Brattle Street Church

In January 1698, "Thomas Brattle conveyed the land on which the meeting-house was to stand; and on the 10th of May, 1699, a formal invitation was extended to Benjamin Colman... to be its minister."

[1][2] Thomas Brattle probably designed the unpainted, wood, meetinghouse-style building for the church, erected in 1699.

[1][11] "Cato, favorite servant of the [John] Hancocks... received his freedom at age thirty, married, and baptized his children at the prestigious Brattle Street Church, all the while continuing to serve the town's leading family.

A huge mahogany pulpit, the gift of John Hancock, towered up darkly in the center of what would have been called the chancel in any other than a Puritan church.

[14] Designed by architect Henry Hobson Richardson, it opened in 1875, and is known as the Brattle Square Church.