Becky's DiMattia's photos of Back Bay Landmarks

Arlington Street Church

Posted on 07/03/2014 by Becky

Tiffany Memorial Windows:
The Tiffany windows in Arlington Street Church are famous for their beauty of design and execution and are believed to be the largest collection of Tiffany windows in any one church. The windows represent the highest development of American art in glass. Special Tiffany techniques were used, such as painting certain details and multiple layers of opalescent glass to achieve desired shades of color and Tiffany’s unique creation of folds and drapes. – ascboston.org/about/building.html

25 Arlington Street, Boston, MA see map | Unitarian Universalist Church | ascboston.org/

Quick facts:

Designed by the celebrated Boston architect, Arthur Gilman.
Constructed 1859–1861 on newly filled land in Boston’s Back Bay by members of the historic Federal Street Church.
First public building in Back Bay
Spire is 190 feet high, topped with a weathervane placed three months prior to the building’s dedication in 1861
Rests on 999 wooden pilings driven into the mud of the former Back Bay. The pilings must remain submerged in water at all times so that they do not rot.

– adapted from ascboston.org/about/building.html

Post category: churches
Tags: spire, stained glass, Tiffany

Trinity Church

Posted on 07/03/2014 by Becky

206 Clarendon Street, Boston, MA see map | trinitychurchboston.org
Episcopal church

Inside Trinity Church

Trinity Church in Copley Square, with the Hancock Tower next to it:

Post category: churches, Copley Square
Tags: La Farge, Richardson, stained glass

Old South Church

Posted on 07/03/2014 by Becky

Old South Church, viewed from the Hancock Tower, 19th Floor

645 Boylston Street, Boston, MA see map | oldsouth.org/
United Church of Christ

at the corner of Boylston and Dartmouth Streets
at Copley stop on the MBTA Green Line
across the street from the Boston Public Library
at the northeast corner of Copley Square
at the Boston Marathon finish line

Constructed between 1872 and 1875 for a congregation founded in 1669. Members of this historic congregation include

Samuel Adams, Revolutionary patriot and brewer
Samuel Sewall, judge and diarist
Thomas Prince, minister and book collector
William Dawes, Paul Revere’s fellow rider in 1775
Phillis Wheatley, America’s first published black poet
Elizabeth Vergoose, said to be the Mother Goose of nursery rhymes.

Old South Church played a significant role in American history through the bold actions of the Sons of Liberty at the Old South Meeting House. There, in 1773, Samuel Adams gave the signal for the “war whoops” that started the Boston Tea Party. During the Civil War, 1,019 men enlisted in one day at Old South to fight for the Union cause. Old South’s ministry has been distinguished by eloquent preaching on matters of theology and conscience by Samuel Willard, Benjamin Wisner, Jacob Manning, George Gordon, Frederick Meek and James Crawford. As poet John Greenleaf Whittier wrote, “So long as Boston shall Boston be, And her bay tides rise and fall, Shall freedom stand in the Old South Church, And plead for the rights of all.” – oldsouth.org/about/history

Post category: churches, Copley Square
Tags: bell tower, organ, stained glass

Hancock Tower

Posted on 07/03/2014 by Becky

200 Clarendon Street, Boston, MA see map

Quick facts

tallest building in Boston
tallest building in New England
the 172nd tallest building in the world
60 stories, 790 feet
designed by I.M. Pei and Henry N. Cobb
completed in 1976.

“The highly reflective window glass is tinted slightly blue, which results in the tower having only a slight contrast with the sky on a clear day. As a final modernist touch, the short sides of the parallelogram are marked with a deep vertical notch, breaking up the tower’s mass and emphasizing its verticality. In late evening, the vertical notch to the northwest catches the last light of the sky, while the larger portions of glass reflect the darkening.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hancock_Tower