Arlington Street Church and Channing Memorial
Why is it significant?
Stand before the monumental brownstone facade of Arlington Street Church, the historic architectural gateway to the Back Bay.
Key Facts
| Place | Arlington Street Church and Channing Memorial |
|---|---|
| Address | 351 Boylston St, Boston, MA 02116, United States |
| Geo Coordinates | 42.35220, -71.07000 |
| Part of Walk | Back Bay, Copley Square and Commonwealth Avenue Mall: Boston's Victorian Grandeur |
| Generated | Generated |
Stand before the monumental brownstone facade of Arlington Street Church, the historic architectural gateway to the Back Bay. Consecrated in 1861, this magnificent Unitarian sanctuary holds the distinction of being the very first permanent building erected in the newly created Back Bay neighborhood, built atop thousands of wooden pilings driven into deep marsh mud.
Designed by architect Arthur Gilman, the church was modeled closely upon James Gibbs' celebrated 1726 church of Saint Martin-in-the-Fields in London, featuring a monumental Corinthian portico and a soaring 190-foot stone steeple that introduced English neoclassical grandeur to the emerging Victorian district.
Directly opposite the church entrance in the Public Garden stands the heroic bronze monument honoring William Ellery Channing, the visionary theologian who served as the church's pastor from 1803 to 1842 and is revered as the father of American Unitarianism. Inside the sanctuary lies an extraordinary artistic treasure: sixteen monumental stained-glass windows designed and installed by the renowned studios of Louis Comfort Tiffany between 1898 and 1930, representing the largest, most complete unified collection of Tiffany church windows in any ecclesiastical building in the world. The church was also a courageous pulpit for social justice, hosting abolitionist rallies during the Civil War, pioneering peace protests during the Vietnam War, and celebrating the first legally recognized same-sex marriages in North America in 2004.
Gazing up at the richly carved brownstone bell tower against the sky, you feel the profound cultural transition from Puritan meetinghouses to enlightened Victorian civic beauty. Here, art, faith, and progressive reform found an enduring home on the newly conquered soil of Boston. The noble brownstone tower and the elegant stone carvings of the facade reflect the deep spiritual and intellectual heritage that helped shape nineteenth-century Boston.
Walk west onto the central promenade of the Commonwealth Avenue Mall.