The Old Cambridge Baptist Church is a historic American Baptist church at 400 Harvard Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts .
7-525: The congregation was founded in 1844 when several members of First Baptist Church in Cambridge decided to start a new church. The original meeting house was sold to the Congregationalists and became North Avenue Congregational Church . In 1869 the church constructed the current meeting house, a larger Gothic revival stone building, designed by architect Alexander Rice Esty . Old Cambridge Baptist Church
14-425: Is a tall single-story brick structure, with sandstone trim and decorative detailing in terra cotta, and has Gothic Revival styling. It has a gabled slate roof with a clerestory section near the top of the gable, with the rear section having a cross-gable roof. The slate is mainly gray-green, with bands of red. A tower rises at the northeast corner of the building, rising to an open belfry with lancet-arch windows at
21-932: Is currently home to various organizations and ministries, such as the Homeless Empowerment Project which publishes the Spare Change News street newspaper, the José Mateo Ballet Theatre, the Adbar Ethiopian Women's Alliance, the Cambridge Child and Family Associates, and others. First Baptist Church (Cambridge, Massachusetts) The First Baptist Church is a historic American Baptist church at Magazine and River Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts within Central Square . In 1817
28-482: The church congregation was founded in the home of James Hovey. In 1844 several members of First Baptist Church left to found nearby Old Cambridge Baptist Church . First Baptist Church's current Gothic building was constructed in 1881 to a design by Hartwell and Richardson . It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1975. The First Baptist Church is set just south of the main intersection at
35-470: The heart of Central Square, on a roughly trapezoidal lot bounded by River Street, Green Street, Magazine Street, and Franklin Street. The church building is roughly L-shaped, with its front facing north toward the square. The long main section of the building houses the sanctuary, and the rear section, extending a short way to the west, houses a parish hall, offices and other facilities of the church. The church
42-401: The stone walls simultaneously reveal and protect. In 1897, the original parish hall was lost in a fire. The rebuild was under the direction of noted Boston Theater Architect, Clarence Blackall. The most notable feature of the reconstruction is an 1890 Tiffany & Company Window. This early Tiffany window bridges the gothic stained glass tradition and emerging art nouveau movement. The church
49-536: Was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. Built of local fieldstone and granite quarried in Somerville, Massachusetts, the building is a notable example of the muscular use of stone, typical of American Gothic Revival architecture. This solidity, coupled with Esty's display of structural strength in the asymmetrical massing of forms, is further accentuated by the contrast between heavy gray stone and large, graceful, delicate stained glass windows, which
#1998