First Parish Church, Arlington Massachusetts

First Parish Church in Arlington, Massachusetts is a Unitarian-Universalist congregation, which was founded in 1678 as First Parish in West Cambridge. It merged with the Arlington Universalist Congregation in 1962. The Highrock Church building originally housed the Universalist church in Arlington. One of the congregations joined in 1961 with the formation of the Unitarian Universalist Association, with the Unitarian congregation at the corner of Pleasant and Massachusetts Avenue. History of the Church's Meetinghouses The Church has utilized five structures over its long history. The first meeting house building was erected in 1734. It was an unheated stone building that later would be moved down Pleasant Street and used as a residence. To accommodate the growing congregation, the Parish built a second, and larger meeting house in 1804. The sale of 108 pews covered the $12,175 cost. This structure would remain unheated until 1820. In 1841, yet another new, larger meeting house was built that contained an organ, but it would burn down on January 1, 1856 after serving only 15 years. And immediately, work began on replacing it with an impressive structure. In 1857, at the cost of $19,000 the Parish completed the fourth meeting house. The awe-inspiring spire stood 181 feet tall and was the second highest in the state. The spire contained a 2000-pound bell, and a marble-faced clo

Church data from Wikidata (CC0). Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).