{"id":26056,"date":"2025-11-05T23:04:32","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T23:04:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/26056\/"},"modified":"2025-11-05T23:04:32","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T23:04:32","slug":"on-this-day-in-1835-phillips-brooks-author-of-o-little-town-of-bethlehem-is-born-in-boston","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/26056\/","title":{"rendered":"On this day in 1835, Phillips Brooks, author of &#8220;O Little Town of Bethlehem,&#8221; is born in Boston"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On this day in 1835, Phillips Brooks was born in Boston. Brooks served as the rector of Boston\u2019s Trinity Church, and is best known for writing the Christmas carol \u201cO Little Town of Bethlehem.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>      <img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"height: auto; width: 100%;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/tumblr_pjoj0mDNQD1rrufk0o1_500.jpg\" width=\"400\" height=\"625\" alt=\"A Memorial of Phillips Brooks from the City of Boston, 1893, Collection 0100.006\" title=\"Phillips Brooks\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Brooks traveled to Bethlehem in 1865. Three years later, his memories of his journey inspired him to write the lyrics to &#8220;O Little Town of Bethlehem.&#8221;\u00a0Trinity Church\u2019s organist, Lewis Redner, wrote the music to carol.<\/p>\n<p>Though Brooks is now remembered primarily for penning \u201cO Little Town of Bethlehem,\u201d he was an active member in Boston\u2019s political and religious circles. He opposed slavery prior to the Civil War, and gave an acclaimed address on the death of Abraham Lincoln \u00a0as well as a well received address commemorating the deaths of Civil War soldiers.<\/p>\n<p>When Trinity Church burned down in the Fire of 1872, he oversaw the building of a new church in Copley Square.<\/p>\n<p>      <img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/tumblr_inline_pjoiynu2ju1r8k48t_500.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"570\" alt=\"Ruins of Trinity Church, 1872,   Public Works Department photograph collection, 5000.009\" title=\"Ruins of Trinity Church, 1872,   Public Works Department photograph collection, 5000.009\"\/><\/p>\n<p>The new Trinity Church, pictured below, became one of Boston\u2019s architectural icons<\/p>\n<p>      <img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/tumblr_inline_pjoizk1Cu71r8k48t_500.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"612\" alt=\"Copley Square, circa 1910, Street Lighting collection, Collection 5030.003, \" title=\"Copley Square, circa 1910, Street Lighting collection, Collection 5030.003, \"\/><\/p>\n<p>When Brooks died in 1893, Boston\u2019s City Council held a widely attended memorial service for him. The service was full of music, but &#8220;O Little Town of Bethlehem&#8221; did not make an appearance\u00a0on the program.<\/p>\n<p>      <img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"height: auto; width: 100%;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/tumblr_inline_pjoizs634S1r8k48t_540.jpg\" width=\"600\" height=\"924\" alt=\"Program for Phillips Brooks Memorial Service, City Council Committee on Celebrations, Collection 0140.013           \" title=\"Program for Phillips Brooks Memorial Service, City Council Committee on Celebrations, Collection 0140.013           \"\/><\/p>\n<p>      <img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"height: auto; width: 100%;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/tumblr_inline_pjoizyNBGF1r8k48t_540.jpg\" width=\"600\" height=\"910\" alt=\"Program for Phillips Brooks Memorial Service, City Council Committee on Celebrations, Collection 0140.013           \" title=\"Program for Phillips Brooks Memorial Service, City Council Committee on Celebrations, Collection 0140.013           \"\/><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Thirteen years after his death, in 1910, Trinity Church erected a statue of Phillips Brooks that still stands outside the church building in Copley Square. \u00a0However, Brooks is most often remembered when \u201cO Little Town of Bethlehem\u201d is sung during the Christmas season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On this day in 1835, Phillips Brooks was born in Boston. Brooks served as the rector of Boston\u2019s&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26057,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154],"class_list":["post-26056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26056","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26056"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26056\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}