{"nrhp_refnum":"86001781","name":"Central Congregational Church","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"218 Walnut St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Newton","county":"Middlesex County","state":"MA","lat":42.35293296000003,"lon":-71.20765781999995,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1986-09-04","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state","local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A granite Romanesque Revival church at 218 Walnut Street in Newtonville, part of Newton, Massachusetts, built in 1895 to designs by the Boston firm Hartwell & Richardson.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the church is a major example of Romanesque Revival architecture executed in granite and the work of a prominent Boston firm. It is the only church in Newton by Hartwell & Richardson and represents a type characteristic of late 19th-century American architecture. It also marks the prosperity of a congregation organized in 1868 to serve a growing suburban population.","narrative":"Central Congregational Church at 218 Walnut Street in Newtonville is a granite church completed in 1895 and designed by the Boston architectural firm Hartwell & Richardson. Built in the Romanesque Revival style, it features Syrian arch entranceways, a four-story square tower with a steeply pitched slate roof and copper finial, and two projecting three-sided turrets on the front facade. A large recessed arched stained glass window fills the front gable, and bands of windows of varying size light the interior. The congregation was organized in 1868 as Newtonville grew into a suburb, and the dressed granite building replaced an earlier wooden church at a cost of more than $100,000. Hartwell & Richardson built at least eight buildings in Newton during the 1890s, but this is the only church among them. The building is regarded as Newton's only example of this granite, architect-designed church type, and it remains in excellent condition without major alterations.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"Hartwell & Richardson","architectural_style":"Romanesque Revival","criteria":["C"],"status_note":"Condition is listed as excellent with no major alterations; still in use as a church.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:13:01.990168-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/36/7912/63791236/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/86001781.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/86001781/af09c0cc9f-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/86001781/af09c0cc9f-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"User:Magicpiano","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NewtonMA_CentralCongregationalChurch.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_CentralCongregationalChurch.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63791236","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Congregational_Church_(Newton,_Massachusetts)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5060639"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/middlesex-county/central-congregational-church-86001781/"}