{"nrhp_refnum":"97001239","name":"Dorchester Temple Baptist Church","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"670 Washington St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Boston","county":"Suffolk County","state":"MA","lat":42.28830338500006,"lon":-71.07101051699993,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1998-01-16","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A wooden Shingle style Baptist church at 670 Washington Street in the Dorchester section of Boston, built in two stages between 1889 and 1892 by George W. Oliver from designs by architect Arthur Vinal.","why_significant":"The description ranks it among the finest examples of Shingle style ecclesiastical architecture in Boston. It has a complex massed form, a bulbous-roofed bell tower and a largely intact early 1890s sanctuary. It also anchors the southern gateway of the Codman Square area and echoes nearby Shingle style houses in Ashmont Hill.","narrative":"Dorchester Temple Baptist Church, at 670 Washington Street in Boston's Dorchester neighborhood, is a wooden church built in two stages between 1889 and 1892. George W. Oliver built it from designs by Arthur Vinal, a Boston architect who lived in Dorchester. The building shows the Shingle style through its dark brown shingle skin, intersecting gables, off-center square bell tower and distinctive bell-shaped roof. It sits on a trapezoidal lot at the corner of Welles Avenue and Washington Street, at the southern gateway to the Codman Square commercial district and beside the Ashmont Hill residential area, whose Shingle style houses it resembles. Inside, the large auditorium-like sanctuary keeps most of its early 1890s features, including oak woodwork with original varnish, galleries, stained glass, and pews in a semicircular Akron plan. The porch and tower entrance were altered before 1930 and in the 1950s. The description ranks it among the finest Shingle style churches in Boston.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"Designed by Arthur Vinal; built by George W. Oliver","architectural_style":"Late Victorian / Shingle style","criteria":[],"status_note":"Still used as a religious facility; altered by porch renovations before 1930 and in 1955, and by a mid-20th-century tower entrance and signboard.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:13:04.248066-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/6/7967/63796706/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/97001239.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/97001239/0333fb1504-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/97001239/0333fb1504-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Jameslwoodward","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dorchester_Temple_Baptist_Church_Boston_MA_01.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Jameslwoodward</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dorchester_Temple_Baptist_Church_Boston_MA_01.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63796706","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorchester_Temple_Baptist_Church","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5297624"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/suffolk-county/dorchester-temple-baptist-church-97001239/"}