Announcing: Historic signage on the Centre Street fence now tells our story!
Meetinghouse JP
Hosting community events,
celebrations, concerts,
dances, and remembrances since 1769.
Some of the many ways our communities use the building and grounds ~
The first historic signage about the meetinghouse was posted on a lovely fall day in October 2025.
First historic signage about the meetinghouse being installed! (Oct 2025)
Chairs in a quiet area allow customers to peruse the annual pop-up book sale offerings in comfort. (June 2025)
Peeking from the main pop-up book sale room into the sanctuary, where there are many more books. (June 2025)
The space is vibrant at night. (Spring 2025)
A videographer records the Tom Megan & friends recital. (April 2025)
Tom Megan - composer, lyricist, and librettist - and friends fill the stage while performing to a packed house. (April 2025)
Gays for Patsy has been line-dancing, two-stepping, and west coast swinging for decades! (March 2025)
Bright lights make a Dance Party festive, and not overly lit. (March 2025)
Gender-Free English Country Dance is one of the founding gender-free English dances, part of an international growing tradition. This group has enjoyed our space for decades. (March 2025)
Bouncy house sits empty as children crowd the birthday cake table. (Feb 2025)
There's always drama as well as terrific music in a Boston Lyric Opera event! Soprano Ann-Marie Iacoviello, tenor Michael Gonzalez, and pianist Maria Rabbia delighted the crowd. (Feb 2025)
Annual Fellowship Dinner shows how big the dining area is: see bar in the upper right and, by the kitchen door, a coffee station, serving tables, and a welcome/name tag table. (March 2025)
The stage is a great place to sing and do skits! (March 2025)
Curious children at Chinese New Year celebration (Feb 2025)
Contra Dances have used the church since the late 1980's. They have live music and a caller at each dance!
A warm concert in the middle of a cold snap (Jan 2025).
Nehar Shalom celebrates a long-term board member (October 2024)
First Church celebrates a member's 90th birthday (July 2024)
What a beautiful day! (Summer 2024)
Woman peruses fiction section of annual book sale, now benefiting the Monument Square Meetinghouse Foundation (June 2024).
Lovely view of the parish hall roofs. (credit: Nancy Ahmadifar April 2024)
Classical guitarist John Muratore chatting with audience members after concert in April 2024.
65 people enjoyed a concert by classical guitarist John Muratore and collages by Lucy Harackiewicz. (April 2024)
Ross Dekle of the Massachusetts Historical Commission in front of the tower's newly restored clock. (credit: Nancy Ahmadifar April 2024)
We are admiring the new slate roof. The infrastructure was strengthened and new waterproofing added. The gorgeous slate is from upstate NY. Note the rectangular spots on the left - they are anchors for solar panels. (credit: Nancy Ahmadifar April 2024)
We got to climb the scaffolding to view the new roof. (credit: Nancy Ahmadifar April 2024)
The 1 1/2 century old slate really needed to be replaced... (Feb 2024)
Soprano Nicola Santoro and baritone Raphael Laden-Guindon of the Boston Opera Collaborative sing in to a rapt audience in February 2024.
The Holiday Fair features homemade food and live music and always draws hundreds of visitors. (Dec 2023)
A glimpse of the beautiful windows behind the stage. (Dec 2023)
The 1850's E. and G.G. Hook pipe organ fills the sanctuary during concerts.
Huge windows bring lots of light into the main event hall. (Dec 2023)
Colorful magnolia blossoms liven up the historic graveyard.
Setting up tents for a beautiful day at the Spring Fair and Used Book Sale. (June 2023)
About the Foundation
Meetinghouse JP - aka the Monument Square Meetinghouse Foundation - is a non-profit (tax ID 92-2052131) dedicated to the building and grounds of First Church of Jamaica Plain and their use by the community. We are located at 6 Eliot Street, Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts 02130, United States.
Find out about rentals at https://firstchurchjp.org/about-us/rental/. Check out the new signage telling our story on the Centre St fence.
Come take a walk through the only burial ground in JP.
About the Square
The area now known as Jamaica Plain was inhabited by indigenous populations for millennia. Archaeological evidence shows that indigenous people had long travelled along what are now known as South and Centre Streets.
The founders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, persecuted religious reformers who rejected hierarchy and wanted self-governing parishes, required all new settlements to have a tax-supported meetinghouse and teacher. The first meetinghouse was built in 1769.
As the colonial population of Boston grew, municipal lines were drawn and redrawn. Jamaica Plain was first claimed by the Town of Roxbury, then by the breakaway Town of West Roxbury (1851), and finally by the City of Boston (1874). To establish itself, West Roxbury built a significant municipal building, Curtis Hall, now the community center at 20 South St. The congregation simultaneously decided to replace its wooden meetinghouse with a handsome granite English Gothic Revival building completed in 1854.
During the Civil War, 23 local soldiers were killed. Residents erected a monument to commemorate those soldiers and further establish civic identity. (Later, a Roxbury puddingstone boulder commemorating local Minutemen who fought in the American Revolution was added.)
Monument Square is the historic, cultural, and civic center of JP. The 43-acre Monument Square Historic District was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1990.