Some of the many ways our communities use the building and grounds ~
We posted signage about the meetinghouse's history in October 2025 ~ check it out!
Hanging new signage about the meetinghouse's history
Annual pop-up book sale ~ seats and lights let people peruse the books
Parish hall shimmers on a spring evening
A videographer records the Tom Megan & friends recital
The Holiday Fair features dozens of fabulous vendors, homemade food, and live music and always draws hundreds of visitors
Tom Megan and friends performing to a packed house
Gays for Patsy has been line-dancing, two-stepping, and west coast swinging here for more than 30 years!
Hanging lights make a dance party festive
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 since the 1980s (!)
Bouncy house sits empty as children crowd the birthday cake
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
Annual Fellowship Dinner shows how big the dining area is: see bar at the top and, by the kitchen door, a coffee station, serving tables, and a welcome/name tag table
The stage is a great place to sing and do skits!
Curious children at Chinese New Year celebration
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
Nehar Shalom, which worships in the building, celebrates a long-term board member
First Church celebrates a member's 90th birthday
The tower reaches high into the summer sky
Woman peruses fiction section of annual pop-up book store
Classical guitarist John Muratore chatting with audience members after a concert
65 people enjoying a concert by classical guitarist John Muratore and collages by Lucy Harackiewicz
Ross Dekle of the Massachusetts Historical Commission in front of the tower's newly restored clock in April 2024 (credit: Nancy Ahmadifar)
New slate covers the strengthened and waterproofed roof, part of a $1.86m restoration that also fixed the crumbling tower and added solar panels. (credit: Nancy Ahmadifar)
Touring the new roof in April 2024 (credit: Nancy Ahmadifar)
The 170 year 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
A glimpse of the beautiful windows behind the stage during the Holiday Fair
The 1850's E. and G.G. Hook pipe organ produces a sound that resonates in your bones
Huge windows bring lots of light into the main event hall
Colorful magnolia blossoms liven up the historic Jamaica Plain Burying Ground
Setting up tents for a beautiful day at the Spring Fair and pop-up book sale
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.