{"nrhp_refnum":"83000715","name":"Santo Christo Church","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"240 Columbia St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Fall River","county":"Bristol County","state":"MA","lat":41.70049509100005,"lon":-71.16270286599996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1983-02-16","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Religion"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Santo Christo Church is a large Late Gothic Revival church with a side tower at 240 Columbia Street, Fall River, Massachusetts. It was built 1924-1927 to designs by Murphy & Hindle of Providence.","why_significant":"It was the first Catholic church serving Fall River's growing Portuguese population and is the largest ethnic church in the city. It is also a fine, intact example of the Late Gothic Revival style, with notable workmanship. The form states it meets criteria A and C.","narrative":"Santo Christo Church, at 240 Columbia Street in Fall River, is a large Late Gothic Revival church built between 1924 and 1927. Murphy & Hindle, a prominent Providence firm that also designed several early twentieth-century Catholic churches in Providence, drew up the plans. They used the restrained version of the Gothic style popularized by ecclesiastical architect Ralph Adams Cram. Tan brick, granite and cast stone make up the walls, and the building has a tile roof with copper coping, cast stone pinnacles, buttresses, tracery and stained glass. A four-level corner tower with an open belfry gives the church strong presence on a cramped urban site. The parish traces to a Portuguese mission begun in 1876 and became a Catholic parish in 1889, the first in the city to serve Portuguese residents. Funding and material shortages and World War II delayed the interior until 1948. It is significant for its style, workmanship, intact quality and place in the city's church history.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"Murphy & Hindle, Providence","architectural_style":"Late Gothic Revival","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Present use is church; the exterior was completed in 1927 and the interior in 1948.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:57.513704-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/71/7894/63789471/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/83000715.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/83000715/f7bdb58425-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/83000715/f7bdb58425-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Marcbela (Marc N. Belanger)","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Santo_Christo_FR.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Marcbela (Marc N. Belanger)</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Santo_Christo_FR.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63789471","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santo_Christo_Church_(Fall_River,_Massachusetts)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7420498"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/bristol-county/santo-christo-church-83000715/"}