Massachusetts’ Tallest and Smallest Churches

Massachusetts has many churches and houses of worship of all shapes, sizes and denominations.

The Massachusetts Executive Office of Technology Services and Security's Mass GIS Bureau of Geographic Information shows the locations of "more than 2,000 churches, mosques, and synagogues in Massachusetts."

The largest church in Massachusetts is in Boston.

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The Cathedral of the Holy Cross at 1400 Washington Street is the cathedral of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston and is the largest Roman Catholic church in New England.

As the population of Boston began to swell in the mid-19th century, church leaders determined that the Old Holy Cross Cathedral on Franklin Street wasn't large enough. Bishop John Williams officiated the groundbreaking for a new cathedral on April 29, 1866.

Williams, Boston's first archbishop, dedicated the new Cathedral of the Holy Cross on December 8, 1875.

Patrick Keeley designed the Gothic Revival-style cathedral, which stands 120 feet tall. The cathedral is 90 feet wide, 364 feet long and has a capacity of 1,700 people.

The Union Church of All Faiths, also known as the United Memorial Chapel for All Faiths, is the smallest in Massachusetts. The church is at 74 Causeway Street in Hudson, Massachusetts, but that was not its original location.

The Union Church of All Faiths is a five-foot-by-11-foot wood-framed chapel built in 1953 by retired clergyman Reverend Louis Winth.

Rev. Winth constructed the church on land beside his home on Central Street, where it remained for a couple of decades.

At some point during the 1970s, the church was moved across town to the grounds of the First Federated Church of Hudson, where it would stay for decades, but not forever.

In 2003, the church was relocated to Hyannis but eventually found its way back to Hudson and stands today on Causeway Street.

The Union Church of All Faiths has a capacity of four people.