American Church, British Style, Napoleon-Inspired Name

From Dave Brigham:

Walking around the Longwood neighborhood in Brookline, Mass., one can be forgiven for adopting a British accent and hungering for tea and crumpets. Developed in the first half of the 19th century by prominent Boston merchant, philanthropist and landowner David Sears II, Longwood was named after Napoleon's estate on the British island of St. Helena, the site of his second exile from 1815 until his death in 1821, according to Wikipedia. Sears built homes that evoked British estates, and modeled Christ's Church after St. Peter's Church in Colchester, England, according to the Brookline Historical Society. St. Peter's is the Sears family's ancestral church, according to a history of Brookline at Community Walk. Christ's Church was built "as an ecumenical, non-sectarian house of worship in 1860-61," according to that history.

Now home to the Unity Boston congregation, Christ's Church is surrounded by very British-seeming estates, gardens, fences and shade trees. It's all very peaceful. For a look inside the church, check out this link.

For more on the Longwood neighborhood, which is south of Beacon Street near Park Drive, as well as the Sears-developed Cottage Farm area north of Beacon Street, check out this previously linked Brookline Historical Society web page.