First Church in Salem

First Church in Salem
First Church in Salem, Unitarian

A photograph of a grey-bricked building with grated windows and a tower protruding from the middle with a white flagpole on top flying a red, white, and blue flag

Pictured in 2010
42°31′17″N 70°53′58″W / 42.5215°N 70.8994°WCoordinates: 42°31′17″N 70°53′58″W / 42.5215°N 70.8994°W
Location Salem, Massachusetts
Country United States
Denomination Unitarian Universalism
Previous denomination Puritanism
Website firstchurchinsalem.org
Architecture
Architect(s) Solomon Willard
Architectural type Gothic Revival
Completed 1836
Clergy
Minister(s) Jeff Barz-Snell

First Church in Salem (officially known as the First Church in Salem, Unitarian, also known as the First Unitarian Church of Salem) is a Unitarian Universalist church in Salem, Massachusetts that was designed by Solomon Willard and built in 1836.[1] The church stands next to a building housing the Salem Savings Bank and the Odd Fellows Hall.[2] Thomas Treadwell Stone became minister of the church on July 12, 1846.[3] In December 1851, the Salem Female Anti-Slavery Society held their annual general meeting at the church.[4] For twelve years, Charles Wentworth Upham was minister of the church.[5] Fielder Israel served as the church's minister from 1877 until 1889, the year that he committed suicide in his study.[6] Grace Parker commissioned a stained-glass window for the church in dedication to her late husband, George Swinnerton Parker of Parker Brothers fame, and their two sons.[7] As of 2014, the minister at the church was Jeff Barz-Snell.[8] In 2005, the church held a film-watching and discussion group called "The Art and Politics of Elizabeth Montgomery", which began with a screening of the Bewitched episode "Sisters at Heart".[9]

References

  1. ↑ Blanche M. G. Linden (2007). Silent City on a Hill: Picturesque Landscapes of Memory and Boston's Mount Auburn Cemetery. University of Massachusetts Press. p. 218. ISBN 1558495711.
  2. ↑ Kenneth C. Turino; Stephen J. Schier (2004). Salem. Arcadia Publishing. p. 85. ISBN 0738535400.
  3. ↑ William Lloyd Garrison (1973). The Letters of William Lloyd Garrison: No Union with the Slaveholders, 1841-1849. Harvard University Press. p. 343. ISBN 0674526627.
  4. ↑ Laura L. Mitchell (1998). John R. McKivigan, Mitchell Snay, ed. "Matters of Justice Between Man and Man". Religion and the Antebellum Debate Over Slavery (University of Georgia Press): 154. ISBN 0820319724.
  5. ↑ Alfred F. Rosa (1980). Salem, Transcendentalism, and Hawthorne. Fairleigh Dickinson University Press. p. 99. ISBN 0838621597.
  6. ↑ Maggi Smith-Dalton (2012). A History of Spiritualism and the Occult in Salem: The Rise of Witch City. The History Press. p. 101. ISBN 1609495519.
  7. ↑ Philip Orbanes (2004). The Game Makers: The Story of Parker Brothers from Tiddledy Winks to Trivial Pursuit. Harvard Business Press. p. 126. ISBN 1591392691.
  8. ↑ "Our Staff". First Church in Salem, Unitarian. Retrieved October 14, 2014.
  9. ↑ Lisa Capone (June 9, 2005). "Healthy Hearts". The Boston Globe. p. 7.

External links