{"nrhp_refnum":"74000376","name":"First Parish Unitarian Church","other_names":["Church of Christ,Medfield","First Congregational Parish"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"North St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Medfield","county":"Norfolk County","state":"MA","lat":42.187318910000045,"lon":-71.30645745999993,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1974-04-18","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Community Planning and Development","Politics/Government","Architecture","Religion"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A white clapboard Greek Revival church on North Street in Medfield, Massachusetts, designed by Captain Joseph Bacon and built in 1789, then remodeled in 1839. It sits on about 1.3 acres facing what was once the Town Green.","why_significant":"The nomination points to the church's architecture, with its unusually heavy hand-hewn oak frame from 1789 and Greek Revival remodeling of 1839. It also stresses the building's long role as the visual focus of the town center and as a place of town meetings. Parishioners included Hannah Adams and Lowell Mason.","narrative":"Facing what was once Medfield's Town Green, this white clapboard church on North Street was designed by Captain Joseph Bacon and built in 1789, reusing some materials from the 1706 meetinghouse. Its frame is made of unusually heavy hand-hewn oak, with bowed rafters and tie beams similar to those at the Old Ship Church in Hingham. In 1839 the building was turned to face south, raised to two stories to add a vestry, and given a Doric porch, bell tower and Greek Revival details. A town clock was added in 1861 and a rear addition in 1915. The 1938 hurricane toppled the steeple, which was never replaced. The church served as the town's public meetinghouse, and most town meetings were held in its vestry until the Town Hall opened in 1872. Townspeople repeatedly reshaped the building as an ornament to the village, and it remains a visual focus of a downtown that is now largely commercial.","period_of_significance":"18th and 19th centuries (specific dates 1789 and 1839)","architect_builder":"Captain Joseph Bacon","architectural_style":"Greek Revival","criteria":[],"status_note":"Occupied and in use as a religious building; altered, on its original site.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:54.88778-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/68/7963/63796368/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/74000376.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/74000376/d333f70d98-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/74000376/d333f70d98-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Marcbela (Marc N. Belanger)","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:First_Parish_Medfield.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Marcbela (Marc N. Belanger)</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:First_Parish_Medfield.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63796368","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Parish_Unitarian_Church","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5453491"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/norfolk-county/first-parish-unitarian-church-74000376/"}