Myrtle Baptist Church Neighborhood Historic District

Tucked behind Newton's main thoroughfares in West Newton, this 6.5-acre district grew up around Myrtle Baptist Church, founded in 1874. It contains 26 contributing resources: the church, a parish house, twenty-two houses, a business and outbuildings, mostly built between the 1880s and 1929. The current wood-framed church opened in 1898, a year after fire destroyed the first building, and was designed and built by its African-American congregants. Its stained-glass windows include one showing Philip baptizing the Ethiopian eunuch. Houses range from modest workers' housing to a Second Empire building with a cupola, and include Queen Anne, Italianate and Colonial Revival examples plus a triple-decker. The area was Newton's only historically African-American neighborhood, and families often took in boarders or shared houses. In 1963 the Massachusetts Turnpike extension destroyed about half of the neighborhood, leaving this surviving portion. Many buildings now have synthetic siding but retain their original scale and massing.