Notes from the Archives: Cornerstone of Park Street Church laid #onthisday in 1809

Park Street became a center of social and cultural movements.

Five years earlier, in 1804, a small group of Bostonians began to meet for weekly lectures and prayer. This group, called the “Religious Improvement Society,” organized the charter of Park Street Church in February 1809. Three months later, on May 1, they laid the church’s cornerstone. Early in the church’s life, Bostonians referred to the church as “brimstone corner,” either because of the fire and brimstone preaching, or because gunpowder was stored in the church’s basement during the War of 1812.

The church wasn’t only known for fire and brimstone, however. Park Street also became a center of social and cultural movements. In 1815, the Handel and Hayden Society was founded at the church. In 1826, the American Temperance Society held its first meetings at the church. In the same year, Edward Beecher, brother of Harriet Beecher Stowe and an active abolitionist, became the church’s pastor. Three years later, on July 4, 1829, William Lloyd Garrison used the church to make his first public statement against slavery.

Park Street Church's building and its distinctive steeple, based on the style of Sir Christopher Wren, became an iconic part of Boston's landscape. The church was untouched during the Fire of 1872. Its steeple is often visible in the background of historic photos of the city.

In the 20th century, Park Street Church played key roles in the founding of the Boston branch of the NAACP, War Relief (now World Relief), Gordon-Conwell and Fuller Theological Seminaries, and the religious publication Christianity Today.

The archival records of Park Street Church are available through the Congregational Library and Archives.