Built 1916 NRHP Reference # 89001262 Architectural style Romanesque architecture Architect Ralph Adams Cram | MPS Somerville MPS Opened 1916 Added to NRHP 18 September 1989 | |
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Location Somerville, Massachusetts Similar Rosebud Diner, Somerville Theatre, Wellfleet Drive‑In Theater, Stone Zoo, Museum of Science | ||
The First Universalist Church is a historic Universalist Church building at 125 Highland Street in Somerville, Massachusetts. The Romanesque church building was built between 1916 and 1923 to a design by Ralph Adams Cram, and is the only local example of his work. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989. It is currently owned by the Highland Masonic Building Association, and is the home of King Solomon's Lodge AF & AM, the builders of the Bunker Hill Monument.
Description and history
The First Universalist Church is located on the north side of Highland Avenue, opposite Trull Lane and the First Unitarian Church. It has a roughly cruciform shape, with a long body oriented parallel to the street, with a square tower projecting at the right end of the front and a gabled projection at the left end. The exterior is primarily plain stucco, with trim details in brick and terra cotta. The front facade has round-arch windows in pairs, framed by brick trim with a white pilaster in between. These window bays are set apart by buttresses with brick caps. The main entrance is set recessed in a round-arch opening at the base of the tower. The tower has four stages, demarcated by string courses of terra cotta. The lower stages have round-arch windows in similar style to the body, and the top stage has an open belfry with similar round-arch openings. It is capped by a pyramidal roof.
The church was built from 1916 to 1923 to a design by the noted ecclesiastical architect Ralph Adams Cram, who produced a somewhat more Romanesque plan than the typical Gothical Revival work he is best known for. It was the last of several churches to be built along the stretch of Highland Avenue northwest of Somerville's civic area.