First Parish Church of Northfield, Unitarian - Northfield, MA
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neoc1
N 42° 41.651 W 072° 27.394
18T E 708341 N 4729991
The Romanesque Revival style First Parish Church of Northfield, Unitarian is located at 72 Main Street at the corner of Parker Avenue in Northfield, MA.
Waymark Code: WM13ZE8
Location: Massachusetts, United States
Date Posted: 03/19/2021
Views: 2
Unitarianism is a theological movement whose fundamental tenet is the belief that God is a single person as opposed to the more prevalent Christian dogma that God is a Trinity composed of the God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Unitarians believe that the teachings of Jesus were inspired by this singular God and Jesus is not an incarnated deity. In the United States, the Unitarian theology began in Boston, MA in 1784 and spread from New England. Many prominent Americans were Unitarians, including Presidents John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Millard Fillmore, and William Howard Taft; also poet Ralph Waldo Emerson, architect Frank Lloyd Wright, and women's rights leader Susan B. Anthony. (
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The First Parish of Northfield is as old as the town which was incorporated in 1723. The present First Parish Church of Northfield, Unitarian was built in 1870 soon after a previous church at this site
was destroyed by fire. The church was designed in the Romanesque Revival style by architects Boyd and Sons and the builder was James L. Dean. (
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Originally the wood clapboard church with wood trim was painted completely white. Recently, a two tone color scheme was employed with all the wood trim painted a dark brown. The church consists of a main block covered with a gable roof. There is a tall bell and clock tower on the northeast corner and a shorter square tower on the south east corner. The façade of the main block contains a large three-part compound window unified within a rounded arch and a sill. The bottom section has five slender windows. The first and last are rectangular and the middle three windows are taller with pointed tops. Above is a two-story high double rectangular window. The third section has a semi-circular window subdivided into a circle and two semi-circles. rounded window.
The tower on the north is one bay wide with a single window. The front has an set of granite steps leading up to a double door entrance with a rounded top. Above is a tall lancet window, a belfry with white louvered windows, a four-faced clock and a tapered hexagonal spire topped with a weathervane. The south tower is one bay wide with a single window. The front has set of granite steps leading up to an entrance matching that of the north tower and slender pointed windows under a gabled projection from the roof. The sides of the church are five bays wide with small rectangular basement windows below large windows with pointed tops at each bay.