First Church Roxbury

Plan Your Visit

An 1804 meetinghouse turned thriving community center hosts concerts in two gathering spaces, with a complete restoration of the historic organ currently in progress.

The new-to-us First Church in Roxbury joins the Neighborhood Arts family this season. The meetinghouse dates from 1804, but there has been a church on the site since 1632. The church, operated as a community center by the Unitarian Universalist Urban Ministry, is home to an 1883 Hook & Hastings pipe organ that will be restored later in 2026.

The main entrance is located in John Eliot Square, where there are approximately five stone steps to reach the front doors. Please note that this building entrance requires walking on an incline to access. The performance will take place in the main sanctuary.

To ensure you are on time for the performance, please arrive early. Specific information about when doors will open for your event will be sent in your pre-show email. Seating after the performance has begun will be at the discretion of management, and may be delayed until a suitable pause in the performance.

Accessibility

Please note: The 10 Putnam Street address leads to the back of the campus and requires more walking and steps. Please use the following address for navigation to the front of the church grounds: 8 John Eliot Square, Boston MA 02119.

First Church Roxbury is an accessible venue. A wheelchair ramp is available to the left side of the main entrance. There are four accessible pews at the front of the performance space, which may also be reserved in advance by submitting an accessibility request here.

An elevator on the main floor provides access from the performance space to the bathrooms, water dispenser, and Putnam Chapel (where our reception is planned to take place). Please note that some doorways within the performance space are narrow and may not accommodate larger mobility devices. For additional information or specific accessibility needs, please contact our team.

The Vivo Performing Arts offers sign language interpretation upon request. Requests for sign language interpreters must be received at least four weeks prior to the event by contacting Vivo Performing Arts at 617-482-6661 or boxoffice@vivoperformingarts.org. All requests are subject to the availability of an interpreter and provided at the discretion of the management.

Vivo Performing Arts provides portable Assistive Listening Devices at all Neighborhood Arts venues.

For more Accessibility information on this venue, or about attending specific performances, please contact the Vivo Performing Arts Box Office at 617-482-6661, or boxoffice@vivoperformingarts.org, or visit our Accessibility page.

Accessible Transit: The nearest accessible MBTA stop is the Orange Line’s Roxbury Crossing stop. It is located at approximately 1400 Tremont Street, Roxbury MA and is 0.4 away from First Church Roxbury although the path is NOT mostly flat and has some hills.

Parking

First-come, first-serve parking is available in the parking lot area next to the wheelchair ramp on the left side of the main entrance, where there are approximately 12 spaces. There is limited free street parking along Roxbury Street, Putnam Street, and Dudley Street. The venue is a six minute walk and four minute drive from another one of our Neighborhood Arts venues, Roxbury Community College.

We recommend booking convenient and affordable parking in advance through SpotHero, the nation's leading parking reservations app.

To reserve your parking spot for The First Church in Roxbury, visit the The First Church in Roxbury SpotHero Parking Page.