Welcome Back Bean Blowers! A Back Bay Landmark is Restored

After nearly ten years the construction scaffolding and scrim shrouding the First Baptist Church at 110 Commonwealth Avenue have been removed, revealing the restoration of one of the city's most iconic church towers.

Located in the Back Bay Architectural District at the southwest corner of Commonwealth Avenue and Clarendon Street, this sacred space was constructed between 1870 and1872 for the Brattle Square Unitarian congregation which relocated from Brattle Street (currently Government Center) when many of its members moved to the newly developing Back Bay neighborhood. The building was designed by Henry Hobson Richardson (1838-1886), one of Boston's most famous architects, who was born in St. James, Louisiana, graduated from Harvard in 1859 and studied architecture at the École des Beaux-Artsin Paris from 1860 to 1865.

This church was Richardson's first important commission in Boston, which would be followed soon after by his commission to design Trinity Church in Copley Square in 1872. Like Trinity Church and many other church buildings in Boston, the new church for the Brattle Square Unitarian congregation was built of local Roxbury puddingstone. The most striking feature of the building is its 170-foot-tall monumental tower featuring a decorative frieze carved into sandstone that is surmounted by arches and topped with a low overhanging roof.

The frieze is significant in its own right because it was modeled by renowned French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi (1834-1904), best known for designing the Statue of Liberty. The frieze was hand-carved onsite after the stones were set into place on the tower. Each side of the tower features religious depictions representing baptism (east, facing Clarendon Street), communion (north, facing Commonwealth Avenue), marriage (south, facing toward Newbury Street) and death (west, facing toward Dartmouth Street). Figures in the scenes are believed to be likenesses of famous Bostonians and men of the period, including Henry Wadsorth Longfellow; Nathaniel Hawthorne; Ralph Waldo Emerson; Charles Sumner; Abraham Lincoln; and Giuseppe Garibaldi.At each corner of the frieze is an angel holding a downward facing gilded trumpet, which earned the building its nickname, "Church of the Holy BeanBlowers."

Four years after the church was completed, the Brattle Square Unitarian congregation dissolved due to its failure to cover the costs of the new structure. The building sat vacant for several years and was threatened by demolition until it was purchased in 1881 by the First Baptist Church, which relocated to this location from Boston's South End neighborhood. The First Baptist Church continues to own and occupy the building today.

Fundraising and work to stabilize and repair the tower began in 2016. The scope of work was later expanded to address roof and masonry repairs at the entire building. All work was reviewed and approved by the Back Bay Architectural Commission. Between 2019 to 2023 the City of Boston awarded the church $1,245,000 of Community Preservation Act money toward this building's preservation. The church also received $50,000 from the Massachusetts Preservation Projects Fund, and $250,000 from the National Fund for Sacred Places.

Now, after nearly a decade Boston residents and visitors can again look upward at this tower and appreciate the vision of two important nineteenth century tastemakers and artists, and the work of the craftspeople who executed their designs.