First Church in Boston.

The covenant for First Church in Boston was signed in 1630. The first meeting house for the church was built in 1632 on State Street in Boston. A larger building was erected after this on Washington Street, which was destroyed in a fire in 1711. A new building served the congregation until 1808, when the congregation moved to Chauncy Place. In 1868 First Church moved to its present location, at the intersection of Berkeley and Marlborough streets in Boston’s Back Bay. After a fire destroyed the 1868 building, the Church was rebuilt at the same place with a Paul Rudolph -designed building.

The First Church in Boston was incorporated as a Special Act corporation by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 1829. In 1922, in connection with a change in the Church from one financed by pew assessments to one financed by annual pledge drives, all the pews were contributed under a Deed of Trust to five Trustees who are also Trustees of the 1829 corporation.

Second Church was founded in 1649 by members of the First Church. Over the last three hundred years, five other congregations have merged either with The First Church in Boston or with Second Church in Boston, which merged into First Church in 1970. They include Hollis Street Church, South Congregational Church, the Seventh Church, the Tenth Church and the Church of Our Savior.

Many prominent members of Boston’s history have had ties with these various church communities, including John Cotton, the Mather family, Anne Hutchinson, William Emerson, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Henry Ware, Jr. and Charles Chauncy. Recent ministers include Charles Edward Park and Rhys Williams.