National Register of Historic Places

Old Cambridge Baptist Church

Cambridge, Middlesex County, Massachusetts
Listed
April 12, 1982
Type
Building
Period
Industrial
Ref No.
82001968

About this property

The Old Cambridge Baptist Church is a historic American Baptist church at 400 Harvard Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The congregation was founded in 1844 when several members of First Baptist Church in Cambridge decided to start a new church. The original meeting house was sold to the Congregationalists and became North Avenue Congregational Church. In 1869 the church constructed the current meeting house, a larger Gothic Revival stone building, designed by architect Alexander Rice Esty. Old Cambridge Baptist Church was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. Built of local fieldstone and granite quarried in Somerville, Massachusetts, the building is a notable example of the muscular use of stone, typical of American Gothic Revival architecture. This solidity, coupled with Esty's display of structural strength in the asymmetrical massing of forms, is further accentuated by the contrast between heavy gray stone and large, graceful, delicate stained glass windows, which the stone walls simultaneously reveal and protect. In 1897, the original parish hall was lost in a fire. The rebuild was under the direction of noted Boston Theater Architect, Clarence Blackall. The most notable feature of the reconstruction is an 1890 Tiffany & Company Window. This early Tiffany window bridges the gothic stained glass tradition and emerging art nouveau movement. The church is currently home to various organizations and ministries, such as the Homeless Empowerment Project which publishes the Spare Change News street newspaper, the José Mateo Ballet Theatre, the Adbar Ethiopian Women's Alliance, the Cambridge Child and Family Associates, and others.

Location

398 Harvard St.
Cambridge, Middlesex County, Massachusetts
42.37163, -71.11419

Categories

ARCHITECTURE
National Register nomination ›
Sources

Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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Nearby Historic Sites

Stickney-Shepard House
Industrial
0 mi
Building at 102-104 Inman Street
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0.1 mi
Building at 106-108 Inman St
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0.1 mi
Buildings at 110-112 Inman St.
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0.1 mi
Reversible Collar Company Building
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0.1 mi

Nearby Battles

Siege of Boston – Cambridge Lines
1775Revolutionary War
0.3 mi

Questions about this property

When was Old Cambridge Baptist Church listed on the National Register?

Old Cambridge Baptist Church was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on April 12, 1982.

What type of historic resource is Old Cambridge Baptist Church?

Old Cambridge Baptist Church is classified as a building in the National Register of Historic Places.

What is the period of significance for Old Cambridge Baptist Church?

The period of significance for Old Cambridge Baptist Church is recorded as the industrial era.

Can I research the history near Old Cambridge Baptist Church?

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