Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in
1978. 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
“First Church Congregational is a historic church at Pleasant and Stevens Streets in Methuen, Massachusetts. The stone Gothic Revival structure was built in 1855 for Methuen's first congregation, established in 1729.”
Wikipedia article First Church Congregational, CC BY-SA 4.0.
one of 350 National Register listings in Essex County · listed in 1978 · category: Building · one of 2 National Historic Landmarks in Essex County.
National Register reference number.78000461- 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.
Fires near this property
76 since 1992
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 76 fires within 5 miles of First Church Congregational between
1992 and 2020, burning about 44 acres in total. 1 started naturally. 10 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
23
Smoking
14
Arson/incendiarism
10
Misuse of fire by a minor
9
Equipment and vehicle use
5
Recreation and ceremony
4
Debris and open burning
4
Power generation/transmission/distribution
3
Railroad operations and maintenance
3
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 996 specimens
collected within 10 miles of First Church Congregational between 1816 and
1975: 568 Plantae, 311 Animalia, 106 Fungi, 4 Chromista, 4 Protozoa, 3 Unrecorded. 12 distinct Species records are shown.
Collected by A Brown, A S Gaunt, A. C. Mathieson 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
5 workings within 5 miles of First Church Congregational: 3 past producers, 1 unknown, 1 producer.
1 still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Nickel, Gold, Silver, Copper. 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
Methuen, the town this property stands in, in 27 storm reports between 1998 and 2024: 15 thunderstorm wind, 5 flash flood, 3 lightning, 3 hail.
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.
Two to three inches of rain fell in only a couple of hours and produced significant urban flash flooding. In Methuen, Riverside Drive by the boat ramp was closed due to flooding and several cars were stranded. Route 213 at I-495 was flooded and cars were stuck in the roadway. In Haverhill, the area near Laurel and Railroad Avenues was flooded with four feet of water and a car was stranded in flood waters. The intersection of Primrose and Dexter Avenues was impassable. In Peabody, several roads were impassable due to flooding which included Allens Lane, Walnut Street, Prospect Street near the North Shore Mall, Foster Street, Tremont Street, and Margin Street. In Danvers, Wildwood Road was flooded. In Lynn, a portion of Boston Street was flooded.
A tree on North Lowell Street in Methuen was downed by thunderstorm winds. Also, a large tree limb was downed onto Curtis Street near the intersection with Jackson Street.
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
2,305 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
First Congregational Church is located on the corner of Pleasant and Stevens Streets in a predominantly residential neighborhood just east of the Methuen Town Center. 1-3/4 acre lot is planted with low shrubbery, tall pines and maples. To the rear of the church is a parking lot. The The plan of the church is a simple 5 bay deep, ridge roofed auditorium with apse to the rear and attached 3 story tower on the facade. The church is constructed of rough cut Pelham granite block laid in random ashlar. Fenestration is modest, narrow lancet windows. The shallow eaves and slight parapet gables are supported by simple corbels.
The facade is dominated by the tower which, on the ground floor, contains the principal The paired, herringbone wooden doors are set within a deeply recessed ribbed Gothic arch. The second level of the tower has paired round headed trefoil windows within a slight recession. quatrefoil windows. The third level houses the bells and is stepped in to create turrets on the four corners. All four sides of this level are occupied by open trefoil arches with simple tracery. The top of the tower is crenellated to create a battlement. On either side of the tower, framing it, are three sided, one story pro- jections with crenellated rooflines and Gothic arched windows on the broad side. The rear elevation is dominated by the projecting apse.
The square, ridge roofed apse is constructed of Indiana limestone. The corners are accented by diagonal buttresses which are capped by finials. The roofline is crenellated to create battlements. The rear elevation is dominated by the LaFarge stained glass window, "The Resurrection." The Gothic arched window opening is framed by a gable which interrupts the roofline battlement.
/ARCHITECT Original Architect Unkown Apse, Heins and lararge First Congregational Church is significant for its architecture and for its associa- tions with the growth and development of the Town of Methuen. This structure is the third meetinghouse built for this congregation. The first meetinghouse was erected by the town in 1728 on another site; the congregation was organized in 1729. The second meetinghouse was built in 1796 and later moved to this site. This 1855 structure incorporates materials from the second meetinghouse. In New England towns, the first meetinghouse served as the community center and location of town meeting until the disestablishment of Congregationalism in the 19th century.
First Congregational Church is an early example of a high style "Roman" edifice for a non-conformist congregation. This orientation was furthered with the construction of the Heins and LaFarge designed apse in 1895. The interior of the apse is con- structed of Minnesota buff-toned dolomite and the marble reredos is derived from Venetian tetrecento memorials. The marbles used are from Massa-Carrara, Verona, Sienna, Belgium, Portugal, North Africa and Pennsylvania. The apse also houses figures of Patience and Purity by Louis St.Gaudens. The LaFarge window, "The Resurrec- tion", is composed of 10,000 pieces of glass and is estimated to have cost $50,000. uararge considered the window to be his masterpiece. His description of the composition was, "It represents the Resurrection.
The figure of angels open the gates of death the clouds roll away while the triumphant figure of the risen Lord leaves the tomb, and passes into light." 9
Quoted from the National Register nomination
for reference 78000461, 17 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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