First Unitarian Church (Berkeley, California)

Last updated
First Unitarian Church
First Unitarian Church (Berkeley, CA).JPG
Location2401 Bancroft Way,
Berkeley, California
Coordinates 37°52′7″N122°15′36″W / 37.86861°N 122.26000°W / 37.86861; -122.26000
Area0.2 acres (0.081 ha)
Built1898
Architect A. C. Schweinfurth
Architectural style Shingle Style, Bay Area Tradition
NRHP reference No. 81000143 [1]
BERKL No.48
Significant dates
Added to NRHPDecember 10, 1981
Designated BERKLNovember 16, 1981

The First Unitarian Church in Berkeley, California is a former church building that was built in 1898. It was designed by Albert C. Schweinfurth, who made unconventional use of Shingle Style architecture, usually applied to homes, in designing a church. It was also highly unusual for a church building in several other ways, including the use of industrial-style metal sash windows, sections of redwood tree trunks as pillars, the strong horizontal emphasis, and a semicircular apse with a conical roof. [2] The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the California State Historic Resources Survey, and is a City of Berkeley Landmark. [3] It has also been known as University Dance Studio and Bancroft Dance Studio for its current use. [1]

Contents

Although originally outside the university grounds, it is now the second oldest building still standing on the Berkeley campus. At the time it was built, facing a block of Dana Street that no longer exists, it joined a cluster of Protestant churches that had been built since the 1870s with the encouragement of the university administration. The land was acquired by the university in 1960 through eminent domain for the construction of a student union complex. [3] [4]

The church was the first meeting place of the Hillside Club, formed in 1898 to promote Arts and Crafts movement principles in the growing university town. [3]

When it was built, A. C. Schweinfurth, the architect, was well on his way to an eminent career with the patronage of the Hearst family, but this church ended up being his last project. While it was under construction, he began a two-year European tour with his wife and daughter. He came down with typhoid fever and died in September 1900. [2]

In 1908 the congregation built an adjacent building called Unity Hall, designed by member Bernard Maybeck, which was demolished in 1965 for the construction of Zellerbach Hall. The Schweinfurth-designed building was preserved, landmarked, and restored with seismic upgrades and new shingles in 1999. [3]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bernard Maybeck</span> American architect

Bernard Ralph Maybeck was an American architect in the Arts and Crafts Movement of the early 20th century. He was an instructor at University of California, Berkeley. Most of his major buildings were in the San Francisco Bay Area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Unity Temple</span> Historic site in Oak Park, Illinois

Unity Temple is a Unitarian Universalist church in Oak Park, Illinois, and the home of the Unity Temple Unitarian Universalist Congregation. It was designed by the American architect Frank Lloyd Wright, and built between 1905 and 1908. Unity Temple is considered to be one of Wright's most important structures dating from the first decade of the twentieth century. Because of its consolidation of aesthetic intent and structure through use of a single material, reinforced concrete, Unity Temple is considered by many architects to be the first modern building in the world. This idea became of central importance to the modern architects who followed Wright, such as Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and even the post-modernists, such as Frank Gehry. In 2019, along with seven other buildings designed by Wright in the 20th century, Unity Temple was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">First Unitarian Church of Oakland</span> Historic church in California, United States

The First Unitarian Church of Oakland is located in western Downtown Oakland, California. It is a member of the Unitarian Universalist Association.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">First Unitarian Society of Madison</span> Historic church in Wisconsin, United States

The First Unitarian Society of Madison (FUS) is a Unitarian Universalist congregation in Shorewood Hills, Wisconsin. Its meeting house was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and built by Marshall Erdman in 1949–1951, and has been designated a U.S. National Historic Landmark for its architecture. With over 1,000 members, it is one of the ten largest Unitarian Universalist congregations in the United States.

The campus of the University of California, Berkeley, and its surrounding community are home to a number of notable buildings by early 20th-century campus architect John Galen Howard, his peer Bernard Maybeck, and their colleague Julia Morgan. Subsequent tenures as supervising architect held by George W. Kelham and Arthur Brown, Jr. saw the addition of several buildings in neoclassical and other revival styles, while the building boom after World War II introduced modernist buildings by architects such as Vernon DeMars, Joseph Esherick, John Carl Warnecke, Gardner Dailey, Anshen & Allen, and Skidmore, Owings and Merrill. Recent decades have seen additions including the postmodernist Haas School of Business by Charles Willard Moore, Soda Hall by Edward Larrabee Barnes, and the East Asian Library by Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Masonic Temple (Berkeley, California)</span> United States historic place

The Masonic Temple in Downtown Berkeley, California is a historic building listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is located at 2105 Bancroft Way at the corner of Shattuck Avenue, just one block west of the University of California, Berkeley. The Classical Revival style building, designed by William H. Wharff, was built in 1905. The building was built for Berkeley's Masons, who started a local lodge in 1882 and formed the Berkeley Masonic Temple Association to build the temple. In 1944, the building was converted to a bank. The ground floor of the building was unoccupied and the remaining floors were used by University staff, including the California Center for Innovative Transportation and the National Writing Project.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Unitarian Church in Charleston</span> Historic church in South Carolina, United States

The Unitarian Church in Charleston, home to a Unitarian Universalist congregation, is an historic church located at 4 Archdale Street in Charleston, South Carolina. It is the oldest Unitarian church in the South and the second oldest church building on the peninsula of Charleston.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">First Unitarian Universalist Society in Newton</span> Historic church in Newton, Massachusetts, US

The First Unitarian Universalist Society in Newton occupies a prominent location at 1326 Washington Street in the heart of the village of West Newton in Newton, Massachusetts. Architect Ralph Adams Cram designed the church, Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. designed the grounds, the cornerstone was laid in 1905, and it was dedicated in 1906; it is one of the village's oldest buildings. The church is in Cram's signature Gothic Revival style, with buttressed walls and a blocky square tower with crenellations and spires. An enclosed courtyard is formed by an office wing, banquet hall, and parish house, which are built to resemble Elizabethan architecture with brick first floor and half-timbered upper level.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">First Unitarian Church of Detroit</span> Historic church in Michigan, United States

The First Unitarian Church of Detroit was located at 2870 Woodward Avenue in Midtown Detroit, Michigan. Built between 1889 and 1890, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. It was destroyed by fire on May 10, 2014.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">First Church of Christ, Unitarian</span> Historic church in Massachusetts, United States

The First Church of Christ, Unitarian, also known as First Church of Lancaster and colloquially as "the Bulfinch Church", is a historic congregation with its meeting house located at 725 Main Street facing the Common in Lancaster, Massachusetts. The church's fifth meeting house, built in 1816, was designed by architect Charles Bulfinch, and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1977, recognizing it as one of Bulfinch's finest works.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">First Unitarian Church (Baltimore, Maryland)</span> United States historic place

The First Unitarian Church is a historic church and congregation at 12 West Franklin Street in Mount Vernon, Baltimore, Maryland. Dedicated in 1818, it was the first building erected for Unitarians in the United States. The church is a domed cube with a stucco exterior. The church, originally called the "First Independent Church of Baltimore", is the oldest building continuously used by a Unitarian congregation. The name was changed in 1935 to "The First Unitarian Church of Baltimore " following the merger with the former Second Universalist Church at East Lanvale Street and Guilford Avenue in midtown Baltimore. The American Unitarian Association and the Universalist Church of America (established 1866) representing the two strains of Unitarian Universalism beliefs and philosophies merged as a national denomination named the Unitarian Universalist Association in May 1961.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Register of Historic Places listings in Alameda County, California</span>

This is a list of the National Register of Historic Places listings in Alameda County, California.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Universalist Unitarian Church of Riverside</span> Church building in Riverside, United States of America

The Universalist Unitarian Church of Riverside, previously known as the All Souls Universalist Church, is a Universalist Unitarian church located in Riverside, California, United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">A. C. Schweinfurth</span> American architect

A. C. Schweinfurth (1864–1900), born Albert Cicero Schweinfurth, was an American architect. He is associated with the First Bay Tradition, an architectural style from the period of the 1880s to early 1920s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">First Congregational Church of Oregon City</span> Historic church in Oregon, United States

The First Congregational Church of Oregon City, also known as Atkinson Memorial Congregational Church, is a historic building located at 6th and John Adams Sts. in Oregon City, Oregon. The congregation was formed in 1844 as a non-denominational Protestant congregation. In 1892 they affiliated with the Congregational Christian Church from the local Congregational Society that had been formed in 1849 from the 1844 congregation. The present building was constructed in the Gothic Revival style in 1925 after the previous building had been destroyed in a fire in 1923. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">United Unitarian and Universalist Church</span> Historic church in Wisconsin, United States

The United Unitarian and Universalist Church in Mukwonago, Wisconsin is a Victorian Gothic-styled church and meeting hall built in 1878 - the only Yankee-built church remaining in the town. In 1987 it was added to the National Register of Historic Places for its significance in architecture and social history.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Unitarian Universalist Church of Buffalo</span> Historic church in New York, United States

The Unitarian Universalist Church of Buffalo is an historic church complex located at 695 Elmwood Avenue, in Buffalo, New York. The building was designed by architect Edward Austin Kent in 1906. Kent died in 1912 aboard the RMS Titanic and a memorial plaque is located in the church honoring him.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley</span> Church in California, United States

The Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley (UUCB) was founded as the First Unitarian Church of Berkeley in Berkeley, California in 1891 and moved to Kensington, California in 1961. It is one of the oldest and largest Unitarian Universalist churches on the West Coast and has had many distinguished members, including numerous professors at the University of California, Berkeley. It is highly regarded for its music program as well as its series of renowned ministers and its many avenues for spiritual growth, learning, and social action.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Unitarian Universalist Church of Arlington</span> Historic church in Virginia, United States

Unitarian Universalist Church of Arlington (UUCA), historically known as the Unitarian Church of Arlington, is a Unitarian Universalist church located at 4444 Arlington Boulevard in Arlington County, Virginia. Founded in 1948, UUCA was the first Unitarian church in Washington, D.C.'s suburbs. Throughout its history, UUCA has taken part in progressive causes from the Civil Rights Movement to the legalization of same-sex marriage in Virginia. During the Civil Rights Movement, UUCA was the only Virginia church to speak out in favor of racial integration. UUCA's sanctuary building, designed by local architect Charles M. Goodman in 1964, is a concrete Brutalist structure that was listed on the National Register of Historic Places and Virginia Landmarks Register in 2014. It is one of only three church buildings designed by Goodman and the only one in Virginia.

References

  1. 1 2 "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
  2. 1 2 "Berkeley Landmarks: First Unitarian Church". Berkeleyheritage.com. 2008-05-15. Retrieved 2013-06-19.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Harvey Helfand, University of California, Berkeley (Princeton Architectural Press, 2002), pp. 177–180.
  4. Betty Marvin (April 24, 1981). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: First Unitarian Church / 2401 Bancroft; University Dance Studio". National Park Service.