Old West Church (Boston, Massachusetts)

The Old West Church

The Old West Church is a historic church building in Boston 's West End in the state of Massachusetts in the United States. She stands at the address 131 Cambridge Street, and was built in 1806 to designs by the architect Asher Benjamin. The slogan " no taxation without representation " was chanted in the church for the first time.

Prehistory

The first church was built on the same spot in 1737 and initially consisted of wood. It was used by British forces during their siege of the city as barracks shortly before the American Revolution. The building was torn down, as the British had the suspicion that American colonists sent of their tower signals to Cambridge.

History

Held in the church sermons played a major role in U.S. history. So impressed Jonathan Mayhew, the second Congregational pastor of the church, the phrase " no taxation without representation " in the context of a sermon, which was viewed from a theological perspective as radical. It is considered by some Unitarian theologians as a precursor of the speech of William Ellery Channing, in which he gave his anti-Trinitarian views. In the early 19th century, nine of the original 13 Orthodox Congregational churches in Boston were already converted to Unitarianism.

The Old West Church belonged to the Congregational Church for many years and was from 1894 to 1896 a branch of the Boston Public Library. Since 1964, the building is owned by the Methodist Church.

Architecture

The church is similar to that of Asher Benjamin designed in 1804 Charles Street Meeting House, a crowned by a dome 3 ½ -storey entrance tower. Four flat pilasters of brick, two stories high, framed in white wood, separate the three entrance doors of each other over which is disposed one window. The third floor of the tower is decorated with pilasters in the Doric order. On the final half-height of the dome floor below studded on each side of the tower, each having a clock modeled curtain are attached. In the rear wall of the original central window was bricked up to the pulpit.