In 1830, an attempt to inclose the common lands of the town and convert them into a park met decided opposition from those who were interested in the Craigie Bridge, because it would divert the Concord Turnpike from direct connection with Cambridge Street. This opposition was seconded by the cattle-drivers, who wished to make use of these lands as a resting-place for their stock. There were several stormy town meetings, the attendance at which was so great that it was necessary to adjourn from the court-house to the church. Appeal was made to the county commissioners, the General Court, and even to the Supreme Court. Fortunately the Common was saved as a park, but the contest demonstrated the inadequacy of the old court-house for town meetings. East Cambridge had secured the county buildings and shown the vulnerability of the old part of the town. The Port determined to have the townhouse. A lot of land containing about eleven acres, bounded by Harvard, Norfolk, Austin, and Prospect streets, had been secured in 1818 for an almshouse. On this land it was voted, in 1830, to erect a town-house, and in pursuance of this vote a wooden building was put up on the easterly part of the lot, in which, March 5, 1732, there was held for the first time a town meeting, and in which thereafter, so long as Cambridge remained a town, all such meetings were held. Thus was Harvard Square robbed of its last claim to be considered the centre of the town, with the exception that the First Parish Church still stood there. Even the prestige which attached to this fact had been greatly diminished through the withdrawal from the church of a majority of the church-members and communicants. This step was taken in 1829, in consequence of the conclusion by the parish that the ministration of Rev. Dr. Holmes could no longer be maintained with any possibility of advancing their religious interests. Those having the legal power to vote were therefore of opinion that there was sufficient cause to terminate the contract subsisting between the parish and the pastor. The cause of the trouble was purely theological. A majority of the parish were Unitarians. Dr. Holmes and his followers were Trinitarians. The latter organized a new society, which they called the Shepard Congregational Society.
In 1814, a new church had been organized, under the auspices