{"nrhp_refnum":"86001769","name":"Auburndale Congregational Church","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"64 Hancock St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Newton","county":"Middlesex County","state":"MA","lat":42.34400982300008,"lon":-71.24971196499996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1986-09-04","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Social History"],"significance_levels":["state","local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A wood-frame Romanesque-style Congregational church at 64 Hancock Street in Auburndale, a village of Newton, Massachusetts, completed in 1857 to designs by Boston architect Charles Edward Parker.","why_significant":"The nomination calls it one of the Boston area's finest mid-nineteenth-century wooden Romanesque churches. It is also tied to the men who founded the congregation and who drove South Auburndale's growth as a commuter suburb, and who helped establish the Lasell Female Seminary and the Walker Missionary Home.","narrative":"Completed in 1857 at 64 Hancock Street in Auburndale, this wood-frame Congregational church follows the basic meetinghouse form: a two-story, gable-end rectangular block with a three-stage belfry, decorated with Romanesque round-headed windows, corbelled cornices and colonnettes. Boston architect Charles Edward Parker designed it. The slate-clad spire was rebuilt in 1862 after blowing over, and the nave was extended in 1878, along with a new chapel. A gabled south porch was added around 1880, and the chapel gained a Colonial Revival second story in 1892. The congregation was founded in 1850 by 34 members, among them men, many of them retired ministers, who turned South Auburndale from a farming village into a commuter railroad suburb of Boston, earning it the nickname Saints' Rest. Several also helped organize the Lasell Female Seminary and the Walker Missionary Home. The building is valued both for its architecture and for these community ties.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"Charles Edward Parker","architectural_style":"Romanesque (Romanesque Revival)","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Present use is as a church; condition is described as very good.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:13:00.624882-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/50/7914/63791450/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/86001769.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/86001769/98f8e29159-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/86001769/98f8e29159-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"User:Magicpiano","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NewtonMA_AuburndaleCongregationalChurch.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">User:Magicpiano</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NewtonMA_AuburndaleCongregationalChurch.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63791450","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Parish_of_Auburndale","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7889021"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/middlesex-county/auburndale-congregational-church-86001769/"}