History
The community of Christ Church was founded in 1848 by Albert C. Patterson, an Episcopal clergyman and missionary who identified the growing industrial city of Waltham as an ideal place to build a church. The new Episcopal community met in Rumford Hall (later Waltham City Hall) until a Gothic wooden church was completed on Central Street in Waltham in 1849. The land for the church and much of its funding was provided by founding member J.S. Copley Greene.
Christ Church's first rector was the Rev. Thomas F. Fales, from St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Brunswick, Maine. Fales remained the church's rector for more than 40 years, until retiring in 1890. During this time, Christ Church's membership grew from 15 members to more than 400.
At about the time Fales retired, the church outgrew the Central Street building. In 1892, the parish bought land with the intent of building a larger church at 750 Main Street. In 1895, the old church building was sold to a French Canadian Roman Catholic community. Christ Church held services in Waltham's Maynard Hall until the new building could be completed.
In 1896, after four years of planning, the architectural firm of Peabody and Stearns was hired to design the new structure and construction began in the early months of 1897. Philanthropist and Christ Church senior warden Robert Treat Paine, Jr. signed the contract for construction, and financed much of the building with his own fortune. Philanthropist sisters and Christ Church parishioners Harriet Sarah and Mary Sophia Walker also contributed significantly to the funding.
The first service in the completed building was held on June 17, 1898. That Sunday, the retired Rev. Fales delivered the church's inaugural sermon from the wooden pulpit that was his gift to the new building.
The church is a parish of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts, and was named to the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.
Read more about this topic: Christ Episcopal Church (Waltham, Massachusetts)
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