Old South Church
- Architects
- Charles Amos Cummings Willard Thomas Sears
- Year
- 1873
- Style
- Gothic Revival
- City
- Boston, MA
Old South Church's congregation dates to 1669, when Congregationalist dissenters split from Boston's First Church to form what was then called the Third Church. Its current building, completed in 1873 at 645 Boylston Street in Copley Square, was raised on newly filled land in the Back Bay and designed in the Gothic Revival style by Charles Amos Cummings and Willard T. Sears. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1970 as one of the finest High Victorian Gothic churches in New England.
the building
The campanile. The bell tower was not part of the original 1873 design - it was added between 1935 and 1937 to a design by the firm Allen & Collens, decades after Cummings and Sears completed the main church.
A congregation older than the building. The building is just over 150 years old, but the congregation itself formed in 1669 as the Third Church, tracing a lineage through the Cedar Meeting House (1670) and the Old South Meeting House (1729) before settling into the current Back Bay building.
the style
Cummings and Sears designed the church in the Gothic Revival style, and it is considered one of the finest examples of High Victorian Gothic architecture in New England - distinguished enough to earn National Historic Landmark status in 1970 for its architecture alone.
More on Gothic Revivalthe architect
Charles Amos Cummings and Willard T. Sears designed the main 1873 church building together; the later campanile was the work of a different firm, Allen & Collens, added between 1935 and 1937.
significance
Old South Church was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1970 in recognition of its architecture as one of the finest High Victorian Gothic churches in New England, and its congregation remains among the oldest religious communities in the United States.
nearby
- Boston Public Library, McKim Building
- Copley Plaza Hotel (interior/exterior)
- Trinity Church
- Trinity Rectory
- First Baptist Church (interior)
- Crowninshield House