The Lancaster project was finished 30 years after Bulfinch's return to Boston from London.

WSJ: Prim Grandeur, Elegant Geometries | Charles Bulfinch | Lancaster Meetinghouse | By John Wilmerding

In addition, Bulfinch had overseen the construction of five churches around Boston.

WSJ: Prim Grandeur, Elegant Geometries | Charles Bulfinch | Lancaster Meetinghouse | By John Wilmerding

Bulfinch himself would work in granite on a new grander scale in building the state house in Augusta, Maine, between 1829 and 1832.

WSJ: Prim Grandeur, Elegant Geometries | Charles Bulfinch | Lancaster Meetinghouse | By John Wilmerding

When he returned to Boston in 1787, Bulfinch undertook several civic duties, including selectman and superintendent of police, before becoming devoted to park design and urban projects.

WSJ: Prim Grandeur, Elegant Geometries | Charles Bulfinch | Lancaster Meetinghouse | By John Wilmerding

But they also reveal Bulfinch's own prophetic sense of the massive volumes of space and stone that would define later neoclassicism, exemplified in the structures designed by Robert Mills for the nation's capital and in the South.

WSJ: Prim Grandeur, Elegant Geometries | Charles Bulfinch | Lancaster Meetinghouse | By John Wilmerding