West End Church - Boston, MA - This Old Church on Waymarking.com

In Boston, on Cambridge Street, is a brick church known as the West End Church. The building has lasted over 200 years, and served as a church, then library, then is now once again a church.

The original congregation was a Puritan group that formed in 1737. A church structure was built at the present location and the congregation held services there. This church was attended typically by the worker class. While the British occupied Boston in the mid 1770s, the British took down the steeple to prevent the tower from being used for communication to the other side. The old structure continued to be used until its replacement by this structure in 1806. The congregation hired Asher Benjamin to design the building. The building design is considered an early Federalist style. The congregation continued services, and through the ministers Charles Lowell and Cyrus Bartol, the church was active in preaching to the poor, in taking strong anti-slavery/abolishist stances, and was a known safe haven along the underground railroad.

After the Civil War, the demographics changed significantly. By the late 1800s, the original congregation had moved to the newly filled in and developed Back Bay section. In 1894, the church, after strong support from Andrew Wheelwright and local minstries convinced Boston City Council to used the church as a new branch library for the West End neighborhood and not raze it for a new high school. For six decades, the building was a library, until new plans were revealed by the Boston Redevelopment Authority wanted to raze this structure as part of a wide redevelopment effort. This time, the Society for the Presevation of New England Antiquities (now known as Historic New England), became involved and preserved this church and the house next to it. In 1961, a new, Methodist, congregation, formed from two congregations and bought the church from Boston. This is the congregation that occupies the church, today.

Services are held on Sundays at 11:00 am. There is also a prary service on Wednesdays at 12:00 noon.

The present congregation activities include participating in the Feeding the Hungry Ministries at the St. Paul's Cathedral by Boston Common, and their chorale group, Old West Singers.

Date the Church was built, dedicated or cornerstone laid: 01/01/1806 Age of Church building determined by?: Church website If denomination of Church is not part of the name, please provide it here: Methodist If Church holds a weekly worship service and "all are welcome", please give the day of the week: Sunday Indicate the time that the primary worship service is held. List only one: 11:00 AM Street address of Church: 131 Cambridge Street Boston, MA United States of America 02114 Primary website for Church or Historic Church Building: [Web Link] Secondary Website for Church or Historic Church Building: [Web Link] If Church is open to the public, please indicate hours: Not listed

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Date Logged Log User Rating   08/20/2021 MonkeyAndTheEngineer visited it