First Parish Church greets you at 425 Congress Street, right here in Portland. Built in 1825 for a congregation established in 1674, this is the oldest church building in the city and one of its finest examples of Federal period architecture. Its tall single-story form is cut from Freeport granite — ashlar masonry with finely dressed corner quoining — and its basic rectangular massing gives way to a projecting three-bay entrance vestibule and a square tower that pushes slightly farther toward the street.
Three entrances sit in round-arch openings, each capped by a fanlight, and the multistage tower shows an arched louver above a marble date panel on its second stage. The congregation worships here as Unitarian Universalists under Reverend Norman Allen, and the building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. You are opposite the church's old lane, Temple Street, once called Meetinghouse Lane, standing in the civic heart of Portland, with City Hall a short way to the east, the public library a short way west, and Portland High School immediately to its north.
Notice City Hall, the library and the high school framing this corner.