BlockThe nomination, in full
Bibliography, boundary description, and the people who prepared and reviewed the nomination.
FORM B - BUILDING MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION 80 BOYLSTON STREET BOSTON, MA 02116 Photo (3"x3" or 3"x5", black and white) Indicate address of property on back of photo. Staple to left side of form. Sketch Map: Draw map showing property's location in relation to nearest cross streets and/or geographical features. Indicate all butldings between inventoried property and nearest intersection(s). Indicate north (SEE ATTACHED MAP) UTM REFERENCE USGS QUADRANGLE SCALE 19.316470.4690660 NEWTON, MA 1:25,000 AREA FORM NO. 3117 Town Address Historic Name Newton, Mass.
MRA NEWTON (West Newton) 1326 Washington Street First Unitarian Church Use: Present church & parish house Original church & parish house DESCRIPTION Date 1906 Source Church history Style Neo-Gothic Architect_ Cram, Goodhue & Ferguson Exterior Wall Fabric stone Outbutldings none Major Alterations (with dates) Courtyard portal, 1916+ Condition Excellent Moved no Date Acreage. 58,432 sq. ft. (1.3 acres) SettingLocated at the center of West Newton village, dominating streetscape Recorded by_Kathlyn Hatch, Peter Stott Organization _ Newton Historical Comm. Date January 1978, April 1986 NATIONAL REGISTER CRITERIA STATEMENT (if applicable) As an important example of ecclesiastical architecture in Newton and for its associations with Ralph Adams Cram, the First Unitarian Church meets criterion C of the National Register of Historic Places.
ARCHITECTURAL SIGNIFICANCE Describe important architectural features and evaluate in terms of other buildings within the community. Dedicated in 1906, the Neo-Gothic First Unitarian Church was designed by famous architectural firm of Cram, Goodhue, and Ferguson. principals, Ralph Adams Cram (1863-1942) and Bertram Goodhue (1869-1924), were internationally recognized for their church designs. In Church Building in Boston (1974), Douglas Tucci cites the Newton building as one of the firm's four most important early churches. Working with a select group of highly-skilled specialists, Cram produced series of early 20th-century churches particularly noteable for their excellent craftsmanship.
The firm was responsible for the furnishings of the West Newton building, including interior wood fittings provided by the Irving & Casson furniture company, pulpit carvings by Angelo Lualdi, and stained glass by Reynolds and Rohnstock. Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. supplied the landscape plans. HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE Explain the role owners played in local or state history and how the building relates to the development of the community. The Unitarian faith took its origins as a liberal reaction to the more austere and Calvinist preaching of the Congregationalists. The congregation of King's Chapel in Boston had been the first to adopt Unitarianism in 1782. In the early 19th century, Boston's William Ellery Channing became the leader of the movement.
many of the suburban towns, including Brighton, Brookline, Needham, Weston, Waltham, and Watertown, "the liberals in the churches had secured a majority, and the Orthodox [Congregationalists] had withdrawn, leaving the Unitarians in possession of the meeting-houses and other church property" (Mayo: 6). In Newton, however, conservative tendencies prevailed, the town remaining, as one historian has written, "a rocky knoll of Conservatism in the green pasture of the new faith" (Mayo: 6). The coming of Unitarianism to West Newton was due to the combined liberal influences of the arrival of the Boston & Worcester Railroad in 1834 and of the Lexington Normal School ten years later. William Parker, the superintendent of the railroad, was a Unitarian; so (1796-1859), who had acquired the old Fuller Academy building and moved the Normal School into it.
Parker, described as the "life and soul of the BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES John Brimblecom, Beautiful Newton (c.1917), pp. 85-86. Lawrence Shaw Mayo, The First Unitarian Society in Newton, 1848-1923. Written in Commemoration of the 75th Anniversary of the Founding of the Society (c.1923). Pamphlet, Collection of the Jackson Homestead. Henry Rowe, Tercentenary History of Newton (1930), pp. 375-376. Douglas Tucci, Church Building in Boston (1974), pp. 23, 124. Douglas Tucci, Ralph Adams Cram, American Medievalist (1975). 8/85 lofl INVENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET Commmity : Form No: MASSACHUSETTS HISTORI CAL COMMISSION Office of the Secretary, Boston Newton, Mass. MRA 3117 Property Name: First Unitarian Church Indicate each item on inventory form which is being continued below. ARCHITECTURAL SIGNIFICANCE, cont.
The granite church and attached parish house are grouped about a central courtyard entered through a portal tower. The brick and half-timbered parish house contrasts in style and materials with the granite church building, whose offset tower provides the composition's focal point. The Perpendicular phase of English Gothic architecture forms the basis for the church's design. The gabled nave and flanking tower provide a scheme that is both bold and simple, a juxtaposition of blocky, rectilinear forms that was widely imitated in stone churches through the 1940s. The detailing, which consists of wide Gothic arches and pier buttresses, is kept to a minimum, allowing for a large expanse of stone wall and an emphasis on the building's massing.
Capped with corner pinnacles and crenelation, the blocky tower received a decorative emphasis that reinforces its central position in the building's design. Flanking the church in a U-shaped configuration, the parish house is a version of Elizabethan town architecture, with shallow pavilions, mullion windows, and corbeled timber-and-plaster walls at the upper levels. The church remains in an excellent state of preservation. Alterations, which are minor in impact on the building's overall appearance, include the addition of a clock to the tower belfry in 1916, sealing off the open portal at its base, and additions to the interior courtyard. The west aisle window commemorates the formative role that West Newton played in the educational life of the town as well as the location of the church itself, the former site of Horace Mann's Normal School.
An allegorical figure of Education is flanked by Cyrus Peirce, head of the Normal School, and Horace Mann, founder of the Massachusetts Public School system. HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE, cont. movement to establish the [Unitarian] Society" (Mayo: I1), arranged public services in the hall of Davis Tavern in the summer of 1844. The West Newton Unitarian Church, formally organized in 1848, erected its first building, a wood-frame Gothic Revival structure in 1860. The building was enlarged in 1868, and again in 1887, becoming a substantial Stick Style edifice. The corner stone of the present church was laid September 17, 1905, and the dedication ceremony took place just over a year later, on October 14, 1906. The church occupies the site of Horace Mann's experimental Normal School at the corner of Washington and Highland streets in the West Newton village center.
Staple to Inventory form at bottom :(7-81) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Inventory - Nomination Form Continuation sheet Item number For NPS use only received 7/23/86 date entered Page Multiple Resource Area Thematic Group Name State Newton MRA Middlesex County, MA Nomination/Type of Review 41. Dupee Estate Entered in the 42. Elliott, Charles D., House 43. Eminence, The 44. Estabrook, Rufus, House 45. Evangelical Baptist Church 46. Farquhar, Samuel, House . 47. Fenno, John A., House 48. First Unitarian Church 49. Fuller, Capt. Edward, Farm 50. Gane, Henry, House Attest Interod in the statloni Boslatenfeeper. Attest JKeeper Entered in the National Register Attest fkeeper Intered In the Nation?
Rogiste Intered 1n the National Register Attest f'k eeper Attest f'Keeper Entered in the National Register Intored In the Netional Register Intered in tho National Begister Attest fukeeper Attest f'Keeper Intered in tho Nationai Begister Attest f-Keeper Fate Mat' Attest fKeeper Attest Date/Signature delurBza 9406 AiluuaBye 51456 SelreBgano 914186 Ailmubgun 9/1116 delmeßgan 111146 Felamßau 91166 Aelmußgun 91416 elarerBgen 91Mo6 Deloesßgun 9/4/86 86001802 WASO Form - 177 ("R" June 1984) UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR NATIONAL PARK SERVICE NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES EVALUATION/RETURN SHEET First Unitarian Church (Newton MRA) Middlesex County MASSACHUSETTS resubmission nomination by person or local government owner objection appeal Substantive Review: -sample Reviewer's comments: Jrequest Working No. Fed. Reg. Date: 1986.
/2/318 Date Due: 8/21/86 2/6/86 Entered in Action: LACCEPT_ 9-4-86 Batignat Regiatet -_RETURN _REJECT_ Federal Agency: . Jappeal -NR decision Recom./Criteria Reviewer. Discipline Date _see continuation sheet Nomination returned for: technical corrections cited below _substantive reasons discussed below 1. Name 2. Location 3. Classification Category Ownership Public Acquisition 4. Owner of Property 5. Location of Legal Description 6. Representation in Existing Surveys Has this property been determined eligible? yes no 7. Description Condition J excellent good fair deteriorated ruins unexposed Check one unaltered altered Describe the present and original (if known) physical appearance summary paragraph completeness clarity alterations/integrity dates ] boundary selection Status Accessible Present Use Check one - original site moved date 8.
Significance Period Areas of Significance-Check and justify below Specific dates Builder/Architect Statement of Significance (in one paragraph) - summary paragraph completeness clarity J applicable criteria J justification of areas checked Jrelating significance to the resource context relationship of integrity to significance - justification of exception Jother 9. Major Bibliographical References 10. Geographical Data Acreage of nominated property Quadrangle name UTM References Verbal boundary description and justification 11. Form Prepared By 12. State Historic Preservation Officer Certification The evaluated significance of this property within the state is: national state _local State Historic Preservation Officer signature title date 13.
Other -Maps L Photographs Other Questions concerning this nomination may be directed to _ Signed - Date - Phone: - GPO 918-450 Comments for any item may be continued on an attached sheet Newton, Mass. MRA 1326 Washington St., West (First Unitarian Church) Inv. #3117 12 CITY 3 PUTNAM -- CAKE CHERRY --CHEESE MEWTON of SECTION BLOCK 1 33 POLICE STATION SECTION 33 BLOCK T2 STREET WASHINGTON 1 HIGHLAND SECTION 33 BLOCK 8 RAILROAD EXTENSION MASO. TURNPIKE 90 0 SECTION 32 BLOCK 6 2 1 STREET HUNTER 1 20 19 DISTRICT COURT RIGHT 14 1076L STREET WAL THAM STREET 2 PASSAG! 20 SECTION BLOCK 10 11 12 DAVIS STREET SEGTION 32 BLOCK 5 STREET 3 .1 UTILITIES EASEMENT SECTION 32 BLOCK 4 City of Newton Assessor's Maps. Sheet 41 Metric Series. 1979 Scale: UTM grid líne interval = 100 meters (328 feet) Newton, Mass. MRA 1326 Washington St., West Newton (First Unitarian Church) 33-8-1