National Register of Historic Places

Unitarian Universalist Church and Parsonage

Medford, Middlesex County, Massachusetts
Listed
April 20, 1975
Type
Building
Period
Industrial
Ref No.
75000281

About this property

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. 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. 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. National Register of Historic Places listings in Medford, Massachusetts National Register of Historic Places listings in Middlesex County, Massachusetts Alan Seaburg. The First Universalist Church of Medford, Massachusetts. Billerica: Anne Miniver Press, 2013 Records pertaining to the Unitarian Universalist Church of Medford are in the Andover-Harvard Theological Library at Harvard Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. First Universalist Church In Medford. Record Book, 1905-1910 Second Universalist Parish in Medford, Massachusetts. Records, 1889-1894

Location

141 and 147 High St.
Medford, Middlesex County, Massachusetts
42.42051, -71.11486

Categories

ARCHITECTURERELIGION
National Register nomination ›
Sources

Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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Nearby Historic Sites

Angier, John B., House
Industrial
0 mi
Grace Episcopal Church
Industrial
0.1 mi
Hillside Avenue Historic District
Listed
0.1 mi
Lawrence Light Guard Armory
Industrial
0.2 mi
Medford Pipe Bridge
Industrial
0.2 mi

Nearby Battles

Battle of Menotomy
1775Revolutionary War
2.1 mi
Skirmish at Menotomy (Arlington)
1775Revolutionary War
2.1 mi

Questions about this property

When was Unitarian Universalist Church and Parsonage listed on the National Register?

Unitarian Universalist Church and Parsonage was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on April 20, 1975.

What type of historic resource is Unitarian Universalist Church and Parsonage?

Unitarian Universalist Church and Parsonage is classified as a building in the National Register of Historic Places.

What is the period of significance for Unitarian Universalist Church and Parsonage?

The period of significance for Unitarian Universalist Church and Parsonage is recorded as the industrial era.

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