Photographs from the nomination case file, National Park Service records.
Follen Community Church
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in
1976. 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
“Such were tlie opinions expressed, the resokitions adopted, and the measures taken by the people of tliis Province, long before the 19th of April, 1775. It was not the battle of Lexington that gave rise to the llevolution.”
History of the Town of Lexington, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, from Its First Settlement to 1868, with a Genealogical Register of Lexington Families (1868). Machine-read text.
one of 1100 National Register listings in Middlesex County · listed in 1976 · category: Building · one of 3 National Historic Landmarks in Middlesex County.
National Register reference number.76000242- 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 Lexington town, The inset identifies its exact
source book and publication year.
He was first taxed in 1748< He was a member of Capt. Parker's company on the morning of 19 April 1775, and was severely wounded by a bullet which struck his right arm, and so fractured the bone that he was not only disabled for a long time, but pieces of bone were extracted from it for several months afterward.
Of the illustrations bound witli this work, the portraits of Rev. Mr. Hancock, Col. INIunroe, and the author were furnished by their respective descendants ; and those of Theodore Parker, Rev. Dr. and Mrs. Follen, and Rev. Mr. Stetson, by their numerous friends resident in the vicinity. The views of dwelling-houses, including the Lexington House, Avere, except as stated below, sup])lied by their present or late owners ; and those of public buildings by citizens' subscriptions.
In the exercise of the powers given to them, the Committee have inserted the following illustrations at the town's expense, viz. : a lithographic portrait of Jonathan Harrington ; wood enjrravinffs of the Clarke House, the old Munroe Tavern, the INIonument, the proposed Monument, and the Battle Scene on the 19th of April ; diagrams of Lexington Common, and the Old North Bridge at Concord, with their surroundings as they were in 1775 ; andy^c similes of the autogi'aphs of twenty-nine men whose names are affixed to public documents which are a part of the History. It was thought that nothing ought to be omitted from the book, which could serve to explain, or invest with additional interest, the events narrated.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 53 fires within 5 miles of Follen Community Church between
1992 and 2020, burning about 102 acres in total. 1 started naturally. 24 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
Arson/incendiarism
24
Missing data/not specified/undetermined
14
Debris and open burning
10
Recreation and ceremony
2
Other causes
1
Misuse of fire by a minor
1
Natural
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 2,032 specimens
collected within 10 miles of Follen Community Church between 1898 and
1975: 887 Animalia, 635 Plantae, 445 Fungi, 30 Protozoa, 17 Bacteria, 9 Unrecorded, 9 Chromista. 12 distinct Species records are shown.
Collected by ?, A B Seymour, A B. Proper 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
10 workings within 5 miles of Follen Community Church: 7 past producers, 2 producers, 1 plant.
3 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Peat, Clay, Iron. 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
Lexington, the town this property stands in, in 14 storm reports between 1997 and 2022: 6 hail, 6 thunderstorm wind, 1 flood, 1 lightning.
No death or injury is recorded in these reports. 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.
Three lanes of Route 128 in Burlington were closed due to flooding. There was also 6 inches of flooding across the all lanes of Route 128 near North Street in Reading.
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
2,727 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
The Follen Community Church faces west onto Massachusetts Avenue (formerly Main Street) in East Lexington. Next to it to the south stands the Stone Building (Cary Memorial Library) and to the north is a parsonage built around 1930. The Follen Community Church was built in 1840/41 according to designs made in 1839 by the minister, Charles Theodore Christian Follen. The building is sheathed in clapboards, and its pointed arched windows display a Gothic influence. It is octag- onal in shape, resting on a heavy granite foundation. As originally designed, the only deviation from the octagon was a front vestibule surmounted by a tall steeple, the spire of which was of lattice construction.
A unique feature of the roof over the sanctuary is the incorporation of a structurally massive ceiling (with eight 14-inch square chestnut rafters) hung from the apex of the eight-sided roof by a single heavy iron rod. The pulpit, still in use, was sit- uated on the floor of the sanctuary to allow Reverend Follen to have his congrega- tion spread half-way around him fan-wise. The original choir loft was set in the back of the church over the vestibule with access from the steeple. In April 1857 thesteeple was damaged by fire after being struck by lightening. The, lattice spire was removed until eight years later when it was rebuilt and sheathed with wooden shingles.
At this time a raised chancel was added to the back of the octagon to provide space for the choir in front of the congregation and for the pulpit to be raised to a more prominent position. A kitchen was added beneath the chancel.
/ARCHITECT Reverend Charles Follen STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE The Follen Community Chürch is significant as the first permanent home of the Relig- ious Society of East Lexington and as the only octagonal structure in the town. The Religious Society of East Lexington was formed in 1833 and in 1835 began holding its meetings in the Stone Building (Cary Memorial Library) in East Lexington. The pastor of the new religious society was the Reverend Charles Follen who had fled his native Germany because of opposition to his radical political activities. In America he became an ardent abolitionist before such views were acceptable in New England, and as a result he lost his position as professor of German at Harvard College.
In order to give full expression to his religious, moral and political opinions, Follen turned to the ministry and preached to the Religious Society in East Lexington which. was sympathetic to his views. After four years of meeting in the Stone Building, the Society was desirous of building its own church. Follen designed the new church building which was to stand next to the hall (the Stone Building) formerly used by the worshippers, and he led the Society in- conducting a fair to aid in financing the undertaking. The fair was held in August 1839 on Mt. Independence, and the proceeds amounted to about $1200. Ground was broken for the new church on July 4, 1840 and on January 15, 1841 the dedication was held. Dr.
Follen was returning from a lecture tour to preside at the ceremonies when he was killed in the explosion of the steamship "Lexington" in Long Island Sound.
Quoted from the National Register nomination
for reference 76000242, 15 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.
Block
