Unitarian Church Cemetery - Banstable, MA - Churchyard Cemeteries on Waymarking.com

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The Unitarian Church, with its attached cemetery, is one of the most recognized landmarks in Barnstable Village on Cape Cod. It sits atop Cobb's Hill across from the old U.S. Customs House, now the Coast Guard Heritage Museum, and the Old Jail which has been located here. Both buildings are on the National Register of Historic Places and the church is one of the contributing buildings on the Old King's Highway Historic District, also now known as Rout 6A or Main St. This was the main east-west highway on Cape Cod until the Mid-Cape Highway, Route 6, was built, and Route 28 on the south side of the Cape.

This building is a traditional New England style, but with a domed bell tower with mounted clock instead of the more common pointed steeple, and the sides are gray. The cemetery on the northeast side of the church has graves of many of the early settlers of Barnstable, some of whom came from the original Plymouth Colony.

History from the Unitarian Church of Banstable web site:

"Early in the 17th century, the Rev. John Lothrop and his followers left England for these shores seeking religious independence. They settled first in Scituate and a few years later came to Barnstable, arriving in 1639. They constructed their first meetinghouse in 1646 on Coggins Pond, about a mile west of the present church.

By the early 1700’s the town had grown sufficiently large to support two parishes. Members in the East Precinct erected a building on this present site on Cobb’s Hill, and another building was constructed in the west end of Barnstable. In 1717, the original church became two churches.

In the early 19th century there was considerable theological debate in the “churches of the standing order” in New England. Many churches actually split over this debate, the traditionalists becoming Congregationalists and the liberals becoming Unitarians. Already recently divided along geographic lines, the church in Barnstable did not undergo this split. The church in the West Parish followed the line of tradition and is today a Congregational church. Our church, then known as the East Parish, leaned toward the liberal side of the debate and later became identified as a Unitarian church.

In 1836 the original Cobb’s Hill meeting house was removed and a new, larger one was constructed. It was destroyed by fire in 1905. The present edifice was dedicated in 1907. It was designed by Guy Lowell, the architect of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. The Parish Hall was constructed in 1960. It is now named Warren Hall in honor of the Rev. Kenneth R. Warren, who served the church from 1953 to 1991. A further addition to the west end of the building was built in 1979.

The church is affiliated with the Unitarian Universalist Association, formed in 1961 by the merger of the American Unitarian Association and the Universalist Church of America."

Name of church or churchyard: Unitaran Church of Barnstable Approximate Size: Large (100+)

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