King's Chapel

This article is about the Church in Boston. For the Church in England, see King's College (Cambridge) # King's College Chapel .

King's Chapel
National Register of Historic Places
National Historic Landmark
The King's Chapel in 2009
location	Boston , Massachusetts
Coordinates	42 ° 21 '28.8 "  N , 71 ° 3' 36"  W Coordinates: 42 ° 21 '28.8 "  N , 71 ° 3' 36"  W.
Built	1749
architect	Peter Harrison
Architectural style	Georgian
NRHP number	74002045
Data
The NRHP added	May 2nd 1974
Declared as an  NHL	October 9, 1960

The King's Chapel is a church in Boston in the state of Massachusetts in the United States . It belongs to an independent Christian Unitarian church that is affiliated with the Unitarian Universalist Association . This means Unitarian Christianity in theology , Anglican worship and a Congregational administration. The building is on the corner of Tremont Street and School Street and dates back to the 18th century. It's part of the route on the Freedom Trail .

history

The first King's Chapel in 1688 (destroyed)

The Tremont Street , 1843, with view of King's Chapel

The organ of the King's Chapel

The King's Chapel was founded under Royal Governor Joseph Dudley in 1686 during the reign of James II as the first Anglican church in New England . The original church building was made of wood and was erected in 1688 on the corner of Tremont and School Street , where the current church building still stands today. The church was placed on what was then the Public Burying Ground because at the time of its construction no resident was willing to sell land to a non- Puritan parish.

Construction on today's stone church building, designed by Peter Harrison , began in 1749 and was completed in 1754. The stone church was built around the existing wooden structure so that it could be dismantled after the stone shell was completed and transported out through the windows of the new church. The wood was then transported to Lunenburg , where it was used to build St. John's Anglican Church . This was almost completely destroyed by a fire on the night of Halloween 2001 and then rebuilt by 2005, so that almost nothing is left of the original building fabric today.

During the American Revolution , the church was vacant and was referred to simply as the Stone Chapel . The Loyalists immigrated to Canada , and those who remained in the United States reopened the Church in 1782. It became Unitarian under the pastor James Freeman , who revised the Book of Common Prayer until 1785 according to Unitarian criteria. Although Freeman always assumed that the King's Chapel was episcopal , the Anglican Church refused to ordain him a priest. To date, the Church therefore their own Anglican / Unitarian follows hybrid - Liturgy . She is a ward of the Unitarian Universalist Association .

Inside, the church is essentially characterized by its rows of wooden columns, the Corinthian capitals of which were hand-carved by William Burbeck and his students in 1758. Seats are individually partly standing pews , most of which originally belonged to the families who paid for a regular rent and benches decorated according to their personal taste. Their current uniform appearance goes back to the 1920s.

Music has long played an important role in King's Chapel , which acquired its first organ in 1723. The instrument used in the church today is the sixth in total and was built in 1964 by CB Fisk , a Gloucester-based organ builder . It is decorated with mitres and engravings from the organ dating from 1756 and in terms of size is slightly below average compared to most other organs installed in European churches in the mid-20th century. For over 40 years, the eminent American composer Daniel Pinkham was the organist and music director of King's Chapel . His successor is Heinrich Christensen.

The church bell was cast in England and installed in 1772. In 1814 it cracked and had to be re-cast and re-hung by Paul Revere . It is the largest bell ever made by the Revere Foundry and the last one that Paul Revere cast himself. Since then, the bell has been ringing for every service.

Inside the building is a memorial commemorating Samuel Vassall , brother of colonist William Vassall , patent holder of the Massachusetts Bay Company and one of the first aldermen of the Massachusetts Bay Colony . The memorial to the London trader mentions his opposition to the taxes that King Charles I of England levied on tonnage and pound duties , especially since the UK Parliament had rejected the King's motion to extend these taxes for life. Vassall represented in the sequence from 1640 to 1641 the city of London in parliament as a deputy . Ironically, he later turned loyalists along with his brother William, after whom the city of Vassalboro was named, during the American Revolution and fled to England during the American War of Independence .

Pastor

Surname	function	Term of office
Robert Ratcliff	Rector	1686-1689
Samuel Myles	Rector	1689-1728
Roger Price	Rector	1729-1746
Henry Caner	Rector	1747-1776
James Freeman	Rector	1787-1836
Samuel Cary	minister	1809-1815
Francis WP Greenwood	minister	1824-1843
Ephraim Peabody	minister	1845-1856
Henry W. Foote	minister	1861-1889
Howard N. Brown	minister	1895-1921
Harold EB Speight	minister	1921-1927
John C. Perkins	Minister in charge	1927-1931
John C. Perkins	minister	1931-1933
Palfrey Perkins	minister	1933-1953
Joseph Barth	minister	1953-1965
Carl R. Scovel	Senior Minister	1967-1999
Charles C. Forman	Affiliate Minister	1980-1998
Matthew M. McNaught	Interim Minister	1999-2001
Earl K. Holt	minister	2001-2009
Dianne E. Arakawa	Interim Minister	2009 – today

King's Chapel Burying Ground

→ Main article : King's Chapel Burying Ground

In the cemetery next to King's Chapel are the graves of a large number of historically significant personalities. From 1630 to 1660, that is, for 30 years, it was the only cemetery in Boston and, like the church itself, is also a stop on the Freedom Trail.

See also

• List of entries on the National Register of Historic Places in northern Boston
• List of National Historic Landmarks in Boston

literature

• FWP Greenwood: A history of King's Chapel, in Boston - the first episcopal church in New England . Carter, Hendee & Co., Boston 1833, OCLC 35862314 ( online in Google Book Search).
• Henry W. Foote, Henry H. Edes, Winslow Warren: Annals of King's chapel from the Puritan age of New England to the present day . tape 1 . Little, Brown and Co., Boston 1882, OCLC 11275909 .
• Henry W. Foote, Henry H. Edes, Winslow Warren: Annals of King's chapel from the Puritan age of New England to the present day . tape 2 . Little, Brown and Co., Boston 1896, OCLC 11275909 .

Web links

Commons : King's Chapel  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• King's Chapel website
• The Boston Athenaeum maintains the King's Chapel Collection with theological works, most of which date from the 17th century.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Listing of National Historic Landmarks by State: Massachusetts. National Park Service , accessed August 11, 2019.
2. ↑ King's Chapel. Retrieved November 10, 2011 (King's Chapel website). 
3. ^ St. John's Anglican Church. Retrieved November 12, 2011 (homepage). 
4. ↑ St. John's Restoration. Retrieved November 12, 2011 . 
5. ^ HW Foote, HH Edes, W. Warren: Annals of King's chapel from the Puritan age of New England to the present day . 2 volumes, 1882–1896. Little, Brown and Co., Boston, OCLC 11275909 .