History
Tired of the ferry ride to Unitarian services in Manhattan, and weary of being rebuffed by other Brooklyn churches, the founders held the first Unitarian worship and Sunday school in August of 1833. After meeting in rented halls and buying a building on Adams Street, the members purchased the current site and secured Minard Lafever as architect. His design marks the beginning of the Gothic Revival in Brooklyn. The building was dedicated in 1844.
Over the years, three other Unitarian societies were formed, flourished and eventually rejoined the First Church. Samuel Longfellow, brother of the poet Henry and himself a noted poet, served the Second Unitarian Church (Brooklyn, New York). That church also ordained the first woman to the Unitarian ministry, Celia Burleigh. Prominent in the history of the First Unitarian Church is a tradition of social ministry that includes youth work, a settlement house for immigrants, support for the Civil Rights Movement and opposition to the Indo-China war.
The Universalist Church of West Hartford is a Unitarian Universalist congregation in West Hartford, Connecticut.
First Parish in Cambridge is a Unitarian Universalist church, located in Harvard Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It is a Welcoming Congregation and a member of the Unitarian Universalist Association. The church is notable for its almost 400-year history, which includes pivotal roles in the development of the early Massachusetts government, the creation of Harvard College, and the refinement of current liberal religious thought.
The Unitarian Church in Charleston, home to a Unitarian Universalist congregation, is a 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.
The Church of the Apostles is an American evangelical church located in the Buckhead neighborhood of Atlanta, Georgia. The church was founded in 1987 by Michael Youssef, who left Egypt to attend college in Australia and later immigrated to the United States in 1977.
First Unitarian Church is a historic congregation of the Unitarian Universalist Association in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. Founded in the early nineteenth century, it survived a series of division and reunifications in the nineteenth century. Among the people who have worshipped in its historic church building on the city's northern side are many members of the Taft family, including William Howard Taft, the President of the United States.
Archwood United Church of Christ, formerly known as Archwood Avenue Congregational Church, is a church located at 2800 Archwood Avenue in the Brooklyn Centre neighborhood of Cleveland, Ohio, in the United States. The structure is the home of the Archwood United Church of Christ, one of the oldest Christian congregations in Cleveland. It was listed in the National Register of Historic Places on May 13, 1993.
Fountain Street Church (FSC) is an independent, non-denominational church in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The church started out as a Baptist congregation, but it changed its views when liberal Christianity became popular in the late 1800s. Most of the people who influenced this change were graduates of the University of Chicago Divinity School, a pioneer of liberal Christianity.
First Church in Boston is a Unitarian Universalist Church founded in 1630 by John Winthrop's original Puritan settlement in Boston, Massachusetts. The current building, located on 66 Marlborough Street in the Back Bay neighborhood, was designed by Paul Rudolph in a modernist style after a fire in 1968. It incorporates part of the earlier gothic revival building designed by William Robert Ware and Henry Van Brunt in 1867. The church has long been associated with Harvard University.
The Second Unitarian Church in Brooklyn was a historic church in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn, New York City. It was built from 1857 to 1858 and was demolished in 1962. The Church became known as a prominent cultural center in Brooklyn. One of the church's members, Mary White Ovington, co-founded the NAACP, and the church was an abolitionist hub.
The former First Unitarian Church is a historic church building at 130 Highland Avenue in Somerville, Massachusetts. The stone church was built in 1894 for a Unitarian congregation. It was designed by Hartwell & Richardson and is a good example of Richardsonian Romanesque design. The building presently (2022) houses the Mission Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
First Parish Church in Plymouth is a historic Unitarian Universalist church at the base of Burial Hill on the town square off Leyden Street in Plymouth, Massachusetts. The congregation was founded in 1620 by the Pilgrims in Plymouth. The current building was constructed in 1899.
The Circular Congregational Church is a historic church building at 150 Meeting Street in Charleston, South Carolina, used by a congregation established in 1681. Its parish house, the Parish House of the Circular Congregational Church, is a highly significant Greek Revival architectural work by Robert Mills and is recognized as a U.S. National Historic Landmark.
St. Ann’s Church was a Roman Catholic parish church at 110-120 East 12th Street between Fourth and Third Avenues in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. It was closed in 2003 and mostly demolished, except the front facade, in 2005. The site of the church is now occupied by a dorm of New York University.
The Middle Collegiate Church is a United Church of Christ church located at 112 Second Avenue between 6th and 7th Streets in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City.
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.
The First Congregational Church of Salt Lake City, Utah is a Congregational church affiliated with the National Association of Congregational Christian Churches. Established in 1865, it was the first church not a part of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Utah. The congregation started Utah's first free public schools.
First Unitarian Church of Providence is an American Unitarian Universalist congregation located at the corner of Benefit and Benevolent Streets in Providence, Rhode Island. The congregation was founded in 1723, and the current church building was dedicated in 1816. For many years it was known as the First Congregational Church of Providence.
Congregationalism in the United States consists of Protestant churches in the Reformed tradition that have a congregational form of church government and trace their origins mainly to Puritan settlers of colonial New England. Congregational churches in other parts of the world are often related to these in the United States due to American missionary activities.
Northwest Unitarian Universalist Congregation (Northwest) was organized in 1969. The organization of Northwest was the result of action taken by the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Atlanta (UUCA) to establish a new congregation in the northwest suburbs of Atlanta.
The First Baptist Church of Greater Cleveland is an historic Baptist church in Shaker Heights, Ohio. Founded in 1833, it was the first Baptist church in the Cleveland, Ohio area and is the fourth oldest church in Cleveland.
