Built in 1804 in the Federal architecture. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in
1975. A historic map-sheet match is not published yet. The record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary.
From the record
“Stephen's Church is a historic church in the North End of Boston, Massachusetts. It was built in 1802-1804 as the New North Church or New North Meeting House and was designed by the noted architect Charles Bulfinch.”
Wikipedia article St. Stephen's Church (Boston), CC BY-SA 4.0.
one of 206 National Register listings in Suffolk County · listed in 1975 · category: Building · built in 1804, Federal architecture, by Charles Bulfinch · one of 5 National Historic Landmarks in Suffolk County.
National Register reference number.75000300- the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.
What happened here
An account from the chapter on Boston city, The inset identifies its exact
source book and publication year.
IN giving some notices of manners and social life during this period, I shall speak first of usages which were characteristic of the close of the last century: most of them continued without essential modification until our city charter swept away the old landmarks, and Boston felt the im¬ pulses which mark a new epoch in her history.
Illustrations: State House and the Monument (in 1811), 64; the Monument from the corner of Temple and Derne streets, 65 ; the Monument and the Thurston House, 65; Beacon Street and the Common (in 1804-1811), heliotype, 65; Boston from Breed's Hill (in 1791), 66; the Faneuil-Phillips House,
IN giving some notices of manners and social life during this period, I shall speak first of usages which were characteristic of the close of the last century: most of them continued without essential modification until our city charter swept away the old landmarks, and Boston felt the im¬ pulses which mark a new epoch in her history. It is difficult to deal justly with ways of living which are not widely different from those that surround us. We miss the salient contrasts which lend themselves to picturesque de¬ scription, and are tempted to look for exceptional occurrences to brighten a narrative, rather than for facts which are truly symptomatic of taste and thought. Were it possible to go back four-score years, or even a century, and mingle with those then conducting the town, we should not feel among strangers. In many respects their ways were counterparts of our own. In certain directions, indeed, we might note a narrowness of range and a contraction of outlook, while envying the vigor of speech and de¬ cisiveness of action which seemed the outcome of the limitations. When Massachusetts took her place in the sisterhood of States, the gigantic up¬ heaval of the French Revolution had not taken place. The prophets whom her capital was to raise up to demand the redemption of human society, each with his panacea for its sad ailments, had put in no appearance. The tyranny of England had been broken by an heroic effort, and any further redemption which society might need would be provided by those who VOL. iv. - i.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 42 fires within 5 miles of St. Stephen's Church between
2015 and 2020, burning about 22 acres in total. None started naturally. 2 were recorded as arson.
Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted
here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
Reported cause
Fires
Missing data/not specified/undetermined
15
Debris and open burning
11
Recreation and ceremony
6
Smoking
6
Arson/incendiarism
2
Equipment and vehicle use
1
Misuse of fire by a minor
1
The most recent of
them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service
that recorded it.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. Museums hold 18,073 specimens
collected within 10 miles of St. Stephen's Church between 1810 and
1975: 8,180 Plantae, 4,373 Fungi, 3,705 Animalia, 1,281 Chromista, 229 Bacteria, 187 Protozoa, 118 Unrecorded. 12 distinct Species records are shown.
Collected by (MARSDEN, H W), ?, A B Seymour and others. Each is a
physical object with a catalogue
number, and each entry opens the museum's record. This is what was
collected and kept, not a survey of what lives here - nothing can be
concluded from a species being absent.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists
12 workings within 5 miles of St. Stephen's Church: 9 plants, 2 past producers, 1 producer.
10 still produce. What was taken out: Iron, Lead, Gypsum-Anhydrite, Sand and Gravel, Construction. Distance is straight-line from the
map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring
settlement's page as well.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The National Weather Service names
Boston, the town this property stands in, in 64 storm reports between 1994 and 2024: 37 thunderstorm wind, 9 flash flood, 7 lightning, 7 flood.
The reports record 1 death and 9 injuries. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office
filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date
opens the federal record of that event.
A 50 year old man was struck by lightning while walking in an area known as the Sugar Bowl in South Boston. Lightning struck him in the head, passing through his back and exiting his feet. He collapsed in cardiac arrest and was revived and hospitalized for several days before dying from his injuries.
A 29 year old male and a 29 year old female were knocked unconscious when lightning struck them at Thomas Park, where the pair were watching the July 4th fireworks. They regained consciousness prior to the arrival of EMTs, but unable to feel their legs and were transported to Brigham and Women's Hospital.
In Boston, two cars were stuck in flood waters on Corey Road. Storrow Drive was closed due to flooding at the Mass Avenue and Longmeadow Bridges. Several other roadways in the city experienced significant flooding.
Numerous trees and wires and several utility poles were downed throughout Boston, including in Boston Common. Several trees were downed onto cars throughout town, though no injuries resulted. One tree was downed onto a building on Corey Road. The Automated Surface Observing System at Logan International Airport in Boston, MA (KBOS) recorded sustained wind speeds of 47 mph and wind gusts up to 68 mph.
Multiple trees and wires were downed throughout Boston, including on Barstow Street, Forrester Street, Washington Street, Houston Road, and Keith Street. Trees were downed onto cars on Forrester and Washington Streets. A portion of a chimney was blown over onto Keith Street.
The National Weather Service at Logan International Airport recorded a wind gust to 60 mph as a severe thunderstorm moved across the city of Boston. Scaffolding was blown down at government center and some large trees were blown down in Revere and Winthrop. One damaged a house in Winthrop and a tree limb and electrical wires fell onto an auto. The occupants of the auto were not injured.
At 546 PM EST, an amateur radio operator reported two trees down on Belden Street in the Upham's Corner section of Boston. Also, two trees were down on Hamlet Street including one down on three cars. A tree was down on Willis Street. A tree was down on wires on Taft Street.
At 3:26 PM EST, heavy rain caused the intersection of Lewis and Marginal Streets in East Boston to be flooded and impassable. At 3:36 PM EST a car was trapped in floodwaters at Clark and Stockton Streets in Chelsea. At 3:38 PM EST several cars were trapped in floodwaters on the McClellan Highway, Condor Street and Putnam Street in East Boston.
At 5:05 PM EST several cars on Child Street and Boynton Street were trapped in flood waters as high as the car doors. At 5:10 PM EST a car was trapped in flooding on Columbia Road at Bodwell Street, and Ceylon Street was impassable at Quincy Street due to flooding.
A tree was downed by thunderstorm winds onto a car at the intersection of Bakersfield and Stoughton Streets. Another tree was downed onto a car on Columbia Road.
8 papers published in this town,
digitised by the Library of Congress and free to read: 0 issues,
0 pages. Every page is searchable, so a name or a street can be
looked for directly in what the town printed about itself at the time.
No historic map-sheet match is published
for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs
a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary.
Browse the county's mapped places while that work is
pending.
From the nomination file
2,393 words on record
When this property was proposed for the
National Register, someone wrote the case for it: what the building is,
and why it matters. That document is a federal record in the public domain.
It is quoted below word for word, never summarised. The text was read off the scanned case file by machine, so the
occasional stray character is the recogniser's and the 1970s
typewriter's.
Description of the property
St. Stephen's Church is located in Boston's North End on Hanover St. between Clark and Harris Streets. Designed in 1804 for the New North Congregational Society (as dis- tinguished from the "Old North" in North Square and burned by the British) by Charles Bulfinch, the church represents Bulfinch's personal restrained, neo-classical style which influenced Boston's and the nation's entire Federal architectural era. «ovem The church reflects the traditiona New cnaland Meeting House plan in brick but wit some Bulfinch modifications. The tower element projects but is a full three bays wide be- low the belfry, thus offering the designer surface for his carefully proportioned and bal- anced articulation.
The projecting tower porch has a symmetrical elevation divided at the nave's cornice level by a continuous blind balustrade across the entire facade. Paired brownstone pilasters with Ionic capitols that support a discontinuous entablature, flank the central trabeated wooden entrance under the large second story Palladian window. On the street level between the paired pilasters are additional round headed entry ways. In the tower attic or third story above the balustrade and below an ornate cornice, a recess- ed arch holding a lunette fills the entire central bay; the pilaster motifs are continued on the attic,but here with composed capitals. Above the cornice are pairs of decorative- ly carved consoles and urns.
The tower continues in a square block which supports the open wooden belfry with aedicular motifs and small domed cupola. On the nave facade, the side aisle windows are square-headed with flared brownstone tels with keystones on the ground floor and rounded-headed with keystones on the gallary lin- level; they are set within two story recessed arches. The nave side walls repeat this fen- estration pattern without the recessed arches.
/ARCHITECT Charles Bulfinch STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE St. Stephen's Church is Boston's onty remaining church, designed by Charles Bulfinch (in 1804) and, as his third church commission in the city, reflects one of the high points of his personal style. The church is also significant as a reflection of changes in the religio-ethic character of its immediate neighborhood. Finally, the church became one part of an urban design scheme when the commemorative Paul Revere Mall was created in 1926. Bulfinch's earlier churches outside of Boston (Pittsfield, Taunton) show a rather free interpretation of the tower element on the traditional meeting house format.
The Cathedral of the Holy Cross, 1799-1803, the architect's second Boston church commission, introduces elements of the Italian Renaissance tradition - a flat front with lower and attic stories connected by consoles - into his personal style. For St. Stephen's, Bulfinch manipulated the tripartite elements of Holy Cross in a simpler manner on the facade of the St. Stephen's tower, which unlike the Catholic Holy Cross, still projected from the nave according to the Congregational parish tradition. His later churches in Boston, Federal St. and New South (both demolished), fortell the coming vogue of Gothic and Greek Revivals, respectively. St. Stephen's is the third church building to occupy its site.
The Middle Street Meet- ing House of1714 lasteduntil 1730 when the New North Congregational Society rebuilt it. In the 1804 Bulfinch structure, some of the old timber from the 1730 ediface was reused. By 1813 the church had become the home of a Unitarian congregation and had Francis Parkman, father of the historian, as its minister until his retirement in 1849. Only thirteen years later in 1862, the building was sold to the Archdiocese of Boston and renamed St. Stephen's.
Quoted from the National Register nomination
for reference 75000300, 10 pages, held by the National Archives in Record
Group 79. See the
catalogue record.
Listed places nearby
6 within 8 miles
Other National Register properties close
enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both
positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties
to their map sheets.
Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Specimens. Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), https://www.gbif.org/. Only records licensed CC0 or CC BY are used. Records licensed CC BY-NC are excluded because this site carries advertising. Images are checked individually and any whose licence is non-commercial, no-derivatives or unreadable is refused.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.
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