Holy Cross Church, Boston
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Franklin Street (Boston)
Franklin Street is located in the Financial District of Boston, Massachusetts. It was developed at the end of the 18th century by Charles Bulfinch, and included the now-demolished Tontine Crescent and Franklin Place.-See also:...
in Boston, Massachusetts and designed by Charles Bulfinch
Charles Bulfinch
Charles Bulfinch was an early American architect, and has been regarded by many as the first native-born American to practice architecture as a profession....
, was the first church built for the city's Roman Catholics
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
.
Prior to the erection of Holy Cross, Boston’s several hundred mostly French and Irish Roman Catholics met in a small, dilapidated former Huguenot
Huguenot
The Huguenots were members of the Protestant Reformed Church of France during the 16th and 17th centuries. Since the 17th century, people who formerly would have been called Huguenots have instead simply been called French Protestants, a title suggested by their German co-religionists, the...
meetinghouse made of brick and located on the south side of School Street
School Street
School Street is a short but significant street in the center of Boston, Massachusetts. It is so named for being the site of the first public school in the United States...
, a few doors up from Washington Street
Washington Street (Boston)
Washington Street is a street originating in downtown Boston, Massachusetts that extends southwestward to the Massachusetts-Rhode Island state line. The majority of it was built as the Norfolk and Bristol Turnpike in the early nineteenth century...
. As this arrangement proved inadequate and the lease on the chapel was about to expire, in March 1799 a committee was appointed and charged with raising funds for the purchase of a building site and the procurement of plans for a proper church. A site was chosen at the southern end of the Tontine Crescent at what is today 214 Devonshire Street. The property belonged to the Boston Theatre
Federal Street Theatre
The Federal Street Theatre , also known as the Boston Theatre, was located at the corner of Federal and Franklin streets in Boston, Massachusetts. It was "the first building erected purposely for theatrical entertainments in the town of Boston."-History:The original building was designed by Charles...
proprietors and Bulfinch, who was a member of the corporation, obtained the land at what Father François Matignon termed “the moderate price of 2500 Dols.” Bulfinch then submitted plans for the church to his friend Father John Cheverus
Jean-Louis Lefebvre de Cheverus
Jean-Louis Anne Madelain Lefebvre de Cheverus , French ecclesiastic, was the first Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Boston, Massachusetts.-Early life:...
without fee. Ground was broken on March 17, 1800, and the building dedicated on September 29, 1803. The minutes of the building committee report “the thanks of the whole Society were voted and desired to be offered to Mr. James [sic] Bulfinch, Esq., for his kindness to the Congregation in having supplied us with a very elegant plan for our new Church, and such as united decency and ornament with economy and having shown himself a friend and Patron to us.” In recognition for his charity, the Catholic faithful presented him with a fine silver tea-urn, now in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts, is one of the largest museums in the United States, attracting over one million visitors a year. It contains over 450,000 works of art, making it one of the most comprehensive collections in the Americas...
.
Bulfinch also pleased Boston’s Catholics by assisting in the subscription taken to provide a building fund and his personal supervision of each stage of construction. About $
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
17,000 was collected, more than one-fifth donated by Boston Protestants, who generally seemed in agreement with Shubael Bell, senior warden of Christ Church
Old North Church
Old North Church , at 193 Salem Street, in the North End of Boston, is the location from which the famous "One if by land, and two if by sea" signal is said to have been sent...
, that “no circumstance has contributed more to the peace and good order of the town, than the establishment of a Catholic Church.” President
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
John Adams
John Adams
John Adams was an American lawyer, statesman, diplomat and political theorist. A leading champion of independence in 1776, he was the second President of the United States...
headed the list of non-Catholic donors, which included such Bulfinch patrons as Joseph Coolidge, Jonathan Mason
Jonathan Mason (politician)
Jonathan Mason was a Federalist United States Senator and Representative from Massachusetts during the early years of the United States....
, Stephen Higginson
Stephen Higginson
Stephen Higginson was an American merchant and shipmaster from Boston, Massachusetts. He was a delegate for Massachusetts to the Continental Congress in 1783...
, Harrison Gray Otis
Harrison Gray Otis (lawyer)
Harrison Gray Otis , was a businessman, lawyer, and politician, becoming one of the most important leaders of the United States' first political party, the Federalists...
, and Elias Hasket Derby
Elias Hasket Derby
Elias Hasket Derby was among the wealthiest and most celebrated of post-Revolutionary merchants in Salem, Massachusetts, and owner of the Grand Turk, the first New England vessel to trade directly with China....
of Salem
Salem, Massachusetts
Salem is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 40,407 at the 2000 census. It and Lawrence are the county seats of Essex County...
. Bulfinch’s concern for the interior decorations sparked the interest of the painter Henry Sargent
Henry Sargent
Henry Sargent , American painter and military man, was born in Gloucester, Massachusetts. He was one of seven children born to Daniel and Mary Sargent...
, who designed an altarpiece
Altarpiece
An altarpiece is a picture or relief representing a religious subject and suspended in a frame behind the altar of a church. The altarpiece is often made up of two or more separate panels created using a technique known as panel painting. It is then called a diptych, triptych or polyptych for two,...
representing the Crucifixion
Death and Resurrection of Jesus
The Christian belief in the resurrection of Jesus states that Jesus returned to bodily life on the third day following his death by crucifixion. It is a key element of Christian faith and theology and part of the Nicene Creed: "On the third day he rose again in fulfillment of the Scriptures"...
.
Holy Cross was the second church Bulfinch designed in Boston and represented a great advance over the Hollis Street Church
Hollis Street Church
The Hollis Street Church in Boston, Massachusetts, was a Congregational and Unitarian church. It merged with the South Congregational Society of Boston in 1887.- 1732-1825 :...
. Its specifications, as given in the architect’s handwriting, called for a building approximately 75’ x 58’ with a 30’ height; the square-headed windows in the ground story measured 4’ x 7’ and those above 4’ x 9’. The choir was placed in the gallery directly over the entrance on Franklin Street. Contemporary sources describe the church as being in the “Italian Renaissance” style, a designation prompted by placement of the cupola on a line with the front elevation and the use of a pair of Baroque
Baroque architecture
Baroque architecture is a term used to describe the building style of the Baroque era, begun in late sixteenth century Italy, that took the Roman vocabulary of Renaissance architecture and used it in a new rhetorical and theatrical fashion, often to express the triumph of the Catholic Church and...
consoles to conceal the pitch of the roof. It is uncertain whether the design of Holy Cross derived from London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
examples such as St Martin, Ludgate
St Martin, Ludgate
St Martin, Ludgate is an Anglican church on Ludgate Hill in the ward of Farringdon, in the City of London. St Martin Ludgate, also called St Martin within Ludgate, was rebuilt in 1677-84 by Sir Christopher Wren.-History:...
, or came directly from the architect’s memory of Roman
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
churches he had seen, and possibly sketched, in 1786: Santo Spirito in Sassia
Santo Spirito in Sassia
Santo Spirito in Sassia is a 12th century basilica church in Rome.It has been erected in Borgo Santo Spirito, a street which got its name from the church, placed in the southern part of Rione Borgo....
and Santa Maria Vallicella. Such use of Renaissance forms was revolutionary in New England, employed by Bulfinch with a naïve charm that he repeated only once, on New North Church
St. Stephen's Church, Boston
St. Stephen's Church , formerly New North Church, is located at 401 Hanover Street in the North End of Boston, Massachusetts. It is the last remaining church in Boston designed by Charles Bulfinch.-Design and construction:...
, designed a year after Holy Cross was consecrated.
In 1808, when Pope Pius VII
Pope Pius VII
Pope Pius VII , born Barnaba Niccolò Maria Luigi Chiaramonti, was a monk, theologian and bishop, who reigned as Pope from 14 March 1800 to 20 August 1823.-Early life:...
created the Diocese of Boston
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston is an ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Roman Catholic Church in the New England region of the United States. It comprises several counties of the state of Massachusetts...
and Cheverus became its first bishop, the church became a cathedral. Enlarged in 1825, the building nonetheless proved too small for the city’s fast-growing Catholic population. Furthermore, the area had become commercial and the dilapidated cathedral was surrounded by business blocks. The last Mass, at which Bishop Fitzpatrick
John Bernard Fitzpatrick
John Bernard Fitzpatrick was an Irish American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Bishop of Boston from 1846 until his death in 1866.-Early life and education:...
was reportedly too overcome with sadness to speak, was celebrated there on September 16, 1860 as sale of the site was underway and planning began for a new cathedral
Cathedral of the Holy Cross
The Cathedral of the Holy Cross is the mother church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston and the largest Roman Catholic church in New England....
; demolition took place around 1862.
In 1950, an engraved tablet was placed adjacent to the St. Thomas More Oratory entrance at 49 Franklin Street. It reads: “Near this site stood THE CATHEDRAL OF THE HOLY CROSS, established 1803 by Jean Lefebvre de Cheverus, First Catholic Bishop of Boston; Missionary to the Penobscot Indians; Friend of President John Adams; Advisor to our State Legislature; One of America’s noblest priests. He stood by the bedside of Catholic and Protestant alike. This tablet placed by a group of Protestant Businessmen, 1950.”