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Celebrating 225 Years of History
The roots of our faith
begin in the
Universalist message of love as it was offered on these shores even
before our country became a nation. In 1781
the Universalist
thinkers in Milford began to meet to hear the
message of God's love preached by Adams
Streeter,
our first
minister.
The town history reports that Streeter and his seven children
moved to
Noah Wiswall’s house in 1781. Wiswall and his family had a
place out on East Main Street, near Cedar Street. From that base in
Milford, Streeter also carried his message to other towns in Rhode
Island and to the North Shore of Massachusetts. 1781-2006 In 1785, a small band of believers adopted a covenant and the title of the First Universalist Society for their congregation. For many years, the church met in Noah Wiswall's home, building it's first sanctuary in 1819, a second in 1850, and starting construction on the Pine Street building in 1898. Dedicated in 1900, our church edifice is constructed of Milford pink granite, and is adorned with graceful stained glass windows crafted by J&R Lamb Studios. Several of these windows appear on our web site, like the one shown to the right on this page. The congregation called Adin Ballou to be its minister in 1824, and the central sanctuary windows are dedicated to him by congregants who remembered him not only as their minister, but, the founder of a Christian utopian community at Hopedale. The congregation became a part of the Universalist and Unitarian merger in 1961, and adopted the name The First Unitarian Universalist Church of Milford some years later. We are proud of our Universalist and Unitarian ancestory and spiritual history. The Directory of Unitarian Universalist Biography includes several noteable former ministers of our Church including: Caleb Rich and Thomas Whittemore. |
