History

First and Second Church in Boston

Five other congregations have merged either with First or with Second Church over the last three hundred years, and these had distinguished histories of their own.  Hollis Street Church was served by Thomas Starr King, whose eloquence later prevented California from leaving the Union during the Civil War, and for whom the Starr King School of Theology is named.  South Congregational Church was the Church of the writer and philanthropist Edward Everett Hale.  Other churches that have merged into First and Second over the years include the Seventh Church, The Tenth Church, and the Church of Our Savior.