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The Cambridge Swedenborg Chapel is a lovely Gothic-revival stone chapel built in 1901 by the founder of Harvard's School of Architecture, and it is located at 50 Quincy Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts, near the famous Harvard Square. Please note that the official and historical name as may be found on maps and church directories is The Cambridge Society of the Church of the New Jerusalem (Swedenborgian). For more directions, click here.
The Cambridge Chapel is on the U.S. National Registry of Historic Places, and thanks to overwhelming community support, did achieve city landmark status for external preservation on March 15, 1999. The following is the Executive Summary excerpted from the City of Cambridge Landmark Designation Study Report.
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The Church of the New Jerusalem (Swedenborg Chapel) is a one-and-a-half story, gable roofed stone building in the Late Gothic Revival style, designed by H. Langford Warren of the firm Warren, Smith & Biscoe, and constructed in 1901. It houses the Cambridge Swedenborg congregation, established in 1888.
The chapel is importantly associated with the broad architectural, aesthetic, cultural and social history of the City and the Commonwealth as a rare example of Swedenborg church architecture in Massachusetts; for its connections to the Arts and Crafts movement, a major aesthetic force in early 20th-century Massachusetts; for its connections to the Swedenborg faith, which influenced Transcendentalism, an important component of the state's 19th-century cultural history; and as an extension of Cambridge's prominence as a center of intellectual influence in Massachusetts and beyond.
It is also significant in terms of its period, style, and association with a famous architect. The chapel was designed by Herbert Langford Warren (1857-1917), founder of the Harvard School of Architecture (now the Graduate School of Design) and an important figure in architectural pedagogy at a time when the architectural profession in the U.S. was in its formative period and when Boston was a major national center for architectural education and design. Stylistically, the Swedenborg Chapel is an early and, in Cambridge, rare example of the Late Gothic Revival style.
Prepared by Sally Zimmerman, Preservation Planner for the Cambridge Historical Commission. Dated
February 4, 1999, revised and corrected March 5, 1999
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more chapel views |
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preservation links |
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