Bunker Hill Universalist Pioneer Cemetery
Reilly Township, Butler County, Ohio; about 45 minutes north of Cincinnati, near Oxford. This was a Native American burial ground. The Universalist Society, established in 1854, bought the site in1855. The church burned in 1924 and in 1964, the property was deeded by the Universalists to Butler County.
First Unitarian Church of Cincinnati
526 Linton Street, Avondale, 513-281-1564. The oldest Unitarian Church in the city, founded in 1830, its present building was built in 1889. Former sites:
• 8th and Plum St. It was the site for First Congregational Church (Unitarian) from 1869-1889. It’s across 8th St. from Wise Temple.
• 6th and Mound was the site for Church of the Redeemer (1862-1875) that merged with First Congregational Church in 1875.
• 4th and Race Streets (southwest corner) was the original site for First Congregational Church (Unitarian) founded in 1830.
More history (including about its former member, President William Howard Taft!) is on First Unitarian’s history page.
St. John’s Unitarian Universalist Church
320 Resor Ave., Clifton, 513-961-1938. The present site was purchased in 1949. Its first service there was held in the fellowship hall in 1952 and the sanctuary was completed in 1960. Between 1946 and 1952 the congregation met in a Masonic Temple, now part of Hebrew Union College. (The building has “Tempel der Hanselmann Loge No 208” engraved on the building.)
Former sites:
The congregation began meeting at 1205 Elm Street in Over-the Rhine in 1868 when it was known as German Protestant St. John’s Church. The building is now an event center called The Transept. You’ll see “St. John’s Unitarian Church” in the stained-glass window and in a concrete sign (in German) above the door.
Before that, the congregation spent two years at German United Evangelical Church St. Paul’s at 15th and Race Streets. In 2011-2012, that building was renovated to become Taft’s Ale House (which closed in late 2023). The congregation became Unitarian in 1924 and changed its name to St. John’s Unitarian Church in 1930. More history is on St. John’s History page.
Harriet Beecher Stowe House
2950 Gilbert Ave., Walnut Hills. This was the home of Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and a member of the Semi-Colon Club (literary society founded by Unitarians). Guided tours are available Thursdays through Sundays. Call 513-632-5100 for more information.
Heritage Universalist Unitarian Church
2710 Newtown Rd. Anderson Township, 513-231-8634. Heritage is the only active historically Universalist Church in Cincinnati. Its roots are in several Universalist churches going back to the First Universalist Society founded in 1827.
The church’s original permanent meeting place was on Walnut Street in downtown Cincinnati. In 1857, the First Universalist and the Second Universalist Churches merged and moved to Plum Street. In the 1890s the congregation built and moved into a church building on Essex Place in Walnut Hills. The Rev. Robert Cummins, its minister from 1926 to 1933, became the General Superintendent of the Universalist Church of America. In the middle of the 20th century the congregation merged with City Temple, a New Thought congregation. In 1968, the congregation moved to a large house on Salem Road in Anderson Township and renamed itself Salem Acres Community Church. In 1982, the congregation moved again and had three “nomad years” in rented quarters, before building and moving into the present location in December 1985. It then became Heritage Universalist Unitarian Church. Its history page also has a brief history of Unitarian Universalism.
Harmony, a Unitarian Universalist Community
Harmony was started by a group of seven Mason-area families in September 2009 to accommodate families in the northeast corner of Hamilton Co. and communities in Warren Co. They began by holding adult UU church services in members’ living rooms, with kids having one big RE class in the basement.
Since 2010, Harmony has had four public meeting spaces. It moved to its current home at 8639 Columbia Road in Maineville in July 2013.
Hopedale Unitarian Universalist Community
3260 Oxford Millville Rd., Oxford, 513-523-4500. This congregation, a bit north of Greater Cincinnati, was organized in 1990.
The Gathering at Northern Hills
460 Fleming Rd., Springfield Township, 513-931-6651. The Northern Hills Fellowship was founded in 1961 by members of First Unitarian Church to accommodate UUs in the north of Hamilton County. The fellowship met at the Wyoming Masonic Temple before purchasing in 1966 its current five acres on Fleming Road. The first service was held by candlelight on Christmas Eve 1967 in the partially completed building.
The Gathering began as an informal group of justice-oriented people in Clifton, then Over-the-Rhine, before its minister became affiliated with the United Church of Christ. Northern Hills UU Fellowship and the Gathering of Cincinnati came together to form one faith community in 2015.
The Beech Grove Cemetery is adjacent to the church and is where pioneer African-American Unitarian Minister W.H.G. Carter is buried. More of its history is on the congregation’s history page.
Spring Grove Cemetery
4521 Spring Grove, Ave., Winton Place, 513-681-7526. This large, famous resting ground is the site of burials of many famous Unitarians including Alphonso Taft, the father of President William Howard Taft and George Hoadly. Salmon P. Chase and other abolitionists are also buried there. A brief history is on Spring Grove’s site and here is a list of notable people buried there.
Universalist Church in Montgomery
This was at the corner of Montgomery and Remington Rds. Founded in 1837 by people leaving the “fire and brimstone” of their Protestant church in Montgomery, NY. In the 1940s, it served as site for the Miami Association of Universalists district meetings. The church was disbanded in 1926. After years of disrepair and renovation, a “Universalist Church Historic District” was approved for the National Register of Historic Places in 1970. More history is on this page. The building is owned by the city of Montgomery; call 513-891-2424 for a tour.
William Howard Taft House
2038 Auburn Ave., Cincinnati (across from Christ Hospital). The birthplace and boyhood home of President William Howard Taft, member of First Unitarian Church, Moderator of the General Conference of the A.U.A., is open for public tours. It is generally open Thursday-Sunday, but with seasonal changes. Tour information is on this page.
Photo: Plaque on the historic building of the Universalist Church of Montgomery, Ohio.
Photo courtesy of Russ Araujo.
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