National Register of Historic Places

Unitarian Universalist Church

Ann Arbor, Washtenaw County, Michigan
Listed
October 3, 1978
Type
Building
Period
Industrial
Ref No.
78001513

About this property

The Unitarian Universalist Church (also known as Grace Bible Church or First Unitarian Church) is a historic church building at 100 N. State Street in Ann Arbor, Michigan. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. The First Unitarian Society of Ann Arbor was formed in 1865, and began worshiping in what was once the Methodist Church. In 1878, Dr. Jabez T. Sunderland arrived in Ann Arbor as the pastor of the First Unitarian Church. One of the first projects he tackled in his 20-year tenure was the construction of a new church building. Sunderland raised $19,000 toward the cost of the structure, and the congregation hired the Detroit architectural firm of Donaldson and Meier to design the building. Construction on the building began in 1881, with the stonework done by the Walker Brothers firm of Ann Arbor, and it was completed in 1882. A student center addition was constructed in 1920. The Unitarian congregation used the building until 1946, when the congregation moved to Washtenaw Avenue. The Grace Bible Church congregation purchased the building that year and eventually leased the building to the Bible Church of True Holiness in 1971. Grace Bible Church moved to South Maple Road in 1975. The building was sold again in 1985 to D. B. Associates Ltd. which renovated the inside and outside of the then deteriorating building to house the architecture firm of Hobbs and Black, Associates, Inc. During renovation, an 1890s Tiffany window that had been covered over in the 1930s was discovered. The Ann Arbor First Unitarian Church is a two-story rectangular Richardsonian Romanesque structure constructed of ashlar decorated with bands of darker stone. The roof is cross-gabled, and a turreted square tower with a hip roof sits at the rear of the building. Reade, Marjorie (1990). The First Unitarian Universalist Church of Ann Arbor: The Story of Our First One Hundred years. First Unitarian Universalist Church of Ann Arbor. OCLC 23587262. First Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Ann Arbor

Location

100 N. State St.
Ann Arbor, Washtenaw County, Michigan
42.28149, -83.74052

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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Questions about this property

When was Unitarian Universalist Church listed on the National Register?

Unitarian Universalist Church was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 3, 1978.

What type of historic resource is Unitarian Universalist Church?

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

What is the period of significance for Unitarian Universalist Church?

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

Can I research the history near Unitarian Universalist Church?

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