Historical Notes on Individual Churches in the Early Republic

Boston, MA

Bowdoin St. Church

Built for Lyman Beecher after his first Boston church, on Hanover St, burned.

Brattle Square Church (or Brattle Street Church)

Described in DAB (Everett) as the "largest and most fashionable congregation in Boston". Presided over by Joseph Buckminster from 1805 (until his death in 1812? -- frequently absent due to health); by Edward Everett for a short time beginning 1814, and by John Palfrey from 1818-1831.

Sources: Pedlar's Progress, p 117, DAB (Palfrey)

Christ Church

Built of brick 1723 in Salem Street, the second Anglican parish, and now the oldest surviving church in Boston.

Used to hang signal lights in connection with Paul Revere's ride, and memorialized by Henry W. Longfellow. (Source: Whitehill, Boston, p38,39).

Federal Street Church

Built in 1744 as "Irish Presbyterian" under John Moorhead. He died and the congregation dwindled.

In 1780 became Congregational, and then Unitarian. From 1803-1842, he pulpit of William Ellery Channing, the great Unitarian preacher.

First Church (Congregational)

Presided over by William Emerson, Ralph Waldo's father from 1799 until his death in 1811, and by Nathaniel L. Frothingham (later a bitter opponent of transcendentalism) from 1815-1850.

Hanover Street Church

Had Lyman Beecher as pastor from 1826 - Feb 1830, when it burned. I thought I'd read that it was built for him, but am now doubtful of that. See picture opp. p182, Autobiography of Lyman Beecher.

Hollis Street Church

First parish of the energetic Unitarian reformer John Pierpont. The church ousted him in 1845 after a "Seven Years War".

King's Chapel

First Anglican Parish in Boston. Est 1688; current building 1750 (Peter Harrison, Architect) (Source: Whitehill, Boston, p243).

James Freeman

Park Street Church

Sometimes known as "Brimstone Corner".

Pastors:

Edward Griffin, former Prof. of Andover Seminary and later president of Williams College.
Edward Beecher served there from 1827 til November 30, 1830, when he left for Illinois College, in Jackson, IL.

Pine Street Church, South End ("later removed to Berkeley St).

Described as "colony of [Lyman Beecher's] Hanover St. Church formed in August 1827" (source: Auto...Beecher, II, p162)

Purchase Street Church

Presided over by George Ripley from 1826-41.

Salem Church, North End

Described as "colony of [Lyman Beecher's] Hanover St. Church formed in August 1827" (source: Auto...Beecher, II, p162). On the burning of Hanover St. Church, 2/30, Beecher and his congregation moved there for a time.

Second Church (Congregational):

From 1721 to 1845, had its edifice in the "New Brick" church. Its actual founding seems to have been much earlier on the same spot (Drake 155-6); but I don't know the date of its founding. It was also known as the "Cockerel" church for a cockerel (or rooster) weathervane surmounting its spire. Supposed to have split off from the "New North" (Drake 155), in controversy over the ordination of a Rev. Peter Thatcher. The tradition was that the weathervane was symbolic of the apostle Peter's denial of Christ three times before the cock crowed twice, hence a rebuke to the "Rev. Peter"; hence the church was also sometimes called the "revenge church".

Located on Hanover Street and Richmond, and, according to Mary Cayton in Emerson's Emergence known simply as "Old North" in the early 1800s.

It was from 1664-1723, the pastorate of Increase Mather, Joined by Cotton Mather from 1685, and succeeded by him in 1723.

Sources: Drake, Old Landmarks, ...; Rusk, Emerson; Cayton; Emerson's Emergence.

Charleston, SC

Circular Church, Charleston, SC

138 and 150 (?) Meeting St. Congregational. Old, but destroyed; rebuilt in similar style after the Civil War.

Used as a meeting place for nullifiers on 7/4/31.

First Presbyterian, Charleston SC

Used for a unionist support meeting on July 4, 1931, while the nullifiers had their July 4 celebration in the Circular Church.

Third Presbyterian, Charleston SC

Attended by Angelina Grimke, where she was summonned to trial by the church court 5/14/29.

New York, NY

Brick Church:

Charles Grandison Finney came there to speak in July and August 1828. Samuel Cox, the minister at the time, was on vacation, and was not consulted, which annoyed him. Subsequently Arthur Tappan and some of his fellows left the church to organize a new one, which became Union Church, which was under Finney for a while.

Broadway Tabernacle

Chatham Street Chapel

Formerly the "Chatham Garden Theater", near the infamous "Five Points", In early 1832, iit was leased, and converted into the Second Free Church; by Lewis Tappan and associates, and designated for the use of Charles Grandison Finney. Finney preached there from 1832-35. (Sources: Hambrick-Stowe, Finney, and Haswell, Reminscences (online)).

In its previous life as a theater ("theatre" in most Jackson Era writings), it kept changing hands (e.g. Jan 1832); sometimes producing actual theater; other times circus-like or vaudeville-like acts. Its location may have kept it from the relative respectability of Park Theater.

Free Churches (New York)

A "free church movement" was promoted by the New York Tappan brothers and their circle. These churches, unlike typical ones of their day, did not have their pews divided up and sold for the exclusive use of subscribers (such churches generally had some sort of gallery for the poor). In the free churches, all seating was open to everyone. The Union Church was the first of these; the Chatham Street Chapel was another.

Hall of Science or "Temple of Reason"

Formerly Ebenezer Baptist Church; purchased for $7,000 by Fanny Wright, and "consecrated" Sunday 4/26/1829. On Broome St., and, I suspect, between Mott and Elizabeth, 1-1/2 blocks west of Bowery, and 3 blks north of Canal.

Part of a dream by Fanny Wright and Robert Dale Owen of such an establishment in every town, and "correspondence committees" between the towns, involved in projects like setting up boarding schools to better educate youth and relieve parents of the job. Served as a base for Owen and Wright; offices, printing offices for the Free Enquirer, a book store selling largely anti-religious works, across the street from the "Bible repository".

The bookstore claimed to reach sales of $2,000/year. "Speeches and debates every Sunday and sometimes during the week"; admission ten cents; drew large crowds, it sounds like. (p191-194, Eckhardt, Fanny Wright)

Second Free Church

See Chatham Street Chapel (and Broadway Tabernacle)

Third Presbytery (New York)

The formal name of the association sponsoring "free churches" in New York.

Union Church

Newark, NJ

First Church (Congregational, Newark, NJ)

Had for its pastor from 1836-56, Aaron Burr, the 2nd president of Princeton, son-in-law of Jonathan Edwards, and father of the other, better known, Aaron Burr.

Newport, RI

First Congregational

Pastor: Samuel Hopkins from 1770 - 1803.

Second Congregational

Had Ezra Stiles as pastor from 1755-76.

Philadelphia, PA

Wesleyan Church on Lombart St.

Site of the first Annual Convention of the People of Color, 6/6 - 6/11.

Portsmouth, NH

First Church

Had the pastorate of Ezra Stiles for about a year from May, 1777. Though he left to be president of Yale, they retained him officially as their pastor until May 18, 1786.

Salem, MA

Tabernacle Church

Presided over at one time by Samuel Worcester, D.D.

Troy, NY

First Presbyterian

"1200-member" church headed by Nathan S. S. Beman in 1826, when he invited Charles Grandison Finney to lead a revival there. Finney began October 1 of that year, and was in and out of Troy for the next few months. (Sources: Hambrick-Stowe, Finney, p61ff, and DAB on Beman).

First Unitarian Society

Begun 1845. Had John Pierpont as first minister. Source: DAB on Pierpont