The Old Ship Church (also known as the Old Ship Meetinghouse) is a Puritan church built in 1681 in Hingham, Massachusetts. It is the only surviving 17th-century Puritan meetinghouse in the United States. Its congregation, gathered in 1635 and officially known as First Parish in Hingham, occupies the oldest church building in continuous ecclesiastical use in the country. On October 9, 1960, it was designated a National Historic Landmark, and on November 15, 1966, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places.[2][3]
Old Ship Church is, according to The New York Times, "the oldest continuously worshiped-in church in North America and the only surviving example in this country of the English Gothic style of the 17th century. The more familiar delicately spired white Colonial churches of New England would not be built for more than half a century." Within the church, "the ceiling, made of great oak beams, looks like the inverted frame of a ship", notes The Washington Post. "Built in 1681, it is the oldest church in continuous use as a house of worship in North America."[4]
The most distinctive feature of the structure is its hammerbeam roof, a Gothic open timber construction, the most well-known example being that of Westminster Hall. Some of those working on the soaring structure were no doubt ship carpenters; others were East Anglians familiar with the method of constructing a hammerbeam roof.
^"National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. January 23, 2007.
^Old Ship Church, National Park Service.
^Butterfield, Fox (May 14, 1989). "The Perfect New England Village". The New York Times. Retrieved April 20, 2015.
^Lindner, Lawrence (April 20, 2007). "Classic New England: Five for the Road". The Washington Post. Retrieved July 13, 2014.
The OldShipChurch (also known as the OldShip Meetinghouse) is a Puritan church built in 1681 in Hingham, Massachusetts. It is the only surviving 17th-century...
England, UK OldShip Hotel, Brighton, England, UK OldShipChurch, Hingham, Massachusetts, USA OldShip African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, Montgomery...
of OldShipChurch in Hingham, Plymouth County, Massachusetts, the only remaining 17th-century Puritan meeting house in America and the oldest church in...
The Old North Church (officially, Christ Church in the City of Boston), is an Episcopal mission church located in the North End neighborhood of Boston...
dedication of a tablet at the OldShipChurch in Hingham, Massachusetts. President Abraham Lincoln is honored by a bust in the church of St Andrew's in Hingham...
oldest Christian church congregation. There is a distinction between oldchurch buildings that have been in continuous use as churches, and those that...
be built in Europe St. Luke's Church, USA, built in 1682 (Episcopal) Jamestown Church (tower), (Episcopal) OldShipChurch, USA, built in 1681 (Congregationalist...
Germany was to shape the body of the pulpit as a ship, to utilize the old metaphor of the church as a ship. This allowed for fantastical plaster or wood...
synagogues due to trends of modelling synagogues similar to churches in Western Europe. In most oldchurches the family names are carved into the end of the pew...
friend and business associate of Rev. Ebenezer Gay, third minister of OldShipChurch, Hingham's Meetinghouse. Following his education at Harvard College...
(1964) in Hartford, Connecticut. It's nickname New ShipChurch is a reference to the OldShipChurch built in 1681 in Hingham, Massachusetts. First Unitarian...
tourism, churches are well-maintained in original medieval architecture styling with centered fireplaces near the staircases. OldShipChurch is one of...
United First Parish Church is an American Unitarian Universalist congregation in Quincy, Massachusetts, established as the parish church of Quincy in 1639...
History". The Bryant Library. National Park Service description of OldShipChurch Deacon John Graves Foundation website retrieved on 2009-05-17 Modern...
United States consists of Protestant churches in the Reformed tradition that have a congregational form of church government and trace their origins mainly...
centuries who sought to rid the Church of England of what they considered to be Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been...
Guthrie. Folk music is featured at The OldShip Coffeehouse Off the Square, located in the parish house of OldShipChurch in Hingham, Massachusetts, (which...
worshiper, or location On average, however, churches in rural areas, churches with older congregants, and churches with fewer young people involved struggle...
OldShip African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church is a historic African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in Montgomery, Alabama. It is the oldest African...
been rebuilt several times after various disasters. The original church included a ship construction style that reflected original Bermudian architecture...
Global Information
