Unitarian Universalist Meeting of South Berkshire - Great Barrington, MA. - Religious Buildings Multifarious on Waymarking.com

Unitarianism is a theological movement whose fundamental tenet is the belief that God is a single person as opposed to the more prevalent Christian dogma that God is a Trinity composed of the God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Unitarians believe that the teachings of Jesus were inspired by this singular God and Jesus is not an incarnated deity. In the United States, the Unitarian theology began in Boston, MA in 1784 and spread from New England. Many prominent Americans were Unitarians, including Presidents John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Millard Fillmore, and William Howard Taft; also poet Ralph Waldo Emerson, architect Frank Lloyd Wright, and women's rights leader Susan B. Anthony.

The history of the building dates back to the spring and summer of 1840 when Charles Boynton of West Stockbridge, MA formed a congregation at Housatonic village in Great Barrington, MA. The members who voted to form a Congregational Church Society on June 18, 1841 and the parish was organized December 7, 1841. The first Greek Revival-style church building was completed in October 1842. and the Rev. Charles B. Boynton was installed as pastor. The original church was torn down in 1883 and a new building constructed between 1893 and 1894 to a design by architects Henry Neil Wilson and Charles T. Rathbun in the Queen Anne style. The church was dedicated in February 1894.

The church is built to a cruciform plan with a cross-gabled roof and blue clapboard siding. Sets of steps lead to portico entrances located on the left and right sides of the front. The pediment above the entrance have ornate, white, scrolled decorations. The right entrance is at the base of a tower to the right of the main building. Above the right entrance is a rectangular window below an open belfry with a wood railing and an octagonal conical roof. The front and sides of the building have a large, two-story, rounded-arched, windows.

The Housatonic Congregational Church was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on April 18, 2002. It was purchased by the Unitarian Universalist Meeting of South Berkshire in 2014.

Website: Place of Worship: [Web Link] Time of Service: Sunday at 10:30 a.m. Address: 1089 Main Street Great Barrington 01230

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