Dorchester Illustration 2695 Harrison Square Unitarian Church
The Third Unitarian Church in Dorchester was organized in 1848, and its church building was pictured on the 1850 map of Dorchester. The photograph in today’s illustration is from a later year.
Their first meeting house was built in 1846 at the northwest corner of the intersection of Neponset Avenue and Mill Street (now Victory Road). It was built by another society, an offshoot from the Second Church of Dorchester, which did not flourish. The church was known from 1875 to 1894 as the Harrison Square Unitarian Church. In 1892, the congregation voted to sell the property and to purchase land near Elm Lawn Street. The society relocated to the corner of Dorchester Avenue and Dix Street in 1894. At that time, it took the name Christ Church.
The new building was designed by Edwin J. Lewis, Jr., who lived at 597 Adams St. The original design included a tower that was never built (middle image). The illustration was published in the Christian Register on Oct. 5, 1893. The bottom image is from postcard printed about 1910.
Lewis is most famous for his residential architecture and some of his designs are located in Dorchester at 15 and 22 Carruth St., 12 Alban St., 12, 60, and 75 Ocean St. Lewis designed similar church buildings for congregations in Braintree, Massachusetts, and in Keene, New Hampshire.