CultureNOW - Stoughton Street Baptist Church: Peter Vanderwarker

Stoughton Street Baptist Church

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ABOUT THE HISTORICAL PHOTOGRAPHS
"Uphams Corner sounds as if it should be the name of a rustic crossroads somewhere out in rural America. Instead, it’s a mini-downtown in the busy Dorchester section of Boston. Five streetcar lines once met there, a circumstance that made Uphams Corner the business and civic center it still is.

In both photos, we're a block from the corner. We're looking toward it along Stoughton Street from the intersection of Sumner Road. Dominating both views is the former Stoughton Street Baptist Church, built in about 1866, when Dorchester was still an independent town. (Dorchester agreed to be annexed to Boston in 1869. The referendum tally was 928 to 726, not exactly a landslide). Stoughton Street is named for William Stoughton, presiding judge in the Salem witch trials. He's buried in the Dorchester North Burying Ground, which dates to 1634 and is just to the left of the church.

The church's name today — Iglesia Adventista del Septimo Dia — is an indication of changing populations in Uphams Corner. Ravaged by time, the building nevertheless survives. The steeple is gone, one major window is boarded up, and a wrapping of fake brick now covers the original stucco for the lowest l0 feet. Gone, too, are the magnificent American elms.

At the end of Stoughton Street, at the far left in both photos, we can barely make out a building that was originally one of the S.S. Pierce chain of grocery stores. There were nine Pierce stores in Boston, legendary for the imported liquors, cigars, and foods (terrapin stew, pickled reindeer tongue) and for their willingness to deliver (accomplished in the early years with wheelbarrows). The building stands at Columbia Road and Dudley Street.

Uphams Corner is only one stop from South Station by commuter rail, and it boasts a stock of fine buildings, of which the best known is the Strand Theatre. After a period of decline, the corner — led by a group called Upham's Corner Main Street Inc. — is once again thriving."

-Robert Campbell and Peter Vanderwarker, "CITYSCAPES - In This Corner: Trees, streetcar lines, even congregations come and go. But at Uphams Corner, some things don't change." Boston Globe, 26 February 2006

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Location

Uphams Corner
Stoughton Street & Sumner Road
Boston, MA 02125
United States

Nearby Items

Columbia Road at Dudley Street		0.2 miles
Anna Clapp Harris Smith House		0.3 miles
Copenhagen Foundation		0.5 miles
Dorchester Voices / Dorchester History		0.5 miles
Upham Corner Station Historic Murals		0.5 miles
Winter Street		0.8 miles
Savin Hill Station Murals		0.9 miles