Unitarian Universalist Church of Medford and the Osgood House
Unitarian Universalist Church of Medford and The Osgood House | |
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Location | 141 and 147 High St., Medford, Massachusetts |
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Coordinates | 42°25′13″N 71°6′55″W / 42.42028°N 71.11528°WCoordinates: 42°25′13″N 71°6′55″W / 42.42028°N 71.11528°W |
Area | 1 acre (0.40 ha) |
Built | 1894 |
Architect | Brown, J. Merrill; Dodge Bros. |
Architectural style | Gothic, Georgian |
NRHP reference No. | 75000281 [1] |
Added to NRHP | April 21, 1975 |
The Unitarian Universalist Church of Medford and The Osgood House are a historic Unitarian Universalist church building and parsonage house at 141 and 147 High Street in Medford, Massachusetts.
History
The congregation was founded in 1690 as a Puritan parish church that was an official branch of the Massachusetts state church. In 1696 the first meeting house was constructed. In the early 1820s the congregation split and was restructured with the 'orthodox' Trinitarian members leaving to form a separate congregation. The current and fifth building of the congregation was constructed in 1894 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1975.[2]
The Rev. William Ellery Channing gave his first sermon at 1st Parish Medford on August 8, 1802 "Silver and gold have I none, but such I give to you." The Rev. Thomas Starr King did his student ministry under Hosea Ballou II at 1st Universalist before Ballou moved to become the first president of Tufts College in 1852.
The First Universalist Church and the Hillside Universalist consolidated with the First Parish Church (Unitarian) in 1961 to form The Unitarian Universalist Church of Medford (or UU Medford) a member congregation of the Unitarian Universalist Association, and has been a Welcoming Congregation since 1996.
Architecture
The church, built in 1893-94, is one of Medford's finest examples of Late Gothic Revival architecture. It was designed by J. Merrill Brown, a Boston architect who had worked in the practices of H.H. Richardson and Peabody and Stearns. The builders were the Dodge Brothers, a regionally prominent building firm specializing in religious buildings. The former parsonage, now housing other church facilities, was built in 1785 for the Reverend David Osgood, and is a fine example of Federal period architecture.[3]
Famous members
- George Luther Stearns
- Lydia Maria Child
- Fannie Farmer
- Rev. John Pierpont
- James Pierpont
- Robert D. Richardson
- Samuel C. Lawrence
- Gov. John Brooks
- Rev. Hosea Ballou II
- Rev. Clarence Skinner
List of Ministers
First Parish (Unitarian)
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First Universalist Church
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Hillside Universalist
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The Unitarian Universalist Church of Medford
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See also
- National Register of Historic Places listings in Medford, Massachusetts
- National Register of Historic Places listings in Middlesex County, Massachusetts
References
- ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. April 15, 2008.
- ^ http://www.uumedford.org/history.html (accessed Feb. 7, 2010)
- ^ "NRHP nomination for Unitarian Universalist Church of Medford and the Osgood House". National Archive. Retrieved 2017-10-05.
Further reading
- Alan Seaburg. The First Universalist Church of Medford, Massachusetts. Billerica: Anne Miniver Press, 2013
External links
- UU Medford Congregation Website
- Parson Turell's Legacy
- Turell's sugarbowl
- Records pertaining to the Unitarian Universalist Church of Medford are in the Andover-Harvard Theological Library at Harvard Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
- Articles using NRISref without a reference number
- Articles with short description
- Coordinates not on Wikidata
- Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts
- Unitarian Universalist churches in Massachusetts
- Churches completed in 1894
- 19th-century Unitarian Universalist church buildings
- Churches in Middlesex County, Massachusetts
- Buildings and structures in Medford, Massachusetts
- Stone churches in Massachusetts
- National Register of Historic Places in Medford, Massachusetts