First Church in JP: National Register of Historic Places Materials

From The New England Farmer of June 17, 1854

The First Church of Jamaica Plain, Boston, was built in 1854 and is a freestanding early Gothic Revival church executed in gray granite on the exterior walls with Roxbury Puddingstone and common brick interior (visible in tower and basement only). It is the second church on the same site replacing a timber-framed meeting house belonging to the Congregational Society of the Third Parish in Roxbury (raised in 1769, burned in 1853). The building has been used as a church since its construction in 1854. A parish house was added at the rear in 1890.

The First Church of Jamaica Plain has witnessed the growth of Jamaica Plain from country town to city suburb and its site is of long historic association both to its immediate environs and to the City of Boston.

The graveyard was consecrated in 1785 and enlarged in 1825. It includes at least twenty-four tombs and many graves with few interments made after 1848 because of the consecration of Forest Hills Cemetery in the same year. In 1833, an iron railing was erected around the cemetery and considerable landscaping undertaken. In addition to local Revolutionary War veterans, two pastors of the Congregational Society, William Gordon, D.D. (pastor from 1772-1786) and Thomas Gray, D.D. (1793-1843) are buried here. As well as many of the church incorporators and local citizens, like Benjamin Bussey.

Follow this link to read the entire National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form