{"nrhp_refnum":"89001544","name":"Beth Eden Baptist Church","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"82 Maple St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Waltham","county":"Middlesex County","state":"MA","lat":42.36791533000007,"lon":-71.23842149099994,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1989-09-28","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Community Planning and Development","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Beth Eden Baptist Church is a Romanesque Revival brick and fieldstone church at 82 Maple Street in the South Side neighborhood of Waltham, Massachusetts, built between 1888 and 1891.","why_significant":"It is described as apparently the oldest extant church on Waltham's South Side, reflecting the area's late 19th-century development by the Watch company and its strongly Protestant character. It has been a focus of community activity and is a good local example of Romanesque Revival architecture. It meets criteria A and C, with the religious-function exception applied to criterion A.","narrative":"Beth Eden Baptist Church, at 82 Maple Street in Waltham's South Side, is a brick church with a fieldstone base course, designed in the Romanesque Revival style by W.M. Butterfield of Manchester, New Hampshire. The congregation formed in 1887 from members of Waltham's first Baptist church, bought the Maple Street land in 1888, and completed the building in 1891 at a cost of $80,000. Its steepled bell tower holds a four-sided clock flanked by pinnacles, and a large round arch shelters the main entrance. A fire in 1908 destroyed much of the building, but the rebuilding made only minor design changes. Eleven memorial chimes were installed in the tower and first played in 1916; they were later broadcast nationally when rung daily for 444 days during the Hostage Crisis. The church is regarded as the oldest surviving church on the South Side, a product of the area's intense late 19th-century development, and it has long been a center of community activity.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"W.M. Butterfield of Manchester, N.H. (architect)","architectural_style":"Romanesque Revival","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Condition described as good; the building is still used 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 02:13:01.665647-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/83/7918/63791883/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/89001544.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/89001544/16dd115459-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/89001544/16dd115459-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"User:Magicpiano","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Waltham_MA_Beth_Eden_Baptist_Church.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:Waltham_MA_Beth_Eden_Baptist_Church.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63791883","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beth_Eden_Baptist_Church_(Waltham,_Massachusetts)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4897486"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/middlesex-county/beth-eden-baptist-church-89001544/"}