St. Stephen's Church, formerly the New North Church, at 401 Hanover Street, was built to the Early Republic design of Charles Bullfinch in 1804—the last remaining church in Boston designed by Bullfinch. The church, made of red brick with white pilasters on the façade and topped by a clock tower and belfry, was originally the second home to the New North Religious Society, a Congregationalist group. In 1813 it became a Unitarian church. In 1862, as the North End became populated by an influx of Irish Catholics, the church was sold to Bishop Fitzpatrick and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Boston. It was at that time that a peak was built over the original domed cupola. When that parish closed in 1992, the church became the home for the Missionary Society of St. James the Apostle. The interior is no longer entirely faithful to the original Bullfinch design, although the pulpit and pews are copied from originals long held in a Billerica church.
Boston Mayor John "Honey Fitz" Fitzgerald was a parishioner of St. Stephen’s. His daughter Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, the wife of Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr., and mother of John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, and Ted Kennedy.
National Register #75000300 (1975)
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