page_title: Old South Church
section_title: Senior ministers
hierarchical_section_title: Old South Church / Senior ministers
caption_attribution_description: English: Cornerstone of Old South Church in Boston. October 2006.
context_page_description: Old South Church in Boston, Massachusetts, is a historic United Church of Christ congregation first organized in 1669. Its present building was designed in the Gothic Revival style by Charles Amos Cummings and Willard T. Sears, completed in 1873, and amplified by the architects Allen & Collens between 1935–1937. The church, which was built on newly filled land in the Back Bay section of Boston, is located at 645 Boylston Street on Copley Square. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1970 for its architectural significance as one of the finest High Victorian Gothic churches in New England. It is home to one of the older religious communities in the United States.
context_section_description: To date twenty ministers have served Old South's congregation as Senior Minister; they are:
  At Cedar Meeting House
  Thomas Thacher 1670-1678
  Samuel Willard 1678-1707
  Ebenezer Pemberton 1700-1717
  Joseph Sewall 1713-1769
  Thomas Prince 1718-1730
  At Old South Meeting House
  Thomas Prince 1730-1758
  Alexander Cumming 1761-1763
  Samuel Blair 1766-1769
  John Hunt/John Bacon 1771-1775
  Joseph Eckley 1779-1811
  Joshua Huntington 1808-1819
  Benjamin B. Wisner 1821-1832 (departed in 1832 to become a Corresponding Secretary of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions)
  Samuel H. Stearns 1834-1836
  George W. Blagden 1836-1872
  Jacob M. Manning 1857-1882
  At Old South Church
  George Angier Gordon 1884-1927
  Russell Henry Stafford 1927-1945
  Frederick M. Meek 1946-1973
  James W. Crawford 1974-2002
  Carl F. Schultz, Jr. 2002-2005 (Interim)
  Nancy S. Taylor 2005-
caption: Cornerstone of Old South is inscribed with the dates of its three houses of worship: 1670 for the Cedar Meeting House; 1730 for Old South Meeting House; and 1873 for the present Old South Church in Boston's Back Bay.
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