Third Church


No. 288 Postcard. Third Religious Society Unitarian Church, circa 1910.

 

The third church society in Dorchester was a Unitarian congregation that split off from Second Church in 1813. The Third Religious Society was formed as a result of a rupture between a portion of the congregation of the Second Church and their pastor, the Rev. Dr. Codman. The first meeting was held on May 6, 1813, in the Dorchester Reading Room, the back room of a barber shop which had been furnished as a reading room for the people in the vicinity of the end of Dorchester Avenue at Lower Mills. At a second meeting in August, the members called themselves “The Proprietors of the New South Meeting-House.” The Second Church was known as the South Meeting-House, and the Third was now called “The New South.” Its official name is The Third Religious Society in Dorchester.

Their new building was completed in October, 1813, on the west side of Washington Street between Richmond Street and River Street and came to be known as Richmond Hall in honor of the first pastor. Ministers from Boston preached until the installation of the Rev. Dr. Edward Richmond on June 25, 1817.

No. 3206 Richmond Hall in late 19th century.

 

The congregation moved to a new church building (illustrated in the postcard at the top of this entry) built to an Asher Benjamin design in 1839-1840 on Richmond Street at Dorchester Avenue, located where the CVS store is. The church building faced toward Richmond Street.

The Unitarian church on Richmond Street was built in 1839 and ’40, at which time Rev. Francis Cunningham was the minister. At the dedication, October 28, 1840, these words were sung,

“And will the great eternal God

On earth establish His abode?
And will He from His radiant throne

Avow our temple as His own?

These walls, we to Thine honor raise,

Long may they echo to Thy praise;

And Thou, descending, fill the place

With choicest tokens of Thy grace.

Great King of Glory, come

And with Thy favor crown

This temple as Thy own,

This people as Thine own.”

Miss Anna Stone, Boston’s greatest singer of the that day, took part in the service.[1]

The ministers and their periods of tenure were (from Historical Sketch of the Norfolk Conference by George M. Bodge, 1900):

Edward Richmond, 1817-1833, born in Middleboro, June 29, 1767; Brown Univ. 1789; D.D., 1815; installed June 25, 1817-1833; died April 10, 1842. 

Francis Cunningham, 1834-1842, born in Boston, March 9, 1804; H.C., 1825; ordained May 21, 1834-June 1, 1842; died in France, Sept. 7, 1867.

Richard Pike, 1842-1863, born in Prospect, Me., June 6, 1813; Bowd. Coll., 1836; ordained Feb. 8, 1843; died Feb. 18, 1863.

Thomas G. Mumford, 1864-1872, born in Gillsonville, S.C., June 26, 1826; Meadville, 1849; installed March 2, 1864-1872; died Aug. 29, 1877.

Henry G. Spaulding, 1873-1877, born in Spencer; H.C. 1860; Div. Sch., 186; installed on Oct. 2, 1873-Sept. 1877.

George M. Bodge, 1878-1884, born in Windham, Me.; Bow. Coll., 1868; Harv. Div. Sch. 1878; ordained Sept. 26, 1878-Octo 31.1884.

William I. Lawrance, 1885-1891, born in Wincheser, O.; Harv. Div. Schl, 1885; installed Oct. 1, 1885-April 5, 1891.

Frederick B. Mott, 1892-1903, born in Leicester, Eng.; Meadville, 1885; installed Feb. 14, 1892.

John Haynes Holmes, 1904-1907
Daniel Roy Reeman, 1907-1910
Charles W. Casson, 1910-1912
Ernest S. Meredith, 1912-1916
Otto Lyding, 1916-
J. Raymond Cope

For more information, consult:

Chaffee, John R. The History of the First Methodist Episcopal Church, Dorchester, Massachusetts. (Boston: The Pilgrim Press, 1917).

Orcutt, William Dana. Good Old Dorchester: A Narrative History of the Town, 1630-1893. Second edition. (Cambridge: The University Press, 1908).


[1] Chaffee, John R. The History of the First Methodist Episcopal Church, Dorchester, Massachusetts. )Boston: The Pilgrim Press, 1917).

Skills

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April 12, 2020