King’s Chapel

Beautiful chapel adjoining a burial ground.

What a beautiful building! Happily, it was open for visitors when we passed by, so we stopped in. It’s admission by donation, and there is plenty of signage and folks happy to answer questions once inside. There’s also a small gift shop in the entryway, featuring a number of items with the designs of the old gravestones in the neighboring burying ground.
The history of the church was quite interesting, from how the church was built in its location to the way many interior design features are made of wood intended to look like stone. The chapel features the box-​type pews, with little doors, of that period, which are fun to see. We were also fortunate enough to hear some organ practice while we were exploring the chapel. Great visit.

Wenn man auf der Route des Freedom Trails wandet, trifft man unweigerlich auf die King’s Chapel. Sie befindet sich an der Ecke Tremont Street und School Street.
Die Kirche, die aus dem 18. Jahrhundert stammt, gehört zur unabhängigen christlichen unitarischen Kirchengemeinde in Boston. Die vorherige King’s Chapel, die aus Holz gebaut war, wurde im Jahr 1688 zerstört.
Das heutige Kirchengebäude wurde in den Jahren 1749 und 1754 nach Plänen von Peter Harrison errichtet. Zwischenzeitlich war die Kirche vakant und wurde während des Unabhängigkeitskrieges nur als Stone Chapel bezeichnet. Im Jahre 1782 wurde die Kirche dann unitarisch.
Das Inneren der Kirche konnten wir leider nicht besichtigen soll aber durch ihre hölzernen Säulenreihen und seine korinthische Kapitelle sehenswert sein. Es befindet sich im Gebäude auch ein Denkmal von Samuel Vassall, das an dessen Widerstand gegen die damaligen Steuern vom englischen König Karl I. erinnern soll.
Aber auch musikalisch hat die Kirche mit ihrer mittelgroßen Orgel einiges zu bieten. Die in der Kirche installiert Glocke ist die letzte und größte die Paul Revere selbst gegossen hat. Auf dem Friedhof an der King’s Chapel sind Gräber von vielen bekannten Persönlichkeiten.
Eine weitere schöné Sehenswürdigkeit auf dem Freedom Trail.

This was one of our favorite things that we did in Boston, made that way by our very friendly, very cooperative tour guide. We saw brochures for tours and decided to stop in. The tour schedule had changed, but the person that greeted us gave us a tour anyway. It was just us on the tour, and it was a really great experience. We had a scare in the basement when one of the trustees of the Chapel came creeping in to check the heat. After our heart rates normalized, he gave us some very interesting history. We also got to touch the Paul Revere bell! I would highly recommend this place — welcoming staff and very interesting history.

This is another one of those stops along the freedom trail that I felt could be easily skipped. Also, to go inside they have a mandatory donation. The outside architecture is simple and if you weren’t told this is a special building you wouldn’t notice it.

We stopped here as we were walking the freedom trail
It was nice another one of those «mandatory donations» but that’s ok totally worth it!

Put this on your list of spots to visit while touring old Boston. You can even wander in and sit in the pews, which they say were designed this way because there was no heat in the church. Enclosed pews helped keep the pews warmer.

Very interesting place. It’s cool that you can wander in and sit in the pew boxes and take in the place. Definitely worth a visit (be sure to check out the cemetery that is adjacent to the church).
4 stars.

Another gorgeous and old granite façade building on the Freedom Trail. Like many of the older churches it had a cemetary alongside of it.
The archetecture here however is a bit different than most of the places that I have come across. It reminds me more a military building than anything remotely close to a chapel. Regardless this building has a huge number of gorgeous columns adorning the front enterence.
The parapet is definitely squat and blocky from the outside furthering the military demeanor. However inside it is nothing of the sort. It is another beautiful church with gorgeous hardwood flooring. The family booth theme for services and/​or meetings holds true in this chapel.
It is absolutely worth a quick stop while in Beantown to see some more history of the United States. Perhaps you would like to partake a service here as it is still a functioning church. They have services every Sunday morning.

Gorgeous. Came at a time when I couldn’t go inside, but I loved just looking at the outside.

Unexpectedly beautiful stop on the Freedom trail. We were lucky enough to hear a free organ performance but had to leave because someone passed gas. You should go inside.

Free.
Beautiful.
Old.
Educational.
Gift shop attached.
No flash photography.
Worth a look.

Great place to visit, but I wouldn’t recommend getting married here. Attended a wedding here recently where the reverend consistently mispronounced the bride and groom’s names (not very difficult ones either) during the ceremony, forgot entire sections of the program, snickered at one of the readers, interpreted a bible reading in a way many found racist, and was generally unpleasant to deal with. Not worth it for the pretty setting!

I am king. Who are you?
Seriously, yikes. The oldest chapel in the universe. King James thus decried svelt booths and private doots.
A little privacy, please.
The place is beautiful.

Our fourth stop on the Freedom Trail brought us to this ornate English church, a style that most people have only seen in movies.
King’s Chapel was constructed on land taken from the neighboring cemetery. To insure the presence of the Church of England in America, King James II ordered an Anglican parish to be built in Boston. Since none of the colonists were interested in selling suitable land for the Church, the King ordered the governor to seize a corner of the cemetery for the Church of England.
King’s Chapel has private booths with doors as their pews. Each pew box was sized per family and each family paid rent to use them. As such, the families could customize their pews with furniture, cushions, and even wall paper. On each door, a placard glistened with the family’s name.
While the church looks more stately on the outside than a colonial place of worship, the interior design is definitely worth the time to take a look around inside.
COST: FREE!
HOURS: Monday. Thursday. Friday. Saturday. 10:00am — 4:00pm

My family has gone here for several hundred years. I’m guessing that not much has changed, physically. Spiritually it stays current. The last time I went to a service there, the dedication of my granddaughter, they let me ring the bell, which was made by Paul Revere. It was the second bell the church had… the first one wore out!
It may be unusual to rate a church this way, but King’s Chapel is a lot more than a church.

Interesting from the outside but closed to tourists the day we stopped by.

This was another old and well maintained church on the Freedom Trail. There was a burial ground nearby as well, and the wealth of history that is Boston can be felt in this church. Worth a quick stop, but maybe not for children.