King’s Chapel on Tremont Street in Boston

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See the Churches web page for an interactive location map.

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LOCATION

King’s Chapel is located at 58 Tremont Street.

GENERAL INFORMATION

King’s Chapel is a functioning church with regularly scheduled services. It is also part of Boston National Historical Park and a stop on the Freedom Trail®, welcoming guests throughout the week. During the summer, visiting hours are typically from 10 AM to 5 PM on Mondays through Saturdays, and from 1:30 PM to 5 PM on Sundays. At other times of the year the hours and days vary depending on the month. Before making travel plans, be sure to get the latest schedule on the King’s Chapel Plan Your Visit web page.

Interior of King’s Chapel in Boston

When open, guests are welcome to take a self-guided tour of the chapel’s main level. There are wayside exhibits at key locations in the church, and during the summer knowledgeable church members are on hand to answer questions and give impromptu lectures if a crowd gathers. Give yourself about fifteen minutes to look around, and a half hour if you happen to catch a lecture. There is an entrance fee for those 15 and older. Current fees are listed on the Plan Your Visit web page.

King’s Chapel also offers three additional tours for a fee: the Art and Architecture Tour, the Bells and Bones Tour, and the Express Crypt Tout.  I attended the Bell and Bones Tour that ventures down to the crypt in the basement and to the bell tower and second floor. This is by far the coolest tour at Boston National Historical Park, and one of the top tours that I’ve been on at any National Park. You’ll get to see something you probably won’t ever see again. For a schedule and ticket prices, visit the King’s Chapel Guided Tours web page.

Interior of King’s Chapel Church on Tremont Street in Boston

CHURCH HISTORY

The King’s Chapel building that stands today was constructed between 1749 and 1754, but the King’s Chapel congregation dates back to 1686, making it Boston’s oldest Anglican church. The congregation built a smaller church in 1688 on a confiscated portion of a Puritan cemetery that had been around since 1630. Being the Church of England, when the Royal Governor claimed the land, there wasn’t anything the Puritans could do about it despite the fact that they dominated the local population. They were allowed to move the graves where the church building was to sit and reinter them in the remaining part of the cemetery, so no graves were actually covered up by the building (at least not knowingly). The cemetery next door, known as the King’s Chapel Burying Ground, is all that remains. It has no affiliation with King’s Chapel, only taking the name in the mid-1770s due to its proximity to the church.

Alter of King’s Chapel on Tremont Street in Boston

The congregation had outgrown the original building by the 1740s, so it was decided to build a larger one. Because there was nowhere else in the city for the congregation to meet, and because they didn’t want church service to be interrupted, the new church was actually built around the old church, which continued to function. When completed, everything but the pulpit and a reading desk from the old church was dismantled and tossed out the windows and doors of the new, stone church. The pieces were then shipped to Nova Scotia and reassembled; the structure stood until 2002. The pulpit was actually built in 1717 (not 1688), and it is now the oldest pulpit still in use on its original site in the United States.

Original King’s Chapel pulpit from 1717

As to be expected, the members of King’s Chapel were largely Loyalists, and many of them fled to Canada or back to England when the American Revolution began. After the war, the church was reorganized as an Episcopal Church, which is what most Anglican churches became. However, the new minister, James Freeman, went by a Unitarian theology, so the Episcopal Church would not ordain him. Because the congregation liked Freeman so much, they kept him on as minister, and King’s Chapel gradually became a Unitarian church. Today it is affiliated with the Unitarian Universalist Association.

In addition to the pulpit and reading desk, the other interesting feature of the church is the original box pews. Back in the day, families actually paid for a pew at an auction—the closer to the alter, the more expensive—and then had to pay a yearly fee to keep it. The design kept out cold drafts, plus you could bring coal-fired foot warmers into your pew. The pews were eventually bought back by the church between 1907 and 1970, and today anyone can sit in them.

Original box pews at King’s Chapel on Tremont Street in Boston

Those who could not afford a box pew had to sit in the upstairs balcony. The seating upstairs is more like pews used in many churches today.

Upstairs gallery seating inside King’s Chapel on Tremont Street in Boston

The pipe organ was installed in 1964. This is the church’s sixth organ. The wood paneling and ornamentation over the pipes is the same that was installed on the building’s first organ in 1756.

1964 Pipe organ at King’s Chapel on Tremont Street in Boston

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