First Unitarian Church of Omaha
Encyclopedia
The First Unitarian Church of Omaha, Nebraska
is a Unitarian Universalist Church
located at 3114 Harney Street in the Midtown
area.
.
The present Colonial Revival
building at 31st and Harney was designed by Omaha architects John McDonald and his son Alan McDonald. Former U.S. president William Howard Taft
, who was then president of the Unitarian Church Conference in the United States and Canada, presided at the 1917 cornerstone-laying ceremony. The building was dedicated in September 1918. In the 1930s, Sarah Joslyn
gave the church its Aeolian-Skinner
pipe organ.
Omaha, Nebraska
Omaha is the largest city in the state of Nebraska, United States, and is the county seat of Douglas County. It is located in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about 20 miles north of the mouth of the Platte River...
is a Unitarian Universalist Church
Unitarian Universalism
Unitarian Universalism is a religion characterized by support for a "free and responsible search for truth and meaning". Unitarian Universalists do not share a creed; rather, they are unified by their shared search for spiritual growth and by the understanding that an individual's theology is a...
located at 3114 Harney Street in the Midtown
Midtown Omaha
Midtown is a geographic area of Omaha, Nebraska that is a culturally, socially and economically important area of the city. It is home to major research centers, national corporations, several historic districts, and a number of historic residences.-About:...
area.
History
First Unitarian Church of Omaha was incorporated on August 22, 1869, by twenty-six men and women. Its regular minister was Reverend Henry E. Bond, and its first chapel was a small brick building located at 17th and Cass that was dedicated in 1871. In the fall of 1889 Reverend Newton M. Mann came to serve the church. Mann was the first American minister to promote the philosophy of evolutionEvolution
Evolution is any change across successive generations in the heritable characteristics of biological populations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organisation, including species, individual organisms and molecules such as DNA and proteins.Life on Earth...
.
The present Colonial Revival
Colonial Revival architecture
The Colonial Revival was a nationalistic architectural style, garden design, and interior design movement in the United States which sought to revive elements of Georgian architecture, part of a broader Colonial Revival Movement in the arts. In the early 1890s Americans began to value their own...
building at 31st and Harney was designed by Omaha architects John McDonald and his son Alan McDonald. Former U.S. president William Howard Taft
William Howard Taft
William Howard Taft was the 27th President of the United States and later the tenth Chief Justice of the United States...
, who was then president of the Unitarian Church Conference in the United States and Canada, presided at the 1917 cornerstone-laying ceremony. The building was dedicated in September 1918. In the 1930s, Sarah Joslyn
Joslyn Castle
The George and Sarah Joslyn Home , is a folly located at 3902 Davenport Street in the Gold Coast Historic District of Omaha, Nebraska, USA. Built in the Scottish Baronial style in 1903, the Castle was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972...
gave the church its Aeolian-Skinner
Aeolian-Skinner
Æolian-Skinner Organ Company, Inc. — Æolian-Skinner of Boston, Massachusetts was an important American builder of a large number of notable pipe organs from its inception as the Skinner Organ Company in 1901 until its closure in 1972. Key figures were Ernest M. Skinner , Arthur Hudson Marks ,...
pipe organ.