Go to Admin » Appearance » Widgets » and move Gabfire Widget: Social into that MastheadOverlay zone
T
hought the Puritans were long gone? Think again, ye doubter. At the edge of the Boston Common is a little-known museum to Congregationalism, the Protestant denomination founded during the English Reformation to emphasize the independence of local churches from hierarchical control, and brought to New England by the Puritans, where it took deep root and had broad influence during the colonial era. The Congregational Library has on permanent exhibit a piece of Plymouth Rock and the clerk’s desk used in Scrooby, England by William Brewster, the leader of the Pilgrims. There are also portraits of Lyman Beecher, George Whitefield, Jonathan Mayhew (who preached “no taxation without representation”), Nathaniel Emmons, and Samuel Hopkins, and a copy of a portrait of Cotton Mather under a Tiffany ceiling in the reading room.
Under Puritan law, sexual problems—if, for example, a groom proved impotent—would cause the courts to nullify a marriage. In practice, this was more commonly enforced against the bride.
Congregational Library
Website
14 Beacon St. near Boston Common
Boston, MA 02108
617.523.0470
Find on a map|Get directions.
Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
These lines serve the Congregational Library. Click to find more secrets on your route.
11 Bus, 4 Bus, 43 Bus, 55 Bus, 7 Bus, 92 Bus, 93 Bus, Downtown Crossing/Orange Line, Downtown Crossing/Red Line, Downtown Crossing/Silver Line, Bowdoin/Blue Line, Park Street/Red Line, Park Street/Green Line
Find more secrets in Beacon Hill, Boston Common, Downtown Crossing, Government Center
© 2017 | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Named the best travel blog in Boston by The Guardian newspaper