Wollaston Unitarian Church

Wollaston Unitarian Church
U.S. National Register of Historic Places


Location:	155 Beale St., Quincy, Massachusetts
Built:	1888
Architect:	Lewis,Edwin J.
Architectural style:	Shingle Style
Governing body:	Private
MPS:	Quincy MRA
NRHP Reference#:	89001318^[1]
Added to NRHP:	September 20, 1989

Wollaston Unitarian Church is a historic church building at 155 Beale Street in Quincy, Massachusetts. It was built as the Wollaston Unitarian Church in 1888. The Wollaston Church merged with United First Parish Church in Quincy in 1960. The Beale Street building was purchased for US$40,000 by St. Catherine's Greek Orthodox Church of the South Shore. The dedication of St. Catherine's took place in November 1962, and the mortgage was ceremonially burned on October 4. 1964.^[2]

St. Catherine's grew over the years, and in 2004 the congregation moved to a new building in Braintree.^[3] In October, 2009, the building was for sale.^[4]

The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1989^[1]

Architecture

"Compactly massed under large enveloping slate roofs, St. Catherine's Greek Orthodox Church is a fine example of a Shingle Style church building. Its style is reflected in the multiplicity of gables, irregular fenestration, either very small or very large and arched, the short square integrated tower which accentuates the horizontality of the structure, unlike the vertical accent of a Gothic Revival church and the use of two walling materials, shingle on the second floor and granite on the ground floor. This use of contrasting materials was one of the distinguishing qualities of many of William Ralph Emerson's large Shingle Style homes he designed, as well as those of Peabody and Stearns, many of them illustrated in "American Architect" in the 1880s. Vincent J. Scully, Jr. in The Shingle Style and The Stick Style writes of Emerson's "plastic continuity of the shingled mass" and of his "development of the sense of natural materials". The architect of this church could well have been influenced by these Shingle Style proponents for the designed a church evoking the picturesque qualities typical of the style with his use of the rough-textured granite complements the rough natural texture of the shingles". — Quincy, Massachusetts Historical and Architectural Survey^[2]

References

^ ^a ^b "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. 2008-04-15. http://nrhp.focus.nps.gov/natreg/docs/All_Data.html.
^ ^a ^b "Quincy, Massachusetts Historical and Architectural Survey". Thomas Crane Public Library. 2009-10-27. http://thomascranelibrary.org/htm/579.htm.
^ "A History of Our Parish". St. Catherine Greek Orthodox Church. 2009-10-27. http://www.stcatherinebraintree.org/parish.html.
^ For sale sign outside, October 26, 2009

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