On February 27,1809, a group of 14 men and 12 women joined together to form Park Street Church to uphold orthodox Christian beliefs, especially the doctrine of the Trinity, in the face of rising Unitarianism in the churches in Boston. These founding members signed the church covenant and Articles of Faith and “through great exertion and sacrifice $70,000 (approximately $2.2M today) was pledged to buy the land and erect this building.” On May 1,1809, the cornerstone of the church was laid and in less than eight months, this place of worship in the heart of Boston was completed. When Park Street Church was built, it was meant to be a shining beacon of hope in the center of the city.

The steeple is 217 feet and 9 inches tall, 10 feet higher than the State House, and was once the first landmark visible when approaching Boston. The church was the tallest building in the United States for 35 years and the tallest in Boston for 57 years.

The clock was added to the steeple in 1820, at the request of the city because of the central location of the church and the lack of other time-keeping mechanisms. In exchange, the city offered to bear responsibility for the upkeep of the clock.

Contrary to popular belief, Park Street Church did not actually earn the nickname Brimstone Corner from fire and brimstone sermons preached from the pulpit. Rather during the War of 1812 brimstone, an essential ingredient in gun powder, was stored in the church’s crypt.

The style of the interior is typical of New England congregational churches, which emphasized simplicity both in worship and in the design of the meeting house. Consequently, all the original windows were made with clear glass. The original founders wanted to look out on both the Boston Common and the Granary Bural ground, as a reminder of the beauty of creation on one side and the need to prepare for eternity on the other. The pulpit is at the front center of the sanctuary and supports a Bible, to emphasize the importance of Biblical teaching.

The sanctuary was originally on the first floor. In 1838 the sanctuary and roof were raised 12 feet to create room below for the rapidly expanding Sunday School program which gave underprivileged children a place for not just religious education but also for learning basic reading, writing and arithmetic skills.

When it was first built, the church had box pews which were rented out to attending families to pay off the mortgage of the church and other expenses. The practice was halted in the mid 1800’s. Black walnut row pews were installed in 1880 and the current pews date from 1983.

For many years this church had an outdoor preaching ministry, especially to soldiers who were to be deployed in the war effort in the 1940’s on Boston Common. In 1946, the church lost its permit to preach on the Common. In order that the outdoor ministry might continue, the Charles Dooley family donated the Mayflower Pulpit (named after their hotel in Plymouth, MA). The Mayflower Pulpit was used often after its installation, and is still used today, for public events such as the dedication of the bells in 2023.

The stained glass window was dedicated in 1924 by the Porter-Adams family. The Adams’ were descendants of Presidents John Adams and John Quincy Adams. This is the scene of Jesus’ resurrection, the nail marks can be seen in his feet and palms, and an angel sits at the tomb where He was buried. This window contrasts with the simple style of the rest of the sanctuary windows but reminds people as they enter and leave the sanctuary of the centrality of the resurrection to our hope for the eternal life to come.  

Ralph Huntington, director for the project for filling in the Back Bay, when asked for instructions for the laying out of Columbus Avenue, said, “Sight it exactly for the Park Street steeple.” Even today, one of the finest views of the church is seen from this street.

“It was not intended originally to have a steeple. But the desire of the public was so great that a building occupying a position so conspicuous and imposing …should be thus ornamented. It should serve as an index for all wayfaring pilgrims, pointing to the heavenly home to which the lessons and ministrations in the tabernacle below so distinctly directed”.

The architect, Peter Banner, proposed a four-tier steeple, similar to the spire on St. Bride’s church in London, designed by Christopher Wren. The church leadership, however, refused the idea, thinking it was too ostentatious for Boston and would only allow three tiers. When the scaffolding was removed from the spire, the entire crowd which had gathered on the Common to watch, realized that the decision had been a mistake. The report was that to his dying day, Peter Banner regretted his giving into the church leadership.

A hurricane, known for the extensive damage to many building in Boston and especially the loss of Minot Light house on the coast, cause great concern for the safety of our own steeple. These following words are taken from an early news clipping:

“The steeple, having been visibly swayed to and fro during the late storm which was so severe upon our coast, it became obviously necessary that its security should be satisfactorily ascertained and for this purpose the immense staging represented in this picture was erected at a cost of $2000. This steeple has now been buffeting the storms for nearly a half century and has stood the brunt of many a fierce and howling gale that has whistled over the City.”

On November 24, 1895, a workman laboring on the world’s first subway system on Tremont Street, broke a large water main with his pick, sending up a geyser of such force that it broke all the windows in the minister’s study of Park Street, half filling the room with mud. The pastor, in his evening sermon, call the subway “an infernal hole” and “an unchristian outrage” sponsored by the Devil himself. Another difficulty for the church resulted from the tramway constructed along Tremont Street that blocked the front entrance to the church for two years. Once construction was complete, however, the advantage of being on the main line of the system became obvious.

Numerous renovations have occurred over the years, including removal of the exterior whitewash in 1914, exposing the original red brick surface. Since the 1920’s the interior of the church has remained essentially the same. The chandeliers, designed by Ralph Adams Cram (the architect of St. Thomas’ Church in New York City) were added in 1926, at which time there were extensive repairs to the roof and steeple.

In 1951, property at #1 Park Street was purchased to accommodate the growing congregation. The current structure on that site was erected in the early 60’s and, among other things, houses the preschool known as Park Street Kids.

In 1993, the next two properties on Park Street that were owned by the Houghton Mifflin Company were purchased by Park Street. Most of the church’s administrative offices are in these buildings along with many meeting rooms where numerous ministries of the church take place.

In the 1820s, Park Street Church hosted a 6 year-long series of anti-slavery lectures. Park Street’s third pastor Edward Beecher, who was the brother of Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, invited abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison to give the concluding speech in 1829. This was Garrison’s first public address, and the beginning of some radical ideas about granting freed slaves full rights of citizenship, ideas which were unprecedented in the United States at that time.

On July 4, 1829, William Lloyd Garrison gave his first public anti-slavery speech in the sanctuary of Par Street Church. In his speech Garrison stated:

“I call upon the ambassadors of Christ everywhere to make known this proclamation: ‘Thus saith the Lord God of the Africans, let this people go, that they may serve me.’ “

In 1862, in answer to President Abraham Lincoln’s call to arms, 80 men from Park Street joined the 45th Massachusetts Regiment. Pastor Andrew Stone agrees to serve as chaplain for nine months but stayed in touch with the congregation by letter. An excerpt of one read:

“Let your prayers hover constantly over the pillows of our sick and wounded. The touch of loved fingers is far away, but your intercession may be as the shadow of an angel’s wing to faces growing white under the signature of death.”

In a service immediately following President Lincoln’s assassination, the sanctuary was draped in mourning banners, and Park Street Church’s pastor Andrew Stone commemorated him:

“That deadly aim took the life of Abraham Lincoln, but it could not touch his past…it could not silence that voice that spoke out on the most illustrious New Year’s Morning of all our history and said to four millions of slaves, “Be free!” – and the winds of heaven bore it out, “Be free!”

In February of 1831, Samuel Francis Smith, a Harvard student, wrote the words to the patriotic song “America” (also known as “My Country ‘Tis of Thee”) in less than an hour. It was publicly performed for the first time by a choir at Park Street on July 4, 1831. It continues to be sung on days of national celebrations.

The first choir was formed the same week as the church was founded ,at the home of Caleb Bingham, and was known as the Park Street Singing Society.  Many of the charter members became the nucleus of the Handel and Haydn Society, formed in 1815. In the days before the first organ was installed in 1828, a trio of violin, flute, and bassoon was used to accompany congregational singing.

The location of the choir at the rear of the sanctuary dates from the early days. They were placed there “so as not to distract attention from the minister as he preached. When the singers performed, the congregation rose and faced the back of the church, then decorously sat down.” This arrangement continued when a new organ was purchased in 1885.

The third new organ for the church was acquired in 1910, and as part of the reconstruction of the entire pulpit area, the instrument was moved to the front of the sanctuary.

In 1961, The Albert O. Wilson Memorial Organ was built and installed by the Aeolian-Skinner Organ Company of Boston and has been filling the sanctuary of Park Street Church with its magnificent sound for over a half century. It has been used for numerous concerts by many notable organists such as E. Power Biggs and Virgil Fox. It has over 3,000 pipes and is still in use today, as it is played every week during Park Street’s two Sunday morning worship services.

Before the advent of computers, the pipe organ with its thousands of parts was generally regarded as the most complex machine in existence. The complete instrument is a unique and magnificent achievement of the organ builder’s art, truly “The King of Instruments for the King of Kings.”

The original church bell was given by friends of Park Street Church in 1819, to be hung in the steeple. The bell was cast by Thomas Mears in the Whitechapel Foundry in London where, years earlier the Liberty Bell, and years later Big Ben, were cast. (Unlike those, ours has never cracked!). The original bell was equipped with a rope wheel for swinging, along with an external striker to toll the hour. Over time the bell fell into disrepair and was not used for decades.

In 2019 the bell was removed from the steeple and sent to Meeks, Watson & Company in Ohio to be restored. Five new bells, donated by the Sager Family Foundation, were cast by Meeks, Watson and Company, all tuned to match the original bell. In August 2021, the original bell was reinstalled and the new bells installed. There was a blessing of the bells, during a church service, in October 2021. In May 2023, the bells were dedicated during a ceremony from the Mayflower Pulpit.

The bells are controlled electronically. They can be rung with strikers mounted outside the bells or swung to activate the cast iron clapper inside the bells. The hour is tolled on the 1819 bell and the new bells sound the Westminster Quarter (famously heard from the clock tower at Westminster Palace) from the Park Street steeple every 15 minutes, as they have since 1925.

Throughout the church year, special music is provided during the services which include the choir, vocal soloists, strings, reeds, brass, and timpani. A highlight for the last decade has been our Lessons & Carols service which is performed on the third Sunday of Advent.

In 1819, the first Protestant missionaries from America left Boston Harbor for Hawaii, led by Hiram Bingham and sailing on the Thaddeus. Park Street Church had commissioned the group, which was comprised of four Hawaiians, and seven New Englanders and their wives. Among the group were two preachers, one doctor, two teachers, a farmer (and his five children), and a printer who also brought along a printing press. They reached Kailua on April 4,1820 after a voyage of four months and began their gospel centered mission. Hawaiians wrote about the newcomers in the following way:

“The missionaries arrived here, and they‘re a really remarkable bunch of people. They are scholars, they have got a dignity that goes with religious enterprise that the Hawaiians recognized immediately. They end up staying and the impact is immediate.” ... “They are the first outside group that doesn’t want to take advantage of you, one way or another…”

The missionaries began by learning the Hawaiian language orally. With the help of native speakers, they created an alphabet and reading material in order to teach reading skills. Next, the missionaries translated the Bible into Hawaiian so the Islanders were able to read for themselves about the God who loved them.

The arrival of the New Englanders marked the beginning of a phenomenal rise in literacy. Attendance in mission schools increased from about 200 in 1821 to 41,238 in 1830. The literacy rate of the adult population went from nearly 0% in 1820 to about 95% by 1834.

By 1850, the Gospel had spread all over the islands and several Hawaiians wanted to share this good news about Jesus with those who lived on islands to the west of them. These Hawaiians asked the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) for help. And thus, the idea of sending another boat from Boston to the Pacific was born. The ship would be designed to sail to Micronesia and remain there to provide transportation around the widely separated islands. This began a 100-year story of the ships known as the Morning Star. The leader of this group who sailed in 1856 was Hiram Bingham, Jr., son of Hiram Bingham from the original 1819 trip.

Lacking funds, ABCFM decided to borrow an idea first used in England and ask the Sunday School children of Congregational churches to contribute to this adventure. They added their own “twist” to it: for ten cents, a child became a part owner of the ship and was issued a certificate to prove it! Word travelled around the world and money came in from every U.S. state, Canada, Turkey, and especially Hawaii. The campaign was widely successful, raising $18,000, significantly more than the $12,000 needed to build the ship. In addition, other gifts were given including a chronometer, a library for use on the journey, and a speaking trumpet from Constantinople. Children followed the adventures of the ship’s voyages with great enthusiasm, giving rise to its other name, The Children’s Missionary Vessel.

Over the years, as one ship aged, another was built to replace it. In the 1950’s when the Morning Start VI made its way to the Marshall Islands, it was given to another missionary of Park Street Church, Eleanor Wilson. She tells the story that, as a child, she contributed to the Morning Star V, never dreaming that one day she herself would join the list of those who skippered this storied line of ships.