{"nrhp_refnum":"80000604","name":"Cathedral of St. Paul","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"38 Chatham St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Worcester","county":"Worcester County","state":"MA","lat":42.261714632000064,"lon":-71.80421451499996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1980-03-05","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state","local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A Victorian Gothic Roman Catholic church of rock-faced granite at 38 Chatham Street, Worcester, Massachusetts, begun in 1868 and completed in 1874 to designs by Elbridge Boyden & Son.","why_significant":"The form calls it perhaps Worcester's finest Victorian Gothic church building. Unlike most local Catholic churches, which were designed by Boston architects chosen by the archdiocese, it was designed by Worcester architect Elbridge Boyden. The parish also grew into a large complex of homes, a school and a convent.","narrative":"Cathedral Church of St. Paul, also known as St. Paul's Roman Catholic Church, is a granite Victorian Gothic building at 38 Chatham Street in Worcester. Construction began in 1868, services were held in the basement from July 4, 1869, and the church was finished except for its tower in 1874. The tower was completed in 1889 from the original plans of architect Elbridge Boyden, a Worcester designer, at a time when most local Catholic churches were designed by Boston architects. The plan has a nave and transept with covered side aisles, an asymmetrical north facade, a crenellated corner tower with pinnacles, and an open porch of pointed arches on polished granite columns. The parish was formed by John Power, and by 1889 it had 3600 members. Neighboring land was acquired for a women's home, a parochial school and a convent. The interior was redecorated in 1903 with a white marble altar and gold mosaic tiles, and modernized again in the late 1960s.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"Elbridge Boyden & Son","architectural_style":"Victorian Gothic","criteria":[],"status_note":"Present use is church; the exterior was steam cleaned in 1978 and the interior modernized in the late 1960s.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:53.485627-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/61/7930/63793061/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/80000604.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/80000604/be10349438-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/80000604/be10349438-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 3.0","author":"John Phelan","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cathedral_of_Saint_Paul,_Worcester_MA.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">John Phelan</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cathedral_of_Saint_Paul,_Worcester_MA.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63793061","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathedral_of_Saint_Paul_(Worcester,_Massachusetts)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q2942424"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/worcester-county/cathedral-of-st-paul-80000604/"}