archie
Sign in Get the app

First Universalist Church

Architect
Ralph Adams Cram
Year
1916
Style
Romanesque Revival
City
Boston, MA
First Universalist Church
Photo: Magicpiano, CC BY-SA 4.0
See it on the map

Built between 1916 and 1923 at 125 Highland Avenue, the First Universalist Church is the only building in Somerville designed by Ralph Adams Cram, one of the era's foremost church architects. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989, the building is now owned by the Highland Masonic Building Association and serves as home to King Solomon's Lodge AF & AM, the Masonic lodge that built the Bunker Hill Monument.

the building

Cruciform massing. The church is roughly cruciform in plan, with a long body running parallel to Highland Avenue, a square tower projecting from the right end of the front, and a gabled projection balancing the left end.

Stucco and terra cotta skin. Rather than stone, the exterior is finished in plain stucco with trim picked out in brick and terra cotta, a lighter and less costly palette than Cram's grander Gothic commissions elsewhere.

Paired arched windows. The front facade is organized around round-arch windows set in pairs, framed by brick trim with a white pilaster between each pair, and separated into bays by buttresses capped in brick. The main entrance sits recessed in a round-arch opening at the base of the tower.

the style

The church is built in the Romanesque Revival style, using round arches throughout - in the paired front windows and the recessed main entrance - rather than the pointed Gothic arches Cram used in much of his other ecclesiastical work. It stands as his only executed building in Somerville.

More on Romanesque Revival

the architect

Ralph Adams Cram was one of the most prominent American ecclesiastical architects of the early 20th century, closely associated with Gothic Revival church design nationwide. The First Universalist Church, built 1916-1923, represents his sole commission within Somerville.

significance

The church was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1989. It no longer serves as a Universalist congregation; it is now owned by the Highland Masonic Building Association and used by King Solomon's Lodge AF & AM, the Masonic lodge whose members built the Bunker Hill Monument.

nearby

All 282 buildings in Boston