Newbury Street church named National Historic Landmark

Boston’s Church of the Covenant is now among 2,500 other National Historic Landmarks around the country, recognized for its authenticity and grand, gothic architecture.

The feature of the church deemed most significant was the Tiffany interior, on account of its unusual and spectacular aesthetic appeal.

“There are several ways you can get landmark status, and one of those ways is through architecture,” said Charlene James, a member of the church and co-author of the application. “We tried both architecture and interior design and they [the National Park Service] said, ‘Very nice architecture … But go for the Tiffany,’ so that’s what we did. The Tiffany interior is so unusual and spectacular that we thought we had our best chance there.”

Patricia Henry, a historian at the National Historic Landmarks Program, said the age of the interior of the church — which is located on Newbury Street — and the excellent shape it is in, makes it worthy of landmark status.

“In the 1880s or 1890s, all of the renovations that had all of the Tiffany interiors were done — the stain glass, the chandeliers. It’s one of the few complete Tiffany interiors that’s intact,” Henry said.

Lynn Smiledge, the other co-author of the application, said the application required them not only to analyze the Tiffany interior design of the Church of the Covenant, but also to compare it with other churches across the country.
“We put out our initial letter of inquiry and they came back to us and asked us to do a little more work,” she said. “They asked us to do some comparative analyses because there are other churches with Tiffany interiors, so we analyzed the Tiffany interior in the Church of the Covenant with other churches all across the country that have similar interiors.”

The Tiffany interior, which consists of mosaic work, stenciling on the ceiling and walls and intricate woodwork, has helped the church to reflect its ideals.

Reverend Rob Mark, pastor of the Church of the Covenant, said the Tiffany interior better represents progressive Christianity.
“The Tiffany renovations spoke a lot more about a church that serves the world as it is here and now, as opposed to just waiting until we die and going to heaven,” he said. “It promoted progressive Christianity and shows some of the compassionate and social justice underpinnings of who Jesus is in the world.”

People involved with the church expressed hope that the award would benefit the church in a few ways.

Smiledge, said the award might make the church eligible for a grant program called Save America’s Treasures, which currently isn’t in operation but might be in the future.
“Hopefully, this award will give the church more public awareness,” she said. “There’s a wonderful grant program called Save America’s Treasures, which unfortunately hasn’t been funded in a couple of years. But the only entities that are eligible for Save America’s Treasures are national landmarks.”

Church members celebrated the church’s nomination with a ceremony and reception on Sunday afternoon.

Mark said the ceremony thanked everyone who helped with the application, as well as explained what the award signified.

“We had about a 45-minute ceremony in which we invited an expert from the national park service to speak about the unique nature of the national historical landmark status award. We also thanked Charlene James and Lynn [Smiledge] for their efforts,” he said.

James and Smiledge said the application process — which took two and a half years — consisted of an initial letter of inquiry and a lengthy report and analysis of the building. The church’s application focused primarily on the Tiffany design.

James said the recognition would hopefully allow for more funding for the church.

“Our hope is that landmark status will give us a possibility for funding so that this art can be saved for Boston and the nation. We’re trying to have it ready for anybody to visit,” she said.

Although the church was constructed between 1865 and 1867, some hope the church will last for future generations.

Mark said the goal is to earn the curch worldwide recognition.
“We want to share the church with the world, because certainly it’s not something that we own,” he said. “We see it as something we’re stewarding for the future generations.”