Park Street Church, Boston

Park Street Church is one of the many old churches you will see on the Freedom Trail. It has been around for 200 years and is still actively being used to this day. The church's steeple is quite high and is hard to miss. I've never gone in, but I always see it when I'm around this part of town. It is by the Boston Common and right outside the Park Street stop on the "T" and adjacent to the burial ground.

Just across the street from the Boston Common at Park and Tremont is the stately Park Street Church with its noticeable tall steeple. To me it's a church that makes me think of Boston and the days of a new nation. It was built in 1810 and was the sight of the first singing of "America" by Katherine Lee Bates on the Fourth of July 1831.

The Park Street Church, built as a Congregationalist church in 1809, was used during the War of 1812 to store gunpowder, acquiring the nickname "Brimstone Corner." It's also where the abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison gave his first speech condemning slavery, in 1829. This is one of Boston's most beautiful and historic churches.

Park Street Church is built on the site of the old town granary where grain was kept before the Revolution. It was way back in 1804 that a group of devoted Christians formed a Religious Improvement Society. Although they faced some opposition, they meet weekly for prayers and lectures until in 1809 they founded the Park Street Church. English architect Peter Banner designed the beautiful church building, which overlooks Boston Common. With a bell tower that reaches more than 200 feet into the air, it was the first landmark that visitors would see when approaching Boston.

This Evangelical Church of "firsts" is the location of the first Sunday school in 1818 and the first prison aid in 1824. The first missionaries to Hawaii left from here in 1819. On July 4, 1829, William Lloyd Garrison gave his first public anti-slavery speech here and two years later on July 4, 1831, "My Country 'Tis of Thee" was sung for the first time by the church children's choir.

Within a few years of construction, the location of Park Street Church became known as "Brimstone Corner", either for the passion of the Congregational ministers who preached from the pulpit, or because powder for the War of 1812 was stored in a crypt in the basement

Park Street Church -Here was sung for the first time 'My country,'tis of thee' in 1831. This edifice, built in 1809 was also the site of William Garrison's famous anti-slavery speech two years earlier. Located at #1 Park Street, it is open Tuesdays through Saturdays, July and August.

Park Street Church
For many years, the first landmark seen by travelers to Boston was the 217-foot steeple of the Park Street Church. Built in 1809-1810, the church was the scene of the first antislavery speech delivered by William Lloyd Garrison. During the War of 1812, the Church stored gunpowder in its basement, giving the location the name 'Brimstone Corner.'