Asher Benjamin’s West Church: A Model for Change NANCY S. VOYE hysical deterioration and inade- Benjamins’ first major commission in quate space motivated the West Boston. Not only is the West Church P Boston Society to make the follow- central to a study of Asher Benjamin as a ing decision to replace the original church stage in his architectural career in Boston, structure, which had been built in 1737: but also as a model which Benjamin That on a view of the situation and size proposed for adoption by other builders. of the present building they are of the In his first edition of The American opinion, that should the Society cause Builders’ Companion, published in 1806, those repairs to be made, which are absolutely necessary for its preservation, Benjamin included sketches of the front or these alterations and additions, which facade of the Church, its floor plan, roof its size may be capable of admitting of structure, and pulpit design (Figures 1 future accomodation. such Expenditures and 2). In addition, Benjamin furnished would prove burthensome without at- the following description of the West taining those objects for which they would be made. Your Committee are Church: therefore of the Opinion that the present The size of the house is seventy five feet House be taken down, and another square, porch twenty by forty six feet; to erected upon the Land of the Society in a contain one hundred and twelve pews more extensive plan. ’ on the lower floor. The gallery is sup- ported by columns of the Composite The Building Committee commissioned order, as laid down in this book.* Asher Benjamin as their architect and appropriated up to $20,000 for the con- In The American Builders’ Companion struction of the Church. If the demands Benjamin also provided explicit informa- for structural soundness and adequate tion and sketches regarding the execution space were the two major justifications and position of columns, windows, and cited by the West Boston Society for their other architectural details. The exterior of decision of 1805, did Benjamins’ plan for the West Church conforms to his theories the new West Church incorporate these regarding proportion and combination of two considerations in it? orders. According to Benjamins’ descrip- The young architect whom the West tion of the Church, the size of the Boston Society had chosen had been born cornices is determined by the height of in Hartland, Connecticut, in 1773. Prior to the building; and the Doric order of the coming to Boston in 1803, Benjamin had third story of the porch and the Ionic designed many houses and buildings in order of the cupola are faithful executions the Connecticut River Valley, including of his theory.) Likewise, in the interior, the wooden Old South Church in Wind- the composite order of the columns sor, Vermont, in 1798. In the 1803 Boston supporting the gallery and the cornice City Directory, Benjamin is listed as a detail reflect Benjamins’ sensitivity to “housewright”; the West Church was to be proportion and scale. 7 8 Old- Time New England FIG. 1. FLOOR PLAN AND FRONT ELEVATION, WEST CHURCH, from Asher Benjamin’s The American Builder> Companion, 1806. (PhotoSPNEA.) At the same time that the West Church and wooden details, Bulfinch’s New is a model of those architectural principles North Church was a prototype for the that Benjamin delineated in his guide- West Church. book, it is also proof of Bultinch’s influ- In his execution of his plan for the West ence on his architectural style. The light- Church, Benjamin used a combination of ness and delicacy of detail in Bulfinch’s brick, wood, and stone to give substance architecture are also characteristic of Ben- to the Bulfinch-influenced neo-classical jamin’s design. Like Bulfmch’s Church of details. The brick exterior is Flemish the Holy Cross, built in Boston between bond, with the exception of the rear 1800 and 1803, the West Church was facade, where the later addition of a designed with a cupola and front facade chimney and some minor repairs are of with three doors. The antecedents of irregular and lessexpensive English bond. Benjamin’s architectural style can also be The lightness of the wooden details on the traced to Bulfinch’s New North Church, exterior, the urns, cupola, swags, and built in Boston between 1802 and 1804. cornices, many of which were rendered in In its scale and in its cupola, tower, tin in a later period, made it possible for projecting porch, roundheaded windows, Benjamin to combine functionalism with AsherBenjamin s’ West Church 9 In their meetings on proposed changes in the West Church following its comple- tion in 1806, the West Boston Society acknowledged and respected Benjamins’ application of his architectural theories in the Church. On December 8, 1806, the Society voted “that it is of importance to preserve a uniformity in the appearance of the House, and therefore that no person be permitted to put up on any window, a curtain, unless of the same colour and fashion of those already put up by the Corporation . .15‘ In another debate of the Societys’ Committee on the question of whether the communion table and font could be raised, it decided in the affirmative provided that the alterations could “be done without destroying the Harmony of the work around the pulpit.“6 Benjamins’ The American Builders’ Com- FIG. 2. SECTION AND DETAILS, WEST panion was one means of disseminating CHURCH, from Asher Benjamins’ The Amer- his architectural theory; his buildings, ican Builders’ Companion, 1806. (Photo SPNEA.) such as the West Church, were also instructive examples of his architectural his neo-classical style - the ideal he ad- principles. The West Boston Societys’ vanced in the following essay: familiarity with Benjamins’ 1806 We are well aware the magnificent temples of ancient times still retain a guidebook cannot be determined; degree of romantic grandeur, which however, the Society’s votes on contem- would do honour to the present age. It plated changes in the Church suggest the will. at the same time, be readily ac- extent to which Benjamins’ theories fil- knowledged, that an exact imitation of tered down to the lay population. those noble productions of former times, on account of the present expense of Though the Society had evinced a materials and labour, would require no reluctance to disrupt what they perceived common degree of opulence for their as the harmony of the elements in completion; and, indeed, a strict Benjamins’ design, it was not similarly conformity to the orders of Architecture seems to be demanded in the construc- inhibited when it decided to raise the roof tion of public buildings only, and other in 1823. In his 1806 edition of The of immense magnitude; in such situa- American Builders’ Companion, Benjamin tions they have a most noble and described and included a sketch of the majestic appearance; but in private buildings, and others of less magnitude, roof structure which supports a dome their massy size and the expense attend- ceiling “of forty two feet in diameter, ing them, are little suited to our conve- which rises six feet.“’ However, an exam- nience and means of appropriation. A ination of the present roof structure principal part therefore of our design, in reveals that the roof has been raised this work, is to lighten their heavy parts, and thereby lessen the expense both of approximately forty-two inches, with the labour and materials.4 holes for the original purlins still visible 10 Old- Time New England FIG. 3. INTERIOR FRONT WALL OF WEST CHURCH, ABOVE THE CEILING. Note the original roof line and purlin holes. (Photo by William W. Owens, Jr.) FIG. 4. KING POST (left) AND QUEEN FIG. 5. DETAIL OF BUILDER’S NUM- POSTS (right), WEST CHURCH. (Photo by BERS, ON ROOF FRAME TIMBERS, WEST William W. Owens, Jr.) CHURCH. (Photo by William W. Owens, Jr.) AsherBenjamin s’ WestChurch (Figure 3). The difference between the “exhibit a Plan and the probableex- 1806 and 1823 roof trussesis striking. The pensesof the same.” Accept Sumner’s plan 1806 truss system employed only one August 3, 1823 - for the ceiling and ask him to make queen post to each side of the king post, suggestionsregarding the roof. and its component parts were held to- August 26, 1823 - Draw up a contract gether by iron bolts (Figure 2). In con- with Messieurs Shaw, Dunbar, and trast, the 1823 truss system is composed Downing to repair the roof? of a king post with two queen posts on According to the above accounts, the each side; early nineteenth century num- Committee may have made minor repairs bers distinguish those elements of the on the roof prior to raising it in 1823. truss system which are to be joined to However, a significant and complete each other (Figures 4 and 51. Additional change in the truss system was under- evidence of the 1823 alteration of the roof taken when Shaw and Dunbar raised the can be found by examination of the rear roof; the Church financial accounts list a wall of the Church. The demarcation payment of $4,500 to them for this between the 1806 and 1823 roofs is made project.‘O It can be inferred from the visible by the smaller size and less regular above records of the Committee that the shape of the handmade 1806 bricks. identification of a structural weakness in Why did the Society vote in 1823 to the roof system necessitatedthe raising of proceed with the expensive and time- the roof in 1823 and that changes were consuming job of raising the roof? made in the ceiling, as well as in the roof.