Unitarian Memorial Church
Unitarian Memorial Church | |
![]() Unitarian Memorial Church | |
41°38′1″N 70°54′9″W / 41.63361°N 70.90250°W / 41.63361; -70.90250 | |
Built | 1901 |
---|---|
Architect | Charles Brigham |
Architectural style | Late Gothic Revival |
Website | https://uufairhaven.org |
NRHP reference No. | 96001374 [1] |
Added to NRHP | November 22, 1996 |
Unitarian Memorial Church is a historic church on 102 Green Street in Fairhaven, Massachusetts, home to the Unitarian Universalist Society of Fairhaven.
The congregation was founded in 1819, moved into the Washington Street Christian Meetinghouse in 1832, and called its first minister in 1840. The Reverend María Uitti McCabe is its currently serving minister, and the Society President is Julie Sullivan.[2] UUSF is a member congregation of the Boston-based Unitarian Universalist Association, and a designated GLBTQA Welcoming Congregation, a UUA Honor Congregation, and a part of the Green Sanctuary movement. Services are held in the neo-Gothic sanctuary at 10:00 a.m. from September through mid-June each year.[3] The church was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1996.
The Unitarian Memorial Church in Fairhaven was built, financed and donated to the Unitarians in 1904 by Henry H. Rogers in memory of his mother, Mary Eldredge Huttleston. The church was designed by Boston architect Charles Brigham in a Gothic Revival style.[4] It is one hundred fourteen feet (34.75m) in height, one hundred feet (30.48m) long in body and fifty-three feet (16.15m) wide. The nave is thirty-two feet (9.75m) wide and seventy-one feet (21.64m) long. The main aisle is sixty-two feet (18.90m) long and six feet (1.83m) wide. The church, parish house and former parsonage (now Harrop Center) of the Unitarian Society are so placed as to form three sides of a quadrangle, set among well-kept lawns and shrubbery. Granite (locally quarried) with Indiana limestone decorative carvings dominate the exterior while marble and limestone carvings dominate the interior. All stonework artistry was created by forty-five Italian craftsmen brought to Fairhaven by Rogers.
Sanctuary
All the woodwork in the sanctuary is English bog oak carved by forty-five Bavarian craftsmen. No two carvings are alike on the thirty-two pews, the ornate pulpit, the organ pipe cases, the choir screen or the doors. In the rafters above the pews are ten wooden angels covered in beaten gold. Each ten-foot-high angel holds articles and bear inscriptions symbolizing ten attributes of the intellectual life. The south entrance has twelve bronze symbols of the zodiac inlaid in the marble floor.
Tower
The great tower, over one hundred and sixty-five feet (50.29m) high, of sparkling granite and carved limestone, is a landmark for many miles. There are one hundred eighty granite steps leading to the tower. In this tower is a finely adjusted D Chime of eleven bells. They weigh a total of 14,000 pounds (6350 kg) and are played (struck) by iron hammers. The bells were cast by Chester Meneelly of the Meneelly Bell Company of Troy, New York. The original ringer's gallery is still in the tower even though the bells are now played both by hand or electronically from a small room in the sanctuary.
Bronze doors
At the south entrance to the sanctuary are the great bronze doors, extremely rich in design, each leaf is solid bronze weighing 2 1/4 tons. Following the Gothic outline of each leaf is a series of niches. Those on the exterior are canopied, each containing a finely modeled figure nine inches (22.9 cm) high. The thirty-eight statues represent great characters in the history of Christianity, covering a period of nineteen centuries.
Baptismal font
From the cloister with its ornate bronze gates and marble mosaic floor we enter the foyer with the baptismal font. The font sits on elegant white Indian marble inlaid with bronze lettering. Over the font hangs a large oak canopy carved by Johannes Kirchmayer with ten angels each holding a scroll engraved with one of the Ten Commandments. Above them are ten standing figures of men who preached and spread Christianity throughout the world. Below the majestic vaulted ceiling in four corners are stone carvings symbolizing the four stages of womanhood: Infant, Youth, Maturity and Old Age. The beautiful bronze medallions inlaid in the marble floor represent Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
Organ
The organ was built by the Hutchings-Votey Organ Company of Boston, Massachusetts in 1904. With 2,300 pipes (24 ranks) distributed over 3 manuals and pedalboard, it was considered one of the finest organs in the country at the time. When the new hot-air heating system installed in 1968 ruined the Hutchings-Votey pneumatic mechanism, a new organ was built by the Roche Organ Co., of Taunton, Massachusetts, in 1971 as their Opus 10. The Roche Organ Company preserved the exterior casework and the twelve best ranks from the previous organ, increasing the number of ranks to 58, with 3,163 pipes and fifty speaking registers.
The organ occupies the transepts on either side of the chancel and is housed behind the richly carved twin cases of the original instrument, which differ from each other in detail of ornamentation. The console is centrally located in the choir loft behind the pulpit rostrum. The woodwork of the cases, like the rest of the church furnishings, is of English oak. The facade pipes are covered in gold leaf and embellished with elaborate diapering. The basic case design bears a strong resemblance to that of the 1896 organ case in Southwark Cathedral in England (which probably inspired the Fairhaven design), although the Southwark case is not nearly as attractive nor as elaborate.
A digital upgrade of the console was accomplished by Barry Turley in 2008. Today, the organ remains among the finest of its size. All of the ornamental pipes in the two organ cases, one on each side of the chancel, are covered in beaten gold, the color of clouded silver, and are decorated very ornately.[5]
Stained-glass windows
The stained-glass windows are the work of American Impressionist artist, Robert Reid. They cover the theme of the birth of Jesus in the Memorial Window utilizing color and shading from cool blues to warm earth tones through the nine clerestory windows from East to West. Seven of these windows are titled with one of the Beatitudes (or Blessed Be's) which Jesus was teaching his Disciples as illuminated in the glorious twenty-four-foot-high Sermon-on-the-Mount window located on the west wall. One notable effect of the windows is the natural flesh quality in the figures. Two years were spent in their design and execution. These stained-glass windows were Reid's most prized work, a masterpiece set and his only effort in stained glass.
See also
References
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/30px-Commons-logo.svg.png)
- ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. April 15, 2008.
- ^ "Unitarian Universalist Society of Fairhaven". Unitarian Universalist Association of Fairhaven. Retrieved 2017-05-31.
- ^ "Unitarian Universalist Society of Fairhaven". Unitarian Universalist Association of Fairhaven. Retrieved 2017-05-31.
- ^ "MACRIS inventory record for Unitarian Memorial Church". Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Retrieved 2014-06-14.
- ^ Bellochio, Matthew M. (July 2002). Donald Williams, Organist: Masterpieces for Organ. Roche Organ, Unitarian Memorial Church, Fairhaven, Massachusetts (Liner Notes). Roche Organ Company.
- v
- t
- e
- Bank Street Unitarian Chapel
- Billingshurst Unitarian Chapel
- Brighton Unitarian Church
- Brook Street Chapel, Knutsford
- Brookfield Unitarian Church
- Chowbent Chapel
- Cross Street Chapel
- Dean Row Chapel, Wilmslow
- Essex Street Chapel
- Fulwood Old Chapel
- Gellionnen Chapel
- General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches
- Hastings Unitarian Church
- Horsham Unitarian Church
- King Edward Street Chapel, Macclesfield
- Meadrow Unitarian Chapel
- Mill Hill Chapel
- Unitarian Meeting House, Newcastle-under-Lyme
- Newington Green Unitarian Church
- Norcliffe Chapel
- Northiam Unitarian Chapel
- Nottage General Baptist & Unitarian Church
- Octagon Chapel, Norwich
- Richmond and Putney Unitarian Church
- Rivington Unitarian Chapel
- Rosslyn Hill Unitarian Chapel
- Shrewsbury Unitarian Church
- Taunton Unitarian Chapel
- Todmorden Unitarian Church
- Toxteth Unitarian Chapel
- Underbank Chapel
- Ullet Road Unitarian Church
- Unitarian Meeting House, Ipswich
- Upper Chapel
- York Unitarian Chapel
- California
- First Unitarian Church of Los Angeles
- First Unitarian Church of Oakland
- First Unitarian Church of San Jose
- First Unitarian Universalist Church of San Diego
- Mount Diablo Unitarian Universalist Church
- Northwest Unitarian Universalist Congregation
- Pacific Unitarian Church
- Sepulveda Unitarian Universalist Society
- Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley
- Universalist Unitarian Church of Riverside
- Connecticut
- Unitarian Church in Westport
- Unitarian Universalist Church
- Universalist Church of West Hartford
- District of Columbia
- All Souls Church, Unitarian
- Universalist National Memorial Church
- Georgia
- First Universalist Church
- Illinois
- Indiana
- Temple Israel
- Iowa
- First Unitarian Church
- First Universalist Church of Cedar Rapids
- Universalist Church
- Maine
- Dexter Universalist Church
- First Universalist Church
- Pittsfield Universalist Church
- Stockton Springs Community Church
- Universalist-Unitarian Church
- Maryland
- Cedar Lane Unitarian Universalist Church
- First Unitarian Church
- Massachusetts
- All Souls Church
- Arlington Street Church
- Bernardston Congregational Unitarian Church
- Brattle Street Church
- First Parish in Cambridge
- First Church in Boston
- First Church in Roxbury
- First Church in Salem
- First Church of Christ, Unitarian
- First Parish Church (Duxbury, Massachusetts)
- First Parish Church (Taunton, Massachusetts)
- First Parish Church (Waltham, Massachusetts)
- First Parish Church in Plymouth
- First Parish Church of Dorchester
- First Parish Church, Arlington Massachusetts
- First Parish in Malden
- First Parish of Sudbury
- First Parish Unitarian Church
- First Parish Unitarian Universalist Church of Scituate
- First Religious Society Church and Parish Hall
- First Unitarian Church (Peabody, Massachusetts)
- First Unitarian Church (Somerville, Massachusetts)
- First Unitarian Church (Stoneham, Massachusetts)
- First Unitarian Society in Newton
- First Universalist Church (Provincetown, Massachusetts)
- First Universalist Church (Salem, Massachusetts)
- First Universalist Church (Somerville, Massachusetts)
- Follen Church Society-Unitarian Universalist
- Housatonic Congregational Church
- King's Chapel
- North Parish Church
- Old Ship Church
- Second Unitarian Church
- Theodore Parker Unitarian Universalist Church
- Unitarian Church of Barnstable
- Unitarian Memorial Church
- Unitarian Society
- Unitarian Universalist Church of Medford and the Osgood House
- United First Parish Church
- Universalist Society Meetinghouse
- Wollaston Unitarian Church
- Michigan
- Barn Church
- First Unitarian Universalist Church of Detroit
- Unitarian Universalist Church
- Minnesota
- Nebraska
- New Hampshire
- First Universalist Church
- Peterborough Unitarian Church
- South Parish
- Unitarian Church
- New Jersey
- Beacon Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Summit
- Old Stone Church
- New York
- Chapin Memorial Church
- Christ Church
- First Unitarian Church of Rochester
- First Unitarian Church of Rochester (building)
- First Universalist Church
- First Universalist Church of Portageville
- First Unitarian Congregational Society
- First Unitarian Universalist Church of Niagara
- Fourth Universalist Society in the City of New York
- Pullman Memorial Universalist Church
- Second Unitarian Church
- Unitarian Church of All Souls
- Unitarian Universalist Church
- Unitarian Universalist Church of Buffalo
- North Carolina
- Ohio
- Oklahoma
- Philadelphia
- Rhode Island
- Bell Street Chapel
- First Unitarian Church of Providence
- First Universalist Church
- South Carolina
- Tennessee
- Church of the River
- Vermont
- Cavendish Universalist Church
- Unitarian Church
- Washington
- Wisconsin
- Bradford Community Church
- First Unitarian Church
- First Unitarian Society of Madison
- First Universalist Church
- United Unitarian and Universalist Church
- Unity Chapel