Theodore Parker Unitarian Universalist Church
- Year
- 1900
- City
- Boston, MA
Theodore Parker Unitarian Universalist Church at 1859 Centre Street was built in 1900 to a design by West Roxbury native Henry M. Seaver for a congregation founded in 1712 and named for Theodore Parker, the Transcendentalist and abolitionist who served as its minister in the 1840s. The pink granite church is a locally significant example of Normanesque architecture.
the building
Tiffany windows. The church is adorned with stained glass windows created by Louis Comfort Tiffany and his firm, a notable feature for a village church of its size.
Exterior. Built of pink granite under a large gabled roof, the church is anchored by a heavy square tower at its front right corner, with entrances facing both streets, narrow slit windows at the middle level, a round-arch belfry, and a crenellated parapet.
the style
Normanesque architecture here shows in the heavy stone massing, the squat fortress-like tower, and the round-arch belfry openings - a solid, castle-like vocabulary rather than the lighter Gothic forms common to New England churches.
significance
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2020 and separately designated a Boston Landmark.
nearby
- Roslindale Substation
- Roslindale Congregational Church
- Brandegee Estate
- Adams-Nervine Asylum
- Dr. Henry Jacob Bigelow House
- George R. Minot House