Quincy, Mass. Historical and Architectural Survey

18 Spear Street

HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE
Quincy's congregational churches represent one of the oldest and most numerous religious groups in the city. Their history runs back over 150 years to the founding of Bethany Congregational Church, first called Evangelical Congregational Church, in 1832. The gradual settling of the outlying districts of the city led to the eventual establishment of nine Congregational Churches by 1911.

The original group of twenty-one men and women that formed the Evangelical Congregational Church had first been members of old First Church and then of Christ Episcopal Church. Neither set of beliefs and teaching suited them and they decided to found a new church to "secure stated orthodox preaching in this town." In 1896 the present Bethany Congregational Church was incorporated combining all the functions before exercised by the Evangelical Congregational society and the Evangelical Congregation Church.

Bethany Congregational Church, in its present edifice at 18 Spear Street, is actually in its third home. The first meeting house, much later known as Hancock Hall, was built at a cost of $2341.19 not including land and was located at Hancock Street and Canal Street (Revere Road) in 1834 after the fledgling congregation had met for two years in a hall over the post office. In 1870 the "Packard Lot" was purchased for a sum of $7500 and a new $29,000 church was built at the present location of South Shore Bank, 1400 Hancock Street, which served for about fifty years.

The well known Boston architectural firm of J. Williams Beal Sons was the designer of the present structure of 1927. The firm had previously designed the Adams Building, 1342-68 Hancock Street, in 1880-1885 and 1889-1890, and the Elks Building, 1218-1222 Hancock Street, in 1924.

Bethany Church is significant for its outstanding architecture as well as for being the home of the oldest Congregational group in the City of Quincy.

BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES
Assessors Records.
H. Hobart Holly, ed. Quincy: 350 Years, 1947, p. 18.
Paul Robert Lyons. Quincy: A Pictorial History, 1983, p. 77.
Quincy Patriot Ledger, April 4, 1932; September 24, 1953; February 1, 1964.
Quincy Patriot Ledger: 100th Anniversary. January 7, 1937, p. D-18.
Douglas Shand Tucci. Built in Boston: City and Suburbs 1800-1950, p. 158-162.

ARCHITECTURAL SIGNIFICANCE:
The Gothic Revival style continued to be favored by architects of ecclesiastical structures well into the mid 20th century. The influence of Ralph Adams Cram (1863-1942) "American Medievalist" was "most keenly felt in the mushrooming early twentieth-century suburbs around Boston" (Tucci). Cram wrote over two dozen books; he strongly urged for the distinction between copying and adapting for he felt "'servile copying" was not true art and modern necessitites must shape new Gothic forms, that principles should be" studied and not mouldings." His theory of "creative scholarship" was studied and much admired. Cram and his designing partners designed well over fifty churches in the United States and dominated American church architecture between 1900 and 1940.

In 1932, Bethany Church was described as an "outstanding edifice and one of the outstanding buildings in the city." Time has reinforced this opinion. The church was designed by the Boston firm of J. Williams Beal Sons who had proven their versatility and integrity in the Quincy buildings they had already worked on: the Tudor Revival Adams Building, 1880-1885, the Colonial Revival Elks Building, 1924 and the Classical Revival Masonic Temple, 1926. The enduring Gothic Revival was chosen for the granite Bethany Church. The most striking element in the church's composition, the strong, square tall tower thrusts itself high in the Quincy skyline, dominating the area stylistically, it evokes the Perpendicular Gothic period of England with its tripartite rectangular windows under a pinacled parapet with corners articulated by buttresses and picturesque gargoyles.

The gabled facade is embellished with a beautiful Tudor arched opening filled with five cusped lancet windows set within limestone enframement and an impressive entrance set under a splayed multiple lancet arch and projecting gabled porch. Decorative details such as the finial atop the entrance, the pinacles over the entry porch, the stepped buttresses are all finely rendered; they contribute to the building's architectural importance.

Bethany Church should be considered for nomination to the National Register of Historic Places, not only as a fine example of 20th century Gothic Revival, but also for its prominent location in the heart of the Quincy Center Local Historic District among some of Quincy's landmarks, The First Parish Church, City Hall and the Crane Library.

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