Wellesley Congregational Church and Cemetery

The story

Written by AI from this property's National Register nomination and the record above; every sentence is checked against its sources before it appears here. Corrections: privacy@treealive.com

Wellesley Congregational Church and Cemetery is a religious and burial complex at 2 Central St. in Wellesley, Norfolk County. The present church, designed by Carrere and Hastings, was built from 1922 to 1923 in the Colonial Revival and Georgian Revival styles; an earlier parish house dates from 1918 to 1919.

Why it's listed

It was listed under criteria A and C, with local-level significance in architecture, art, religion and social history; the nomination gives its period of significance as 1777 to 1964, covering the congregation's development through the church's construction from 1922 to 1923.

Physical character

The church has brick walls on a poured concrete foundation, roofs of slate and standing-seam metal, a belltower and a perimeter wall around the grounds. Perry, Shaw, and Hepburn altered the 1918 parish house's interior in 1948; the sanctuary and parish house were enlarged in 1955, and the church was expanded again from 2002 to 2003.

Historical context

A fire destroyed the Third Church in 1916, and the present church was built from 1922 to 1923. The church acquired land on Brook Street in 1877 that became Woodlawn Cemetery, and about 140 remains were moved there from the old burying ground in 1893.