From the vantage point of the Paul Revere Mall in Boston’s North End, one might easily feel as if they are standing amidst the most historically significant square-mile in the formation of the United States. Situated at this busy tourist epicenter, surrounded by the First-Period Paul Revere House, its Georgian-styled counterpart in the Pierce-Hichborn House, and the famous Old North Church (known for its forewarning of the approaching British fleet), St. Stephen’s Catholic Church is a comparatively lesser-known landmark lining the other side of Hanover Street.
The early nineteenth century structure, built in the predominant Federal Style of the age, has undergone many revisions, restorations, and even multiple instances of full-scale relocation, before arriving at its current appearance. In many ways, the church mirrors the story of Boston itself: having been erected in keeping with the traditions of early American colonists, repurposed and given new life by the arrival of immigrant communities, and faced with the contemporary challenges of fostering communities of faith in an urban setting. An evolving denominational affiliation and design contribute further towards the rich history of the structure.
Fronted by a three-story, flattened façade of stone pilasters, a Palladian window, and decorative balustrades, the uppermost level is crowned by a colonnaded belfry, from which the continuous chime of bells reverberates throughout the neighborhood in the several minutes before Mass. The graceful, spiraling forms of its scrolls, repeated semi-circular courses of brick around the third story’s fan window, and the swooping forms of its outermost parapets enthrall the eye of even the casual passerby. Inside, the austere flatness of the plain forwardmost portion of the nave communicates only the results of the more recent alterations to the structure.The wall behind the altar has a creamy coloration only barely distinguished from the stark white of most other wooden interior features.
Designed by Boston’s foremost architect of the period, Charles Bulfinch, the church was erected from 1802-1804, known then as New North Church or New North Meeting House, and was affiliated with Congregationalism before quickly shifting its identification to Unitarian. Bulfinch, at the time the chairman of Boston’s board of selectman, and having already designed the rowhouses of the Tontine Crescent, an innovative housing project that was a financial failure. The first two of three houses he would build for Harrison Gray Otis, one of Boston’s wealthiest residents and a future mayor, and the Massachusetts State House, is a monumental articulation of the rationalist approach Bulfinch had inherited from close study of the work of Andrea Palladio, the Italian Renaissance architect. Bulfinch would go on to further reshape Boston in the following years, expanding Faneuil Hall and designing buildings for the Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard University before receiving his appointment as Architect of the Capitol in Washington, D.C., a capacity in which he oversaw the construction of the Capitol Building.
In a fashion consistent with most other buildings credited to Bulfinch, the church was originally constructed in a square shape, its box pews would have originally faced towards a central pulpit and sounding board (as the church’s original construction contained no altar), Less privileged viewers would have occupied the U-shaped balcony above, its colonnade lined with Corinthian columns.
As several historic photographs displayed in the vestibule attest, St. Stephen’s has undergone multiple interior transformations since its purchase by the Diocese of Boston in 1862. By the late nineteenth century, not only had the interior been extravagantly outfitted in a decadent Italianate mode, complete with faux-arches in the balcony, a mural executed in a series of roundels, and a skylight installed above the altar, but the nave had been expanded to from its original square to a more standard format. Another surviving picture recalls the condition of the interior in 1950, the ceiling repainted in a more subtle fashion, before reaching its current condition after the renovations of 1964-1965. Notably, those renovations also moved the church itself, which had been raised six feet and moved east in the widening of Hanover Street in the nineteenth century.
Today, St. Stephen’s Church has been absorbed into the historically Italian St. Leonard’s parish, located just across the street, and hosts 4:00 Saturday and 11:00 Sunday Mass, in addition to serving as the home church of the Missionary Society of St. James the Apostle.
While the sparsely filled pews of the church increasingly play host to tourists, two longtime members of the congregation facilitating the music ministry recalled the parish’s role in shaping their childhood. “The sisters would always make us sing,” one said of her days at the parish’s affiliate school, which has today been converted into condo units nearby. Where the women acknowledge a lack of appreciation in their past, they have more than made up for in the present: “We love to sing here now.” So, they keep coming back.
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