Old Ship Church

Old Ship Church

The Old Ship Church is a Puritan church built in 1681 in Hingham, Massachusetts. It is the only surviving 17th-century Puritan meetinghouse in America. It occupies the oldest church building in continuous ecclesiastical use in the United States.

The most distinctive feature of the structure is its Hammerbeam roof, a Gothic open timber construction, the most well-known example that of Westminster Hall.
Some of those working on the soaring structure were no doubt ship carpenters; others were East Anglians familiar with the method of constructing a hammerbeam roof.

The congregation is Unitarian Universalist and is a Welcoming Congregation.

Some of the meetinghouse furnishings still in use date to its founding: Old Ship's christening bowl, for instance, was made before 1600 and was likely brought to the Massachusetts Bay Colony by emigrants from Hingham, England.

Location

Main Street
Hingham, Plymouth County
Massachusetts, USA

Getting There

The Old Ship Church is located in Hingham, Massachusetts. You can take the Greenbush Line from Boston to the Hingham Station, which is about a 20-minute walk from the church. Alternatively, you can take the 220 bus from Quincy Center Station and get off at Main St @ Station St, which is about a 10-minute walk from the church.

Nearby Airports

This is a list of primary airports in Massachusetts that have scheduled passenger service on commercial airlines.