Unitarian Church

First Universalist Church of Milford // 1899

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In the summer of 1785, a Universalist congregation was formed in Milford, Massachusetts, making it one of the first in the United States. The Universalists here were led by some illustrious ministers including Thomas Whittemore, an energetic advocate of abolition and an ardent foe of the Fugitive Slave Law; Ebenenzer Fisher who left the Milford congregation to become the first president of what became St. Lawrence University; and Adin Ballou who, after serving the congregation for six years, established a religious commune in the Hopedale section of Milford called “The Hopedale Community” that was to become a model for similar religious organizations. The congregation grew and by the late 19th century, it was decided that a new church in Milford should be built. Local architect, Robert Allen Cook, who was then in his twenties, was hired to furnish plans for this handsome edifice, which was built of locally quarried Milford “pink” granite. Robert A. Cook was a personal favorite architect of the Draper Family of Hopedale and Milford, who likely held sway in his selection. The church was built in 1899 and remains an excellent example of Victorian Gothic architecture with large lancet window and many beautiful stained glass windows in the sanctuary.

Second Unitarian Church of Brookline – Temple Sinai // 1916

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An excellent example of an early 20th century church designed in the Colonial Revival style, the former Second Unitarian Church of Brookline (now Temple Sinai), was built when much of the surrounding neighborhood was developed and as a result, is tucked away off main streets, creating a unique viewshed for passersby. Brookline’s second Unitarian Church was formed in 1896, with the congregation holding its first meetings at Sears Chapel in the Longwood neighborhood nearby. Decades later, the Second Unitarian Society was urged to find another place for its congregation as the Longwood church wanted full access of their building. The Unitarians purchased a lot of land adjacent to their Parish House in Coolidge Corner (no longer standing) and gathered funds to hire architect, Edwin J. Lewis Jr., who is said to have designed the new edifice as a contemporary take on Christ Church in Alexandria, Virginia. The church features a monumental portico supported by four Ionic columns, round arched windows, and a center tower that (at the time) was surmounted by a golden dome, visible for miles. Since 1944, the former church has been home to Temple Sinai, a reform synagogue that was established in 1939. The Jewish congregation here has maintained the building making slight changes to meet its needs. 

Unitarian Church of Sharon // 1842

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Sharon, Massachusetts, is a small suburban community south of Boston that is lesser known than its neighbors, but the community has some great old buildings! The Town of Sharon was originally part of a 1637 land grant given by the Dorchester Proprietors to encourage new settlement in areas southward. In 1726, the lands of the present towns of Sharon, Canton and Stoughton, were separated from Dorchester and called the Stoughton Territory. Settlers in present-day Sharon found it difficult to attend mandated church services centered around present-day Stoughton and petitioned the General Court in 1739 to set off as a separate precinct. The request was granted and the Second Precinct was established, and incorporated as Stoughtonham in 1765, changing its name in 1783 to Sharon, named after the Sharon Plain in Palestine. In 1813, the local congregationalists split due to theological differences and formed a Unitarian church. The Congregationalists moved and built a new church and the Unitarians remained on this site, but the larger building was too large for their needs. They demolished the original building and constructed this church in 1842, which somewhat resembles the 1839 Congregational Church of Sharon a stone’s throw away. Like its neighbor, the Unitarian Church too retains an original bell cast by the The Revere Copper Company of nearby Canton.

Hopedale Unitarian Church // 1898

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The Hopedale Unitarian Church, also known as the Draper Memorial Church, is located in the former industrial village of Hopedale, Massachusetts, and is one of the finest examples of the Neo-Gothic style in the state. The church was funded by brothers George Albert and Eben S. Draper of the Draper Corporation, the largest employer in town, offering to build the new edifice as a memorial to their parents, George and Hannah Draper. The church replaced an earlier, wood-frame church, built on the site in 1860 by supporters of Adin Ballou, a founder of the Hopedale Community, a utopian community that eventually failed. The Drapers hired Boston architect, Edwin J. Lewis, an active Unitarian who had designed several churches around New England by this time. His plan was “English Gothic of the Perpendicular period” made of Milford granite with Indiana limestone trimmings and a roof of green slate. At the interior, roof trusses were left exposed “as in the old English Parish churches” with oak finishes and flooring and memorial stained glass windows by prominent artists. The church remains a visual and historical landmark for the community with an active congregation who preserve the significant building.

Unitarian Universalist Association Headquarters // 1926

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The American Unitarian Association (AUA) opened its first headquarters in Boston in 1865, forty years after the organization was founded. Since its founding in 1825, the AUA occupied several locations but eventually took residence in a Richardsonian Romanesque style building constructed in 1886 at the corner of Beacon and Bowdoin streets. The handsome structure, designed by Robert Swain Peabody of the firm, Peabody and Stearns, served as the headquarters for the association until it was demolished in the 1920s for the expansion of the Hotel Bellevue. In 1926, the AUA purchased an 1840s townhouse and demolished it, replacing the former residence with their new building to serve as a church headquarters office building. The American Unitarian Association hired the Boston architectural firm of Putnam and Cox to design their building, which employed architectural similarities to the adjacent 1820s townhouses designed by Cornelius Coolidge. The six-story building is constructed of red brick with a two-story granite base with piano nobile with a balcony, all under a mansard roof with dormers. The American Unitarian Association sold their Beacon Street building and relocated to a new headquarters on Farnsworth Street in the Seaport/Fort Point area of Boston in 2014. The 1926 building was converted to high-end luxury condominiums.

Stone Village Unitarian Church // 1845

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The Stone Village of Chester, Vermont, is said to be the largest collection of stone buildings in the state, and is anchored by its largest building, the Unitarian Church. Built in 1845, the Unitarian Universalist Church is one of a few dozen “snecked ashlar” buildings in the region, where rubblestone is laid up with mortar using small long stones called “snecks” to tie an outer and an inner wall together. The construction method is said to have been brought to the area by masons from Scotland and Ireland which is known there as ‘Celtic Bond’. Oral tradition state that Scottish masons from Canada introduced the technique to local masons while erecting a mill in nearby Cavendish in 1832. Local Chester resident, Dr. Ptolemy Edson became such a fan of the building that in 1834, he had his home, the first stone building in Chester, built in this method. Dr. Edson served on the building committee for the new village church, and likely pushed for a cohesive material and construction method for this church and other buildings soon after. The Stone Village Unitarian Church blends Greek Revival and Gothic Revival styles in a more vernacular way, typical in many rural Vermont communities. The building exhibits stained glass windows that were added sometime in the late 19th or early 20th century.

First Parish Church, Kingston // 1851

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The original Congregational Church of Kingston was part of the established, tax-supported church of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and was built in 1718, after present-day Kingston established itself as Plymouth’s North Parish. The church was replaced in 1798 with a more substantial building with two steeples. In 1833, when the separation of church and state was finalized in the Commonwealth, two new religious societies formed in Kingston and established churches. The 1798 church, which had been built as the only church in town, was now too large for its diminished population and suffering from structural difficulties. In the spring of 1851, the 1798 church was taken down, and the present church, the third on the site, was constructed. The church blends Greek Revival and Italianate styles, both popular for ecclesiastical buildings of its time, and the structure looks much like it did when built 175 years ago. The congregation here is Universal Unitarian.

First Unitarian Church of Somerville // 1895

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Located on Highland Avenue in the Central Hill section of Somerville, Massachusetts, the First Unitarian Church of Somerville is a landmark example of a church in the Romanesque Revival style. The church was built in 1895 from plans by the esteemed architectural firm of Hartwell & Richardson, and was the fourth and final building of the congregation, which was originally established in 1844. The congregation’s first church was a Gothic Revival style building designed by Richard Bond, but was destroyed by fire in 1852. A year later, the second edifice was designed and built by architect Thomas W. Silloway, which also burned in 1867. The church was replaced again by a Romanesque style structure in 1869. In the 1890s, when the City of Somerville purchased the building as part of the site for the new Somerville High School, a lot down Highland Avenue was secured and planning began for this building. The church is built of granite block with a steeply pitched gable roof, and a square tower at its right front corner. The prominent gable contains two arched entrances with a bank of five rectangular stained-glass windows below three tall round-arch stained glass windows. The congregation was dissolved in 1975 and a year later, the building was purchased by the Mission Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ, an Apostolic Pentacostalist church, who continue to use the building today.

New Gloucester Universalist Meeting House // 1839

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Constructed in 1839 by local carpenter/builder Jeremiah Cotton, the Universalist Meeting House of New Gloucester, Maine, is a dignified example of the Greek Revival style in a rural context. The First Universalist Society of Christians in New Gloucester was organized in 1805 with members drawn from nearby communities including those of Gray and Poland. In 1830, the congregation reorganized itself into the First Universalist Society of New Gloucester and Pownal. During its early history services were apparently held at various places in the community for it was not until November of 1838 that a meeting was called “…to take such measures for Building a meeting house as a majority of Subscribers or proprietors may think proper.” After World War I, membership began to decline and from the 1930s until the society’s demise in 1957 services were infrequently held. In 1969 the property was acquired by the New Gloucester Historical Society, who maintained and restored the building. The flushboard siding, fully pedimented gable, pilasters, and symmetrical façade containing two entry doors, all work together to display the Greek Revival style in a high-style example, but in a rural setting. The building appears to be opened periodically by the Historical Society.

Derby Cottage // c.1848

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Located off Touro Park in Newport, you may be surprised to find an early Gothic Revival style cottage obscured from view by the towering stone Channing Memorial Church. Newport has so many hidden treasures! Very little is written about this cottage, but it appears to have been built c.1848 for Richard Crowninshield Derby (1777-1854) of the famous Derby Family of Salem, Massachusetts. Richard Derby would move to Philadelphia and split his time between there, Boston, and his newly built summer cottage in Newport, Rhode Island. He did not get to fully appreciate the home as he died in 1854. The Gothic Revival cottage was inherited by his widow, Louisa S. Bomford Derby until her death and later by the couple’s two children (from both of their first marriages), Richard Catton Derby and Louisa Lincoln Lear Eyre, the mother of famed architect Wilson Eyre. The property was eventually sold by the half-siblings and the site became home to the 1880 Channing Memorial Church, which now dominates the site. Luckily for us, the cottage was spared and moved to the extreme rear of the lot and converted to the parish hall for the church.

Channing Memorial Church // 1880

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The Channing Memorial Church of Newport, Rhode Island was named in the memory of William Ellery Channing (1780-1842), an ardent abolitionist and founder of the Unitarian faith in America. In 1835, ten men formed the first Unitarian Society in Newport in October 1835 and met in the home of Channing’s grandfather, William Ellery, one of the 56 signers of the United States Declaration of Independence. In 1879, the congregation’s minister, Rev. M. K. Schermerhorn, conceived the idea of a memorial to William Emery Channing, whose centenary would be the following year. He decided upon the ambitious project of a new church building and planning began immediately. On Rev. Channing’s 100th birthday, the cornerstone laying ceremony occurred in 1880. The Victorian Gothic stone church designed by Elbridge Boyden took a year to be completed and was was built from granite, cut in Lyme, Connecticut. Inside, two stained glass windows, the first ecclesiastical commission of John LaFarge, flood the interior spaces with warm colored light. The church looks much as it did when completed almost 150 years ago, thanks to an active congregation preserving this great landmark.

Second Congregational Meetinghouse of Nantucket // 1809

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Located on a fairly quiet street on Nantucket Island, you will find the Second Congregational Meetinghouse of Nantucket, towering over the rows of historical homes nearby. Erected between 1808-1809, the church was constructed to house Nantucket’s growing population of Congregationalists on land formerly occupied by a dwelling house and barn. The bell was brought from Lisbon, Portugal, in 1812 by Captain Thomas Cary, was placed in the square belfry in 1815. The Great Fire of 1846, combined with the collapse of the whaling industry, brought hard times to the island. The congregation found itself unable to support a minister, and for the next forty years the church struggled on the brink of financial collapse. The building and its congregation persevered and the building is both an architectural and cultural landmark to the charming island community.

Unitarian Church of Barnstable // 1907

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Early in the 17th century, the Rev. John Lothrop and his followers left England for these shores seeking religious independence. They settled first in Scituate and a few years later came to Barnstable, arriving in 1639. They constructed their first meetinghouse in 1646 on Coggins Pond, about a mile west of this church. Lothrop’s second dwelling in Barnstable is the current Public Library in town (featured previously). In the early 19th century there was considerable theological debate in the “churches of the standing order” in New England. Many churches actually split over this debate, the traditionalists becoming Congregationalists and the liberals becoming Unitarians. The Eastern Parish in town was thus occupied by the Unitarians. In 1836 the original meeting house was removed and a new, larger one was constructed. It was destroyed by fire in 1905, and planning began for a new church. The present edifice was dedicated in 1907, and was designed by architect Guy Lowell, the architect of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and the New York County Courthouse. His traditional, Classical designs were featured in publications all over the country. This church in the Classical Revival style is one of the finest on Cape Cod.

First Unitarian Church of Wilton // 1860

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Wilton, New Hampshire’s original land grant included 240 acres for a church and stipulated that a building must be erected by 1752. From this, settlers built a log church. For the first ten years traveling preachers supplied the pulpit. In 1763, Rev. Jonathan Livermore became the first settled minister. In April 1773, the town voted to provide six barrels of rum, a barrel of brown sugar, half a box of lemons and two loaves of loaf sugar for framing and raising a new meetinghouse. In 1859, a fire destroyed the Revolutionary-era church/meetinghouse, and members immediately began the construction of a new, modern building. The present building blends Greek and Gothic revival styles in a later, vernacular form.

Unitarian Church, Burlington // 1816

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The building that gives Burlington’s iconic Church Street its name is this, the Unitarian Church of Burlington. One of the most stunning Federal style churches in New England, the church is the oldest surviving place of worship in Burlington, built in 1816. The church was designed by English architect Peter Banner (possibly with assistance of Charles Bulfinch), years after his crowning achievement, the Park Street Church in Boston was completed. From the head of Church Street, the church oversaw the growth of Burlington from a small lakefront town to the largest city in the state. In August 1954, the church steeple was struck by lightning, causing it to shift over two feet in a matter of months, unknown to the congregation and public. It was decided that due to concerns the steeple may collapse through the building, it was selectively demolished and reconstructed. The church remains an active part in the city and architectural landmark for Burlington.