Location Medford, Massachusetts NRHP Reference # 75000281 Area 4,047 m² | Built 1894 Opened 1894 Added to NRHP 21 April 1975 | |
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Architectural styles Gothic architecture, Georgian architecture Similar Baker Congregational Church, St James Episcopal Church, Margaret Fuller House, Charles Street African M, Twelfth Baptist Church - B | ||
The Unitarian Universalist Church of Medford and The Osgood House are a historic Unitarian Universalist church building and house at 141 and 147 High Street in Medford, Massachusetts.
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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.
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.