Old West Church
- Architect
- Asher Benjamin
- Year
- 1806
- Style
- Federal
- City
- Boston, MA
- Collection
- federal boston
Old West Church at 131 Cambridge Street was built in 1806 to designs by Asher Benjamin, replacing an earlier 1737 wood-frame church whose tower British troops destroyed in 1775 on suspicion that colonials were using it to signal Cambridge. Benjamin's replacement is considered one of his finest works and a monumentally-scaled example of ecclesiastical Federal architecture, a design widely copied throughout New England.
the building
Entry tower and cupola. A three-and-a-half-story brick entry tower, crowned with a cupola, projects outward from the church hall behind it, the same formula Benjamin had used two years earlier at his Charles Street Meeting House.
Three doors, three pilasters. Four shallow brick pilasters, each two stories tall and trimmed in white wood, divide the facade into three bays, each with an entry door echoed by a window directly above it.
the style
Old West Church is a monumentally-scaled example of ecclesiastical Federal architecture, and its design, the projecting tower and paired pilasters framing three doors, was widely copied in churches across New England.
More on Federalthe architect
Asher Benjamin, an influential Federal-era architect and pattern-book author, designed Old West Church in 1806, considered one of his finest works; he had used a similar entry-tower formula two years earlier at his Charles Street Meeting House.
significance
Old West Church is a National Historic Landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Its site carries an earlier history as well: the 1737 church that stood here was used as a barracks by British troops before the Revolution, who destroyed its tower in 1775 suspecting it was being used to signal Cambridge.
nearby
- First Harrison Gray Otis House
- Government Service Center
- African Meeting House
- Charles Sumner House
- Nichols House Museum
- Suffolk County Courthouse