Unitarian Universalist Church

Unitarian Universalist Church. 309 West Green Street. The need to repair or replace the original Universalist Church building, built in 1871 at the corner of Green and Birch Streets in Urbana, was discussed at the annual meeting of the Church Board on January 15, 1913. The Reverend E. V. Stevens reported that the church was in excellent condition in every way but for its building and equipment. Receiving enthusiastic support from the congregation, a building committee was appointed and $15,000 in donations toward construction of the new sanctuary was collected through private pledges., Two prominent architects submitted designs for the new sanctuary. Charles L. Morgan, an architect and prominent member of the church, envisioned a “bungalow” design with all the rooms on one floor. Architect Joseph W. Royer proposed a design preserving the church's original foundation while expanding the sanctuary to the south, and adding a new façade and bell tower. Royer's firm of Royer and Davis was ultimately selected to draft the designs for the new building., The church was built in the English Gothic Revival style with rough-dressed irregularly coursed white limestone blocks and a steeply pitched slate roof. Heavy exterior buttresses supported the corners and nave walls. A flight of stone steps led to a new main entrance located at the base of the crenelated bell tower added along Birch Street. Narrow stained glass windows featuring a grape and vine motif illuminated the beamed interior; this motif was repeated in the large rose window that dominated the north wall of the sanctuary. The nave was extended to the south, with a multi purpose room above., Construction started on the new church building in September 1913. Church services and Sunday school classes were relocated to Carpenters' Hall on South Race Street., On Sunday, November 29, 1913, a large crowd gathered at the nearby First Presbyterian Church to hear addresses by visiting ministers. On the following day, November 30, 1913, a grand procession of over 1,000 members of the Illinois Grand Lodge of Knights of Pythias marched from their hall on West Main Street in Urbana to the church site to help lay the new cornerstone. Congressman Lawrence V. Stringer addressed the gathered crowd., During the next year construction progressed rapidly, and on September 17 and 20, 1914, special services were celebrated to dedicate the new Universalist Church building., In 1964, a new religious education wing was added on the east side of the church to accommodate the increased membership following the 1957 merger of the First Universalist Church, founded on May 17, 1859, with the Unitarian Church, located on the University of Illinois campus, founded on February 9, 1907. That building is now the home of the Channing Murray Foundation., [Captions] , . (Top left) Reverend E. V. Stevens, Urbana Daily Courier, 1913. Courtesy of the Champaign County Historical Archives. , . (Top right) The original Urbana Universalist Church, dedicated June 18, 1871. Courtesy of the Champaign County Historical Archives. , . (Bottom left) The Urbana Unitarian Church ca. 1930. Courtesy of the Champaign County Historical Archives.