Our Church History

We are proud of our long history and of the people who have worked to create the foundations of our present beliefs and traditions. Historical Timeline

The church was founded in 1866 as the Rochester Universalist Church, and Reverend Silas Wakefield was called as our first minister. In that same year, the congregation dedicated a small church building on the current site of the Plummer Building in downtown Rochester. Through the years, we have built three other church buildings to serve a growing congregation.

Today, our members and friends continue to observe long-held traditions and to develop new ones for future generations.

First Unitarian Universalist History Team

The history team curates, stores, and protects historical items that describe our church. Some of our finished projects include:

Archives What You Can Do…

Access Archival Photos
The History Committee and other church members have digitized photographs and stored them for online access HERE.

Search the Scrapbooks
The scrapbooks were started in the 1860’s and continue until 2012. The committee has created a PDF that lists the items in each scrapbook.

Scrapbook Table of Contents 1-6
Scrapbook Description 7-50

The Treasures book

This book gathers in one location, the pictures of historical artifacts with brief descriptions of each item. View many treasures photos here.

Please contact the office if you are interested in ordering a copy of the book for about $70.

Read the original Board meeting minutes starting from 1869

One of our members digitized the minutes book so you can read about our history here.

Add to the Archives
Contact the church office for information on how to donate items.

Photos must be documented with event, date, and names of people pictured in the photograph.