Second Church, aka North Church, Site of

The Second Church was created in 1649/50 when the congregation of the Puritan’s First Church, founded in the heart of Boston in 1630, expanded beyond its capacity. The Second Church meeting house, or North Church, was built in North Square and stood until a fire burned it down in 1676. It was rebuilt the following year, and, according to a memorial plaque, remained in North Square for 100 years, until “the British used it for firewood in 1775/76.” Among the parishioners who attended this church were Governor William Phips, Oyer and Terminer judge John Richards, and the afflicted Mercy Short, subject of Cotton Mather’s account “A Brand Pluck’d Out of the Burning.”

This North Church (as opposed to the Anglican/Episcopal “Old North Church” on Salem Street) came to be known as “the Mathers’ Church.” Increase Mather was ordained there in 1661 and remained until his death in 1723. His son, Cotton Mather, was ordained as the junior minister in 1685 and served North Church for more than 40 years, remaining in the pulpit until his death in 1728.

In 1714, members of the congregation broke away and created the New North Church on Hanover Street. On that same site today stands St. Stephen’s Catholic Church, built originally as a Congregational Church in 1804, now adorned with plaques detailing its history and memorializing Goody Glover. The church is opposite the Paul Revere Mall. The building is the only Charles Bullfinch-designed church still standing in Boston today,

The buildings located at 1, 2 and 3 North Square are where the Second Church/North Church meeting house was once located. The site of the New North Church is at 401 Hanover Street. Today the building on Hanover, constructed in 1804,  houses St. Stephen’s Catholic Church.