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St. John's Roman Catholic Church

Architects
Maginnis & Walsh Maginnis, Walsh and Sullivan
Year
1904
Style
Romanesque Revival
City
Boston, MA
St. John's Roman Catholic Church
Photo: Tim Pierce, CC BY-SA 3.0
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St. John the Evangelist Church rose in 1904 at 2270 Massachusetts Avenue in Cambridge, replacing the small wooden chapel that had served St. John's Parish since it split off from St. Peter's Parish in 1893 to serve the growing immigrant population of North Cambridge. The architects, Maginnis, Walsh and Sullivan, were a prominent Catholic-church firm who won four American Institute of Architects gold medals, one of them for this building. Longtime parishioner Tip O'Neill, the future Speaker of the U.S. House, graduated from St. John High School in 1931, and his Requiem Mass was held here in January 1994.

the style

The church was built in the Romanesque Revival style favored by Maginnis, Walsh and Sullivan for parish churches of the era, one of four designs that earned the firm AIA gold medals.

More on Romanesque Revival

the architect

Maginnis, Walsh and Sullivan was one of the era's leading Catholic ecclesiastical architecture firms, collecting four AIA gold medals for its church designs, including one for St. John's.

significance

St. John's was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. It is remembered as the home parish of Tip O'Neill, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, whose Requiem Mass was held here on January 10, 1994.

nearby

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