First Unitarian Church (Baltimore, Maryland)
|
First Unitarian Church of Baltimore
|
|
First Unitarian Church, 2011
|
|
 
|
|
| Location | Baltimore, Maryland |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 39°17′43″N 76°36′58″W / 39.29528°N 76.61611°WCoordinates: 39°17′43″N 76°36′58″W / 39.29528°N 76.61611°W |
| Area | 0.4 acres (0.16 ha) |
| Built | 1817 |
| Architect | Godefroy, J. Maximilian M. (French émigré) |
| Architectural style | Neoclassical |
| NRHP Reference # | 72001495 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | February 11, 1972 |
| Designated NHL | February 20, 1972 |
The First Unitarian Church in Baltimore, Maryland was the first building erected for Unitarians in the United States. Dedicated on 29 October 1818, 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 (Unitarian and Univeralist)" following the merger with the former Second Universalist Church at East Lanvale Street and Guilford Avenue in East Baltimore. The Unitarians (founded 1825) and Universalists merged as a national denomination in 1961.
The building built in 1817 on a plot of land in Howards Woods purchased for $20,000. It was designed by J. Maximilian M. Godefroy, a French émigré who also designed the St. Mary's Seminary Chapel on North Paca Street on the northwest edge of the City and the Battle Monument in the former Courthouse Square on North Calvert Street between East Lexington and Fayette Streets commemorating the Battle of Baltimore of September 1814 at North Point and the bombardment of Fort McHenry in the War of 1812, and assisted the famed British-American architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe in designing the "Baltimore Merchants' Exchange" at South Gay Street, between Second (now Water) and East Lombard Streets, the then-largest building n America, an 'H'-shaped, low domed on a drum Greco-Roman structure with a large rotunda beneath and a second-story interior catwalk balcony around the atrium. In its several wings were several Federal offices: the U.S. Courthouse, Post Office, Customs House, a branch of the Bank of the United States and early City Hall offices for Baltimore, and various offices for lawyers/attorneys, brokers, insurance agents, candlers, and shipping companies, steamship lines, and various other maritime businesses. Poor acoustics under the central dome led to an 1893 interior renovation, in which architect Joseph Evans Sperry added a barrel vault under the dome. The church features stained glass from the studio of Louis Comfort Tiffany. The pipe organ was donated by Enoch Pratt and is a Niemann instrument. In the rear, on the north side along the West Hamilton Street alley is the Enoch Pratt Parish Hall, also housing church offices, constructed in 1879 of bricks salvaged from the townhouses torn down at West Mulberry at Cathedral Street for the first Central Building of parishioner Enoch Pratt's gift to the City of Baltimore, of a central library and four regional branches in 1882, constructed and opened 1886 (current building replaced it in 1931-33). The Parish Hall was renamed to commemorate his influence and guidance in the early years in 2008 and its interior is being restored to its Victorian appearance.
...
Wikipedia