Freethinkers Hall | |
Location | 309 Polk St., Sauk City, Wisconsin |
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Coordinates | 43°16′34″N89°43′28″W / 43.27611°N 89.72444°W |
Area | 2 acres (0.81 ha) |
Built | 1884 |
Architect | Alfred Charles Clas |
Architectural style | Queen Anne |
NRHP reference No. | 88000237 [1] |
Added to NRHP | March 31, 1988 |
Freethinkers Hall, also known as Park Hall, is a meeting hall in Sauk City, Wisconsin. Designed by Alfred Clas, Freethinkers Hall was built in 1884 for the local Freethinkers congregation, or Freie Gemeinde in German. The congregation had been formed by German immigrants in 1852, and became the last extant Freethinker congregation in North America. [2] It affiliated with the American Unitarian Association in 1955. [2] The group meets in the hall to this day.
Unitarian Universalism is a liberal religious movement characterized by a "free and responsible search for truth and meaning". Unitarian Universalists assert no creed, but instead are unified by their shared search for spiritual growth. Unitarian Universalists do not have an official, unified corpus of sacred texts but rather draw inspiration and guidance from the six sources: personal experience, prophetic utterances, world religions, Jewish and Christian teachings, humanist teachings, and spiritual teachings. Unitarian Universalist congregations include many atheists, agnostics, deists, and theists; there are churches, fellowships, congregations, and societies around the world.
Sauk City is a village in Sauk County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 3,518 as of the 2020 census. The first incorporated village in the state, the community was founded by Agoston Haraszthy and his business partner, Robert Bryant.
Freethought is an epistemological viewpoint which holds that beliefs should not be formed on the basis of authority, tradition, revelation, or dogma, and should instead be reached by other methods such as logic, reason, and empirical observation.
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.
The American Unitarian Association (AUA) was a religious denomination in the United States and Canada, formed by associated Unitarian congregations in 1825. In 1961, it consolidated with the Universalist Church of America to form the Unitarian Universalist Association.
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 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.
This is a list of the National Register of Historic Places listings in Sauk County, Wisconsin. It is intended to provide a comprehensive listing of entries in the National Register of Historic Places that are located in Sauk County, Wisconsin. The locations of National Register properties for which the latitude and longitude coordinates are included below may be seen in a map.
The Unitarian Universalist Church of Cortland, New York, also known as "The Old Cobblestone Church," is an historic cobblestone church building located at 3 Church Street in Cortland, New York, United States. Built in 1837, the building was established as a Universalist church. Since 1961, the congregation has been a member of the Unitarian Universalist Association due to a denominational merger. The Unitarian Universalist Church of Cortland was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1993.
The First Universalist Church is a historic Universalist church building located at 150 S. Clinton Ave. in Rochester, New York. Construction began in September 1907 and was dedicated in October 1908. First Universalist Church is affiliated with the Unitarian Universalist Association and is one of two Unitarian Universalist congregations in Monroe County, New York; the other being the First Unitarian Church of Rochester.
South Parish is the historic name of a church at 292 State Street in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in the United States. The church building, built in 1824–26, is one of the earliest examples of Classical Revival architecture in New England, and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.
The First Unitarian Church of San Jose is located at 160 North Third Street in downtown San Jose, California, across from St. James Park, and was designed in "Richardsonian Romanesque" style by architect George Page, who also designed the Hayes Mansion. Local historian Linda Larson Boston called the building, “One of a handful of American churches patterned after Unitarian churches of Transylvania, it features a large triple-arched stained glass window on the facade, multiple domes and cupolas, and both round and square towers,” in her pamphlet, Highlights of San Jose, California’s St. James Park and Environs. The congregation purchased the site in 1888, and the cornerstone was laid in a ceremony on September 23, 1891. The building is registered on both the list of National Register of Historic Places and the list of California Historical Landmarks.
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.
The Bradford Community Church, originally the Henry M. Simmons Memorial Church and later the Boys and Girls Library, is a historic church built in 1907 in Kenosha, Wisconsin, United States under the leadership of Kenosha's first woman pastor.
The First Universalist Church in Wausau was designed by Alexander C. Eschweiler in Tudor Revival style and built in 1914 for the local Universalist congregation. Additions and remodeling were done in 1928, 1956, and 2006. It is still used by the local Unitarian Universalist congregation; in this context, it is called the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Wausau. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.
The Painesville Chapel is a historic meeting hall built in 1852 by German immigrant Freethinkers in Franklin, Milwaukee County, Wisconsin. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.
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.
Built in 1816, the Unitarian Universalist Meeting House is the oldest remaining place of worship established by settlers in Burlington, Vermont. It is located along the northern side of the intersection of Pearl Street and the Church Street Marketplace.
First Unitarian Church is a historic building located in the downtown area of Iowa City, Iowa, United States. The local Universalist congregation traces its beginnings to 1841. Their building at Iowa Avenue and Dubuque Street was destroyed in a fire in 1868, and they built a larger building at Iowa Avenue and Clinton Street. In 1881 the Universalists merged with the local Unitarian Society. In their arrangement, the Unitarians paid for the minister while the Universalists owned the church building. The University of Iowa bought their building in 1907 and renamed it Unity Hall for use as a student union. The Unitarian-Universalist congregation dedicated this Tudor Revival building for their use on October 24, 1908. The dedication address was given by Rev. Eleanor E. Gordon, who was the secretary of the State Unitarian Conference of Iowa at the time. Because of their growth and costs to update the old building, the congregation voted in 2015 to build a new structure in near-by Coralville. They sold this building to developer Jesse Allen. It has subsequently been used as a winter shelter for the homeless while plans were made to include it in a new commercial-residential development. The former church building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2018.