First Parish Church

About This Project

First Parish Church, 1897, Dorchester, MA

Built in 1897, the First Parish Church in Dorchester sits on Meetinghouse Hill and is the sixth meeting house built by the First Parish Church since its establishment in 1630. First Parish Church was designed by the Boston architectural firm Cabot, Everett and Mead and is the only remaining Colonial-Revival period clapboard church in Boston.

HBI worked with First Church in Dorchester over nearly a decade on the assessment and preparation for a steeple and belfry restoration on the 1897 church. HBI’s $62,500 in Steeples program grants leveraged more than $460,000 in private and charitable funds toward restoration to the belfry and removal of the lantern section of the steeple. The congregation completed a full restoration of the church in 2014.