1810 16th St. NW

Universalist National Memorial Church

Washington, DC

Built 1926 - 1930

Universalism as faith was present in Washington at least by 1827. Toward the end of the 1860s the Universalist began organize as a permanent church. In 1869 The Murray Universalist Society was founded. Appropriate, as 1869 was the centenary of John Murray’s arrival in North America. In 1870, the Church of Our Father (First Universalist Church) was founded.

Universalist General Convention (later to become the Universalist Church of America, feeling the need for a unified national presence in Washington, in 1921 set aside funding to build a church. The first services were held in 1925. However, it wasn’t until 1926 that construction of the new National Memorial Universalist Church was commenced.

Dr. Frederick Perkins, chairman of the Universalist church’s Committee on Church Architecture was named by the Universalist Church of America (UCA) as minister of the Washington congregation, with his main purpose to oversee the construction of a national church. Universalism flourished in Washington well-before the Civil War. Now however, it was time to come together and build a national church.

The church as it appears today is the result of a compromise. At the start of the process, the New York-based architectural firm of Coolidge and Shattuck has presented the committee with a Classical design. That design, the committee determined, was too costly to build. As a compromise, Perkins offered the New Romanesque design submitted by the Boston-based firm of Francis H. Allen and Charles Collens. The committee although preferring the Coolidge and Shattuck design accepted the Allen and Collens design, In hindsight it was good that they di d so. For the Universalists ended up with a magnificent, unique edifice that speaks both to Universalism and American Innovation.

The firm of Allen and Collens also designed the fames Riverside Church in New York City and the Rockefeller Chapel at the University of Chicago. There are some who claim that the Universalist National Memorial Church is their best work.

Built between 1926 and 1930 the church was dedicated on Palm Sunday, 1930.

The church fronts 16th Street with an expansive frontage of almost 116 feet. The sanctuary and parish hall are balanced by the truncated Peace Tower, with the tower’s mass embedded in both the sanctuary and parish hall. The intention of the design was to present the appearance of a church that had evolved slowly over time, although the actual construction took just twelve months. The church’s structural and decorative details flow from English, French, and Italian traditions. Collens considered this sort of eclecticism as a symbol of American innovation.

The interior of the church is both unusual and innovative. The orientation is with the altar at the west end and the main entry at the base of the tower, rather than at the end of the church. The beautifully carved tympanum of the tower portal depicts Christ in glory surrounded by the symbols of the Evangelists. Sadly, the sculptor is unknown. This sort of attention to detail is evident throughout the church. The altar mosaic is by Tiffany and Company. The unique triforium stained-glass windows are non-figural and predominantly blue and red. The rose window at the east end was created by Calvert, Herrick and Reddinger of New York.

In 1961, National Memorial Universalist Church, like most member churches of the Universalist Church of America, merged with the Unitarian Church of America to form the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA). Even so, as part of the UUA, the church as maintained its liberal Christian Universalist emphasis.

Interior

Credit:
Andrew Bossi

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Main Door

Credit: "AgnosticPreachersKid"