North Cambridge Community Church
71 Walden Street, Cambridge, MA 02140
The North Cambridge Community Church (NCCC) was founded in 1916 by Reverend Samuel O. Weems. Reverend Weems had moved to Cambridge with his family in 1913 to attend the New Church Theological School (Swedenborgian) in Cambridge. He had read of the school in a newspaper article and was encouraged by its president, William Worcester, to move from Poughkeepsie, NY to Cambridge to attend.
In 1916, Weems graduated and in the same year founded the North Cambridge Community Church. Though there were several Black churches in Cambridge at the time, Reverend Weems saw a need for a church to serve the Black communities of North Cambridge and West Somerville.
From its beginning, the church served not only as a non-sectarian house of worship, but also as a community center. During its first two decades, the church was housed in the Weems home on Hubbard Avenue, Cambridge, first at Number 28 and later at Number 14. Through Reverend Weems’ energetic leadership and fundraising acumen, and with the assistance of devoted church leadership, the Church was able to support several training opportunities in a workshop located in the basement of the Weems home accommodating training in woodworking, machinery, weaving, sewing, and printing. Church activities included a choir, vacation Sunday School, a Camp Fire troop for girls, and the first Black Boy Scout troop in Cambridge, Troop 9. The church hosted many public programs including concerts, philosophical lectures, political forums and voter registration drives.
From its beginnings, the church received strong support from a group of white Cambridge congregations, including the Church of New Jerusalem (the Swedenborgian church pastored by Willam Worcester), First Church (Unitarian), First Church (Congregational), Christ Church, North Avenue Baptist Church, Old Cambridge Baptist Church, and Epworth Methodist Episcopal Church; these churches provided not only financial support, but also use of their parish halls for NCCC programs. Despite this support, Reverend Weems had to supplement his annual church salary (less than $700/year) by working as a machinist at the Boston & Maine Railroad and the Portsmouth (NH) Navy Yard.
In 1925, the church purchased a 55,000 sq ft. plot of land at 171 Walden Street, around the corner from Hubbard Avenue, for $2,500.00. An architect was hired to develop plans for a two-story structure to include a sanctuary, workshop, and apartment for the pastor and his family. By March 1927, construction of the first phase of the new church building was completed, consisting of a ground level entrance and full basement housing the 300-seat sanctuary. The congregation kept a large community garden on its grounds providing a source of agricultural training for young people and food for those in need.
The church was generally well-received in the North Cambridge community but did experience several harassing incidents including broken windows and fires. On one occasion, however, according to Reverend Weems’ daughter Marie Davis, on one Sunday, the police were called to the church for a noise complaint. When the police arrived, rather than interrupt the church service, they quietly waited and listened to the sermon.
Despite the committed fundraising efforts by Reverend Weems, his congregation, and partner churches to support the congregation’s ambitious plans for activities and community service, in 1946, the church was closed for lack of funds.
Sources:
- Boyer, Sarah, Editor. In Our Own Words: Stories of North Cambridge, 1900 – 1960, as told to Sarah Boyer, January 1, 1997
- Cambridge Historical Commission. “The North Cambridge Community Church.” July 7, 2020, https://cambridgehistoricalcommission.wpcomstaging.com/?s=north+cambridge+community+church
- Harvard Divinity School Library
- The Cambridge Chronicle, Building Fund Being Raised For Community Work, 16 October 1920, https://cambridge.dlconsulting.com/?a=d&d=Chronicle19201016-01.2.58
- The Cambridge Chronicle, Community Church Drive, 11 July 1925,https://cambridge.dlconsulting.com/?a=d&d=Chronicle19250711-01.2.52
- The Cambridge Tribune, Volume XLIX, Number 51, Drive Starts For Funds To Build A Community Church, 19 February 1927, https://cambridge.dlconsulting.com/?a=d&d=Tribune19270219-01.2.89
- The Cambridge Tribune, Volume LIV, Number 52, Fire Causes Damage At Community Church, 5 March 1932, https://cambridge.dlconsulting.com/?a=d&d=Tribune19320305-01.2.94
- The Cambridge Chronicle, Gleanings From The Political Field, 7 October 1932, https://cambridge.dlconsulting.com/?a=d&d=Chronicle19321007-01.2.47
- The Cambridge Chronicle, Inter-Racial Fellowship Meeting, 13 January 1933, https://cambridge.dlconsulting.com/?a=d&d=Chronicle19330113-01.2.66
- The Cambridge Tribune, Volume LVI, Number 28, North Cambridge Community Will Have a Garden Exhibit, 15 September 1933, https://cambridge.dlconsulting.com/?a=d&d=Tribune19330915-01.2.11
Some images from North Cambridge Community Church:
