Location Taunton, Massachusetts MPS Taunton MRA Opened 1868 Architecture firm Maginnis & Walsh | Built 1868 NRHP Reference # 84002211 Area 3 ha Added to NRHP 5 July 1984 | |
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Address 114-, 130 St Mary's Square, Taunton, MA 02780, United States Architectural style Gothic Revival architecture Similar Watson Pond State Park, Lake Rico, Old Colony Historical Society, Wellfleet Drive‑In Theater, Lake Sabbatia | ||
St. Mary's Complex is an historic Roman Catholic Church complex at Broadway and Washington Street in Taunton, Massachusetts. The parish, the first in Taunton, was established in 1830, and the present church, its second was built in 1868, to a design by Patrick C. Keely. The complex, also including a rectory, convent, and school, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.
Description and history
St. Mary's Church is located on a triangular parcel at the northern corner of Washington Street and Broadway, a short way north of Taunton's downtown area. It is a massive Gothic Revival structure executed in stone, with a square tower at the front. The tower and the building sides are buttressed, with quoined corners. The main sanctuary has a gable roof with a clerestory level. The church was designed by Patrick Keely and completed in 1868; it is the parish's third church building.
Across Washington Street to the east is the rectory, a Flemish Revival brick building constructed in 1903 on the site of the first church, which was sold and moved elsewhere in Taunton. On the west side of the intersection stand the other two buildings: the school, a three-story brick building in Collegiate Gothic style designed by Maginnis, Walsh & Sullivan and built in 1907, and the convent, a mansard-roofed three-story brick building added in 1912.
The parish was established in 1830 by Irish Catholics who had come to Taunton to work in its industries. After meeting in private homes, a wood-frame church was built where the present rectory stands in 1832. This church burned in 1856 and was promptly rebuilt. When the rectory was built, the old church was moved to East Taunton, and became known as St. Charles Hall. Taunton's other Catholic parishes are all derived from this mother congregation.