Park Street Church Audio Guide

Park Street Church: what does the audio guide cover?

1. 01

   Welcome to Park Street Church

   This section of the Mappu audio guide to Park Street Church highlights Welcome to Park Street Church and points out what to notice during your visit.

   Welcome to Park Street Church, one of the most recognizable landmarks in downtown Boston. You are standing at a corner beside Boston Common, right next to the Park Street subway station and the historic Granary Burying Ground. Look up and you will see a slender white steeple rising above the brick meetinghouse. It has been a landmark here since the early nineteenth century. This is not a museum piece. Park Street Congregational Church was founded in 1809 and is still an active evangelical congregation today. It is also a stop on Boston's Freedom Trail, so you are standing in a place where worship and public history overlap. Over the next few minutes we will look at how the church began, what the building is like, and why so many important American stories are tied to this one corner. Stay with me, because the most surprising chapters involve music, abolition, and a close brush with demolition.

2. 02

   A Church Born in a Time of Debate

   This section of the Mappu audio guide to Park Street Church highlights A Church Born in a Time of Debate and points out what to notice during your visit.

   The story starts a few years before the building. In 1804, a group called the Religious Improvement Society began meeting weekly for lectures and prayer. On February 27, 1809, that society organized itself as a church. Park Street Church describes its founders as a group of 26 men and women, gathered during what it calls the Unitarian wave of the early nineteenth century. They were committed to Trinitarian teaching and to congregational governance, which means each congregation runs its own affairs. The National Park Service puts it this way: the church was organized in reaction to Unitarians who were gaining control of many of the old Puritan churches. So this corner began as a statement of belief in a city where religious ground was shifting. The first pastor was Edward Dorr Griffin, who preached a famous series of Sunday evening sermons. Just a few years later, in 1816, Park Street joined with Old South Church to form the City Mission Society, a social service society for Boston's urban poor. Even in its early years, the congregation paired doctrine with outreach.

3. 03

   Steeple, Staircases and a Narrow Escape

   This section of the Mappu audio guide to Park Street Church highlights Steeple, Staircases and a Narrow Escape and points out what to notice during your visit.

   Now take a closer look at the building. The main meetinghouse was designed by the English architect Peter Banner. The body of the church follows the form of a traditional New England meetinghouse in brick. Yet the front feels grander than that, with twin curved, colonnaded pavilions and a recessed center bay holding a large Palladian window. Then there is the steeple, which rises to 217 feet, about 66 meters. From 1810 to 1828 it was the tallest building in the United States. For much of the early nineteenth century it was the first landmark travelers saw when approaching Boston. Inside the tower, twin curving staircases climb to the second-level sanctuary, a large room that has been remodeled many times and is surrounded by monumental pilasters. The building nearly did not survive. In 1903, developers tempted the congregation to sell the site for an office tower. The church stayed, and today it is counted among the best-loved landmarks in Boston. Its carillon still sounds from the steeple, so you may be lucky enough to hear it.

4. 04

   Voices, Causes and Firsts

   This section of the Mappu audio guide to Park Street Church highlights Voices, Causes and Firsts and points out what to notice during your visit.

   Few corners in Boston have hosted so many beginnings. Park Street Church quickly became the site of significant events, including the founding of the Handel and Haydn Society in 1815, the American Temperance Society in 1826, the Animal Rescue League in 1899, and the Boston chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in 1910. In 1829, abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison gave his first major antislavery speech here. A church with a reputation for religious activism gave him a public forum. The National Park Service also notes that the hymn America was first sung at this church. The twentieth century added another chapter. Pastor Harold Ockenga served from 1936 to 1969. He was co-founder and first president of the National Association of Evangelicals and a co-founder of Fuller Theological Seminary, and he served as president of the newly incorporated Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. Today the congregation has more than 1,200 members and runs a program called FOCUS, which welcomes international students with Bible study and fellowship in Chinese, Japanese, and Vietnamese.

5. 05

   Before You Head Off

   This section of the Mappu audio guide to Park Street Church highlights Before You Head Off and points out what to notice during your visit.

   Before you move on, take one more look at the setting. The church stands on the site of Boston's old Granary building, and that building gave the neighboring burying ground its name. Church and cemetery sit side by side along the Freedom Trail, just steps from Boston Common. Try a few things while you are here. Stand back far enough to follow the steeple from base to tip. Notice how the brick meetinghouse and its curved pavilions work together at street level. And keep an ear open for the carillon. Then ask yourself why so many causes found a home on this one corner. The answer may change depending on whether you walk on toward the burying ground, or turn back toward the Common.