was an upscale residential area. A few block away on Franklin Street was Bulfinch’s famous Tontine Crescent, and here on Summer Street there were also a number of high-end townhouses. Daniel Webster lived in a house at the corner of Summer and High Street, just a few steps back from where these photos were taken, and although he died before the first photo was taken, this would have essentially been the view he would have seen whenever he left his house.

By the 1860s, though, Boston was running out of land, and this area was eyed for redevelopment. Most of the townhouses were taken down as the neighborhood shifted from residential to commercial, and in 1868 the New South Church was also demolished and replaced with a bank. The new building didn’t last long, though; it was destroyed in the Great Boston Fire of 1872, and the present-day Church Green Building was completed the following year. Although the historic church is long gone, its eventual replacement has become historic in its own right. Despite being in the heart of the Financial District, it has survived for nearly 150 years, and it is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.