Church of the Covenant (Boston)

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Central Congregational Church
National Register of Historic Places
National Historic Landmark
Historic District Contributing Property
The church in 2014

The church in 2014

Church of the Covenant (Boston) (Massachusetts)
Paris plan pointer b jms.svg
location Back Bay , Boston , Massachusetts , United States
Coordinates 42 ° 21 '7.7 "  N , 71 ° 4' 26.5"  W Coordinates: 42 ° 21 '7.7 "  N , 71 ° 4' 26.5"  W.
Built 1867
architect Richard M. Upjohn
Architectural style Gothic revival
NRHP number 12001012
Data
The NRHP added 17th October 2012
Declared as an  NHL 17th October 2012
Declared as  CP August 14, 1973

The Church of the Covenant (also Central Congregational Church ) is a historic church building in the Boston district of Back Bay in the state of Massachusetts in the United States . The building was designed in the style of the Gothic Revival by Richard M. Upjohn, son of Richard Upjohn , and completed in 1867. In October 2012, the building was entered on the National Register of Historic Places as a National Historic Landmark under the name Central Congregational Church .

architecture

Outdoor areas

The west basilica , built in Gothic Revival style, has a cross-shaped floor plan with dimensions of 46.3 m × 31.7 m, with the yokes being optically separated from each other by a buttress . The square, four-story church tower on the southeast corner of the building is almost 72 meters high, and both the central nave and the transepts have a gable roof . The church stands on a frame basis from the local rock conglomerate roxbury pudding stone that surrounds the main foundation. This consists of brick constructions that rest on approx. 1200 wooden piles that were driven a good 9 m deep into the ground.

The outer walls of the church building are made of roxbury puddingstone and sandstones from New Jersey (red-brown) and Cleveland (red or cream-colored), which gives the building a polychrome appearance. In its original state without the effects of the weather, the building achieved a mosaic effect made up of variations of gray, brown, cream and red-brown. The upper aisles and roofs of the transepts are clad with violet-gray and gray slate panels that alternate between rectangular and fish-scale coverings. The roofs of the aisles are covered on the south side with multi-colored slates and on the north side with single-colored gray slates.

The three-door main entrance, to which four stone steps lead up, is located on the east side of the church and is arranged in the middle; it is flanked by struts that end in pinnacles above the gable. The floor of the portal consists of encaustic tiles in the colors red, black and cream. Columns Tuscan order with floral ornate capitals carry trefoil arcs with damascening from blind tracery . The cornice and the pinnacles are - as on the rest of the building - richly decorated with crabs and roof decorations. There is a rose window above the entrance portal , and the roof of the entrance area is clad with copper plates above the original stone shingles.

Indoor areas

inner space

The interior of the church has an area of ​​around 24.4 m × 37.2 m and rises 24.4 m at the highest point. In accordance with the ban on images , which is taken very seriously in the Calvinist tradition, there are no images except in the windows. The ceiling is painted blue and has gold ornaments and decorations. At the level of the upper aisle, half-timbering decorated with tracery spans the nave. The roofs of the aisles are supported by rows of columns, the capitals of which are decorated with crabs. Pearl rods extend from the side aisles to the upper aisle and run vertically between the spandrels of the arcades .

The ceiling of the crossing is vaulted and decorated with incised ribs . From the highest point hangs a large Tiffany chandelier, which is over 3.5 m long and almost 2 m in diameter. With Tessera - mosaics enclosed altar platform is achieved through four stages and stands about 6 meters into the crossing. The richly decorated altarpiece , consisting of blind arcades, shows sediles in the lower area of ​​the apse and has green, gold-colored and red mosaics on the three central panels.

The walls of the apse are painted with a dark red base color and golden lines in such a way that the look of brocade is imitated. They are individually framed by green pearl rods with gold decorations. There are two on the south side of the apse Tudor arches provided alcove where dishes for the collection are. In the north of the transept, the altar area is flanked by the choir , while the organ is on the west side .

With the exception of a few minor changes, the church building corresponds to its condition after the redesign in 1896.

history

With its 1864 decision made, their new church building on the corner of Berkeley / Newbury Street to build, the Central Congregational Church joined other congregations that as a pioneer among the first were based on the by land reclamation newly developed due to the Back Bay constructed building . The church was founded in 1835 after twelve of the original thirteen congregational churches had switched to Unitarianism . Its members first met in the former Federal Street Theater and from 1840 in a newly built, neoclassical church building near Boston Common .

The church at this location was well attended, but lost more and more members in the mid-1860s, as residential buildings in the area were replaced by commercial buildings in the course of the positive economic developments. The churches located in the city center therefore followed their members to other parts of the city such as Back Bay. In 1864 the church sold its previous building and moved to its new location, where it joined the already completed Arlington Street Church and Emmanuel Episcopal Church . In the following ten years the First Church in Boston , Brattle Square Church , Old South Church and Trinity Church were added. Due to the prominent neighborhood - the New England Museum of Natural History (now the Museum of Science ) had recently been built opposite , the neighboring property of which belonged to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology - the church decided that the new building should be designed "appropriately" for its surroundings .

She hired Richard Upjohn's company to design and build the church after a few members of the New York City Council of Churches looked at existing Upjohn buildings.

The Upjohn family

The immigrant Richard Upjohn, born in England in 1802, is best known today for making the style of the Gothic Revival popular in the United States through his buildings. He designed dozens of Gothic church buildings on the east coast such as New York's Trinity Church and published his ideas in his own book. The TIME Magazine wrote in 1935 about Upjohn that his company so many church buildings of New York City to Buffalo 've built them that should be lit simultaneously at any point between the two cities, the smoke would not be seen.

Richard Michell Upjohn (1821–1903), son of the company founder, became his partner in the company in 1851 and increasingly took on responsibility for business activities, so that his father could concentrate on his position as President of the American Institute of Architects towards the end of the 1850s , which he co-founded in 1857. Despite the strong influences of his father, Richard M. Upjohn developed his own architectural signature and built buildings in other styles. His own buildings include St. Paul's Episcopal Church , the Trinity School and the Mechanics Bank in Manhattan, the entrance gate to Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn and the Connecticut State Capitol in Hartford . The latter two structures are each classified as National Historic Landmarks .

Establishment of the Central Congregational Church

Richard M. Upjohn insisted that the new church building should rise so high that it could not be surpassed by any residential building; Accordingly, the Church of the Covenant, with its 236  ft (71.9  m ) high steeple, was the tallest structure in Boston when it was inaugurated and replaced Park Street Church as the previous leader. It was not until 1915, almost half a century later, that an even taller building was erected with the Custom House Tower . Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. noted in his book One Hundred Days in Europe , published in 1892 : "We have one steeple in Boston that to my eyes seems absolutely perfect - that of the Central Church on the corner of Newbury and Berkeley Streets." (German : "We have a church tower in Boston that is absolutely perfect in my eyes - the tower of Central Church on the corner of Newbury and Berkely Street.")

Both the external appearance and the interior of the church aroused enthusiasm when it was inaugurated, especially due to the architecture and the materials used. In 1879, various adjustments were made to improve the acoustics and better match the style of Joseph T. Duryea's sermons. This included installing a new church organ from Hook & Hastings , a new, movable pulpit and rearranging the pews so that they surrounded the new pulpit and faced it. Other clergymen who visited the church disparagingly referred to this arrangement as a "carousel".

After Duryea left the church in 1888, she had no pastor for five years, which is why considerations were made to merge with Mt. Vernon Church. Due to the high density of churches in the Back Bay district, there was fierce competition among the places of worship, which was mainly based on the attractiveness of the church buildings - and here in particular the choir room . The interior of the Central Congregational Church was considered out of date in the early 1890s and was one of the causes of the decline in membership. In 1893, a new pastor could finally be engaged with Edward Lord Clark, who was a direct descendant of the passengers of the Mayflower and who returned to New England for his new role from New York City .

Structural changes in the 19th century

One of the stained glass windows in the church

Shortly after Clark arrived, the parish decided to renovate the interior of the church and put him in charge of doing it. The work was carried out by the Tiffany Glass & Decorating Company from 1894 to 1896 and was largely financed by collected donations and personal donations. The chandelier was donated by Joseph H. White, and the names of the parents of the wife of his brother Jonathan H. White can be found today in the four “Gospel Writer” windows.

Despite the donations, the renovation costs exceeded the budget of the church and led to high debt for the community, so that in 1900 a chapel of the church, which was built in the 1860s, had to be sold. But the financial problems persisted, as the reorganization had not led to the hoped-for membership increase, and so Clark, who was held responsible, submitted his resignation in 1901.

The redesign of the choir gave a new impetus to the career of Louis Comfort Tiffany , whose company benefited from the increasing demand for magnificent church decorations and leaded glass windows after its very successful presentation at the World's Columbian Exposition . The large chandelier in the crossing is considered the “grandfather” of all later Tiffany lamps, and the church's 42 windows, designed by Tiffany, were among the first works by the company, which subsequently received thousands of other orders. The new look of the church corresponded to the personal tastes of Edward Clark and Louis Tiffany and emphasized the central ideas of aestheticism .

The renovation work is one of the largest contracts Tiffany has won, and it encompassed the entire interior of the church. Almost every decorative element and also the color scheme were redesigned under the direction of Jacob Adolph Holzer; all works have been preserved in their original state to this day. As part of the structural changes, the new hexagonal pulpit and the altar were moved to the axis of the central aisle and details such as handrails were added, the organ was moved to its current location and a vestibule was added to the entrance on Berkeley Street. The Newbury Street entrance was paneled and a sacristy was installed behind the chancel . The originally installed walnut wood elements were replaced by oak wood sawn using the wagon bulkhead process .

The color scheme of red, blue, green and gold, based on the appearance of jewels, gives the entire interior a uniform artistic look. Red carpet was laid on the floor, the walls were painted an earthy red and adorned with gray-green accents, while the ceiling was painted a dark blue color and has gold detailing. The apse was given its brocade trompe l'oeil look of red and gold, and the arches framing the apse were painted to look like green ophicalcite . The wall at the front of the sanctuary imitates green brocade.

Others

It is believed that Frederick Ayer , among others, was convinced by the work to choose Tiffany as the designer of the interior design of his new house, Frederick Ayer Mansion , which - like the church - is now a National Historic Landmark. Other church decorations by Tiffany can still be seen today in St. Michael's Episcopal Church in Manhattan , St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Troy and in the Willard Memorial Chapel-Welch Memorial Hall in Auburn (New York) .

See also

literature

Web links

Commons : Church of the Covenant (Boston)  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ National Register Information System . In: National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service . Retrieved November 2, 2013.
  2. ↑ Listing of National Historic Landmarks by State: Massachusetts. National Park Service , accessed August 10, 2019.
  3. ↑ a b c cf. Smiledge / James / Reinders, p. 5.
  4. ↑ cf. Smiledge / James / Reinders, p. 6.
  5. ↑ a b c cf. Smiledge / James / Reinders, p. 7.
  6. ↑ a b cf. Smiledge / James / Reinders, p. 10.
  7. ↑ a b c d cf. Smiledge / James / Reinders, p. 11.
  8. ^ Richard Upjohn: Upjohn's rural architecture . designs, working drawings, and specifications for a wooden church, and other rural structures. Da Capo Press, New York 1976, ISBN 978-0-306-70639-4 (English).
  9. ↑ Oliver Wendell Holmes: One Hundred Days in Europe . Houghton Mifflin, Boston 1892, OCLC 41390076 , p. 296 (English).
  10. ↑ a b cf. Smiledge / James / Reinders, p. 12.
  11. ↑ a b cf. Smiledge / James / Reinders, p. 13.
  12. ↑ cf. Smiledge / James / Reinders, p. 16.
  13. ↑ cf. Smiledge / James / Reinders, p. 17.
  14. ↑ a b cf. Smiledge / James / Reinders, p. 18.