Christ Church (Cambridge, Massachusetts)

Historic church in Massachusetts, United States

For other uses of the term Christ Church, see Christ Church (disambiguation).

United States historic place

Christ Church

U.S. National Register of Historic Places

U.S. National Historic Landmark

U.S. Historic district
Contributing property

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Location| Garden Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Coordinates| 42°22′31.0″N 71°7′14.0″W﻿ / ﻿42.375278°N 71.120556°W﻿ / 42.375278; -71.120556
Area| 0.5-acre (2,000 m2)[1]
Built| 1761
Architect| Harrison, Peter
Architectural style| Georgian
Part of| Cambridge Common Historic District (ID73000281)
NRHP reference No.| 66000140
Significant dates
Added to NRHP| October 15, 1966[2]
Designated NHL| October 9, 1960[3]
Designated CP| April 13, 1973

Christ Church, at Zero Garden Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S., is a parish of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts. Built in 1760–61, it was designated a National Historic Landmark as one of the few buildings unambiguously attributable to Peter Harrison, the first formally trained architect to work in the British colonies.

## History

[edit]

The congregation was founded in 1759 by members of the King's Chapel who lived in Cambridge to have a church closer to their homes and to provide Church of England services to students at Harvard College across Cambridge Common. The church's first rector was East Apthorp, and most of the founding members lived along the nearby Tory Row, now called Brattle Street.

The church was designed by noted colonial era architect Peter Harrison, who also designed the King's Chapel in Boston, and is one of a small number of surviving buildings attributable to him. It is built in Georgian style.[4][5][6] Its wooden frame rests on a granite foundation built from ballast stones from ships arriving at Boston Harbor. The church was originally finished in a sanded paint treatment to give the appearance of a traditional English stone church.

During the American Revolution Christ Church was attacked by dissenting colonials for its Tory leanings, but it was also the site of a prayer service which George and Martha Washington attended while quartered in the nearby mansion now known as Longfellow House–Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site. The church was closed, and its organ melted down for bullets during the Revolution.

For several years after the American Revolution, the church stood empty. In the later years of the eighteenth century the church was re-opened as an Episcopal Church and has remained so. The original chapel was expanded in 1857 to accommodate a larger congregation and to help raise funds for the church by expanding pew rental income. The church was dramatically redecorated in 1883, but it was restored to its original simplicity in 1920.[7]

Generations of Harvard students from Richard Henry Dana Jr., author of Two Years Before the Mast, to Teddy Roosevelt (having taught Sunday School there for more than 3 years, the young Roosevelt, a Presbyterian, eventually departed after being told he could not continue unless he became an Episcopalian)[8] have made Christ Church their parish home during their studies.

The church was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1960,[1][3] and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1966.[2]

To the east adjacent to the church at the corner of Garden Street and Massachusetts Avenue is a separate historic landmark known as the Old Burying Ground, not affiliated with the chapel or any other church; it pre-dates the present church by over a century.

Christ Church has a long history of social activism, supporting the civil rights movement, the peace movement, and ministries of social justice. In April 1967 the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. and Doctor Benjamin Spock were denied access to a building at Harvard University to hold a press conference denouncing the Vietnam War, but the Reverend Murray Kenney welcomed them to Christ Church; a plaque in the parish hall commemorates the event. Another activist to speak at Christ Church was Jesse Jackson, who spoke as part of a Martin Luther King Jr. celebration in 2004.

The current rector of Christ Church is the Reverend Katherine B. Ekrem.[9]

## Gallery

[edit]

*   * View of the Cambridge Common, ca. 1808–09, with Harvard College on the left and Christ Church on the right.

* Exterior in 2012.

* Christ Church, 1759–61, ca. 1895–1905. Archive of Photographic Documentation of Early Massachusetts Architecture, Boston Public Library.

## See also

[edit]

* Christianity portal

* National Register of Historic Places listings in Cambridge, Massachusetts
* List of National Historic Landmarks in Massachusetts

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b Patricia Heintzelman and Charles Snell (October 10, 1975) National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination: Christ Church, National Park Service and Accompanying seven photos, exterior and interior, from 1967 and 1975
2. ^ a b "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. January 23, 2007.
3. ^ a b "Christ Church (Cambridge)". National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. Archived from the original on June 6, 2009. Retrieved August 6, 2008.
4. ^ Ware, William Rotch (1923). The Georgian Period: Being Photographs and Measured Drawings of Colonial Work with Text. city, U. P. C. book Company, Incorporated.
5. ^ "HABS MASS,9-CAMB,4- (sheet 3 of 8) - Christ Church, Garden Street, Cambridge, Middlesex County, MA". Library of Congress. Retrieved February 16, 2022.
6. ^ American Guide Series: Massachusetts - A Guide to Its Places and People, p. 194.
7. ^ http://www.cccambridge.org/History.html [permanent dead link]
8. ^ After departing Christ Church, he began teaching a mission class in Cambridge's poorest section: McCullough, David (1982) Mornings on Horseback: The Story of an Extraordinary Family, a Vanished Way of Life and the Unique Child Who Became Theodore Roosevelt Paperback. New York. Simon & Schuster.
9. ^ "Staff Directory". Christ Church Cambridge. Retrieved February 25, 2025.

## External links

[edit]

* Media related to Christ Church (Cambridge, Massachusetts) at Wikimedia Commons
* Christ Church Website
* Illus. by Winslow Homer of bells

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