“Herstory/History of the UU Society in Stamford”

April 6, 2003

The Rev. Ron Sala and Historian Dot Sonn 

 

The roots of our present Unitarian Universalist Society began in Old Long Ridge Village in North Stamford. The Long Ridge Universalist Society was organized in 1833 with only fourteen members. During this same period, a few Universalists were occasionally meeting downtown in Stamford. Itinerant preachers would often preach in Old Long Ridge in the morning, and later come downtown to preach by candlelight in various locations, in the evening.

Rev. S. J. Hillyer, whose name is on this plaque, did more than any one man to give Universalism a firm footing in Old Long Ridge Village. In 1834, this small group was able to build the church which still stands at 503 Old Long Ridge Rd. A group of us visited this church yesterday. It is now St. Francis Episcopal Chapel and services are still held there. Father Richard Mayberry gave us a tour of the chapel, and told us about how it became an Episcopal Church in the 1940s.

Universalists were everywhere “spoken against.” Because they did not believe in everlasting punishment and a literal hell, it was assumed, without the slightest evidence, that they were, as one preacher put it “the gamesters and drunkards among Christians.” People were cautioned against the “soul-destroying error of Universalism” … members of other churches who even “leaned toward the damnable heresy were promptly excommunicated, and often ostracized and boycotted in the community.”

My favorite story concerns someone sending up a balloon in North Stamford, to which a fireball was attached. Since it was dark, only the ball of streaming flame was visible to the frightened residents. They were sure that the end of the world was approaching. However, one more sensible observer, a woman, assured them that, no, it was not Armageddon, but some “dreadful judgment that is to happen to the wicked Universalists in Long Ridge, to punish them for disbelieving that our Maker has laid up in store for them, a vial of wrath.” In spite of the denomination’s bad reputation, Brother Hillyer himself was held in high esteem. The plaque here was dedicated to him and placed in the Long Ridge Church. When that church was taken over by the Episcopal diocese in 1942, they gave the plaque to us, and it was dedicated here in December of 1942.

The Congregationalists in particular, seemed to really have it in for the Universalists. In 1834, our friend Brother Hillyer, and a Congregational minister, Rev. Thomas Payne of the Stanwich section of Greenwich, engaged in a debate, at the Congregational Meeting House. Here are just two of the issues to be debated:

  1. Is the Doctrine of Endless Misery taught in Holy Scripture, or not?
  2. Is there now in existence a personal Devil who was once a holy angel before the Creation of Adam?

The ground rules of this debate are pretty incredible in the context of today’s society. This debate was to take place over three days – 2 hours in the forenoon and 2½ hours in the afternoon. They also agreed not to publish any of their discussion through “the medium of the press.” After three days, the Congregationalists were ready to throw in the towel, and the debates were promptly ended, and the church closed to this event, which had attracted a large audience. Brother Hillyer suggested that the debate be continued in the press via the Stamford Sentinel, but Rev. Payne did not even deign to respond to this challenge. The plus side of this affair was that Universalism in the Long Ridge church boomed!

Over the years, Universalism declined in this area, and although various ministers would visit Old Long Ridge sporadically, things did not improve. I noted that quite a few of these guest ministers were, in the 1880’s and 1890’s, women. By 1939, despite many efforts to revive the Society, including help from our own Second Universalist Society, the church in Long Ridge dissolved. The building was in a sorry state, and soon stood empty. In 1942 it was purchased and donated to the Missionary Society of the Episcopal Diocese of Conn. It was then rededicated as St. Francis Episcopal Church.

The debate which served as such an impetus to the Long Ridge Society, stimulated great interest in downtown Stamford as well. The small group of Universalists began to meet more often. Rev. F. Hitchcock began to preach at the Town House, and his efforts culminated in the organization of the Second Universalist Society of Stamford, on April 3, 1841. In 1841, Br. Hitchcock published a circular entitled “An Appeal to the Public” alluding to an attack on Universalism which took place here. I’m sure the attacker, Elder Coville of Bedford, NY was a Congregationalist. He had invited the Universalists to attend a lecture, during which he used the protection of the pulpit to launch a violent attack on Universalism. This ended in a shouting match, brought to a close by someone yelling out to the choir, “Sing, Brothers, Sing!” This affair again proved that opposition is often the best possible “spur” to progress. When Br. Hitchcock announced that he would reply to Elder Coville in the Old Town House, over 600 people showed up!

The rest is really OUR history. The Universalists in downtown Stamford were inspired to organize, formed a society, and by 1845 were able to build a church on the corner of Atlantic and Bank Streeets, where the Old Town Hall still stands. A settled minister was hired, Rev. B.B. Halleck, and the church was dedicated in January 1846. The Second Universalist Society had the usual vicissitudes of a small and poor organization. In 1858, they could not come up with the $700 needed for the Rev. Halleck’s salary, so he left. When it seemed the church would have to close, enter Dr. J. Smith Dodge, our constant benefactor and rescuer. He was a dentist in New York City, a graduate of Columbia College, and had studied public speaking. He read sermons from a book of Universalist sermons, but soon decided he could do that! His first sermon was entitled, “The Duty of Church Attendance.” The congregation grew, and soon could plan to build a larger edifice. Dr. Dodge never accepted a salary, and asked that this money be put into a building fund. The Town of Stamford wanted the property on which the little church stood, and with the proceeds from this sale, the church was built in 1870. I was amazed to find out that Dr. Dodge was only 24 when he came to our rescue back in 1858.

I will not go into the architectural features of our church at this time, but I thought it would interest you to know that this property was once a corn field, and that the stone used in constructing the church was taken from quarries across the street where the Avon Theatre stands, and from up the hill on Prospect Street near the present Dunkin’ Donuts.

I do want to mention, however, the two stained glass windows on either side of the organ. These windows are of Sts. Peter and Paul and were originally from Italy. How they came to us from a church on Orchard Street in the Lower East Side of Manhattan makes fascinating reading, both in our archives and on the internet.

Our distant past has been well documented. More recent history is scattered – in boxes, not yet sorted out. I will just touch on some highlights

The Society has, as one would expect, known times of prosperity and adversity. Quoting from an article written sometime in the 1970’s:

With regard to this schism, I came across several references to it, but nothing to explain what it was. I was told by our previous church administrator that there was a big wooden trunk in the choir loft. A few weeks ago, Ray Mosher went up there with me, and moved it so that we could get it open. It is big enough to hold a body! In it were a lot of old gas, electric, water, and phone bills – but at the bottom – a folder containing papers which may shed some light on what the “sorry schism” might have been. It seems that Rev. Edward Lewis (1923-1931) and some of his parishioners were accused by other members of the congregation of being members of the Ku Klux Klan. Rev. Lewis denied all, but a letter of resignation is testimony of his untimely departure. There have been persistent rumors also of spiritualist goings on in the 30’s. I have not been able to authenticate any of this, but a play was performed here in the 1970’s called “IS the Medium the Message?” purporting to be about strange activities in the 1930’s. I have found only the “playbill,” not the script.

In 1932 Dr. John Clarence Lee, former president of St. Lawrence University, came to Stamford after those “unhappiest days.” Ray Darwin Cranmer (1945-1956) consolidated the slight gains of his predecessors, and inaugurated an era of substantial growth. The pulpit is dedicated to Rev. Cranmer.

The tenure of Rev. John Farmakis, a graduate of Harvard Divinity School, was from 1956-1970. Those fourteen years brought dignity and intellectual growth to the Society and the size of the congregation nearly doubled. It was during Rev. Farmakis’ tenure that the Religious Education building was built in 1964. Connie Scanley was Director at this time, and she and John Farmakis had a rivalry going as to who had the most attendees each Sunday – the Sunday school or the church? From looking at the statistics, I think Connie won – the average church school attendance during this time was 100 children. Rev. Farmakis was very involved with the LRY, the Liberal Religious Youth. Parents still here remember the challenging discussions he inspired with these teenagers.

Joel Baehr was called in 1970. This was a time of “touchy-feelyness” – the era of “Open Marriage” and soul-searching, as evidenced by the topics of various sermons – “The Future of Marriage,” “New Life Styles,” “Morals and Manners” – A singles groups, open to all, Intentional families, which were similar to today’s covenant groups, and communication groups flourished. Marriage contract workshops were held, and the RE curriculum included “About Your Sexuality.” During Joel Baehr’s tenure, extensive renovations were made, leading to the rededication of the church in 1974.

Over the years, several votes were taken by various congregations to sell and move – this was always hotly contested and abandoned … once an offer was made by the White Tower hamburger company.

During the tenure of Dr. Charles Magistro, Stamford was experiencing urban renewal, saving downtown, and providing affordable housing. Rev. Magistro was a strong advocate of the congregation committing to being a real urban church. When the apartment complex across the street wanted to buy our property, Rev. Magistro was instrumental in getting them to build the pocket park behind the RE building, in exchange for our not blocking their construction. During Rev. Magistro’s tenure he vigorously supported the late Lee Mosso in starting our choir, which Maureen has so ably carried on. His sermons were intellectual and stimulating, and many young families started to attend. Charles was elected to the Stamford Board of Education. During Dr. Magistro’s tenure many structural and aesthetic changes were made and a gala was held in 1982 to celebrate these improvements.

Rev. Stanley Aronson was called in 1990. This was a period of stability and increased visibility in the community. Stan served on the Boards of the Pacific House Shelter, the Catholic Charities Soup Kitchen, and the Stamford Symphony Scholarship Committee. He was voted Clergy Person of the Year in 1997. His interest in helping people who were in the transition phase of re-entering the life of the community helped us to make Metcalf House a reality.

The role of women in the history of our church was ever-changing. In the booklet “A Story of One Hundred Years, 1841-1941” we read that “It must be noted that in the early days (1840’s), the women did not take such a prominent part in church work.” One Mary Stevens was mentioned as having “the moral courage to stem the tide of popular prejudice and listen to the preached word.” She was one of only three or four women who attended services.

Our denomination is now predominantly women – and our Stamford forebears would no doubt be surprised to see how many of our UUSIS Board presidents in the past 25 years have been women.

The activities of the various women’s groups have changed over the years. In a 1934 Annual Financial report to the General Universalist Convention of Conn. on which the 1934 Society’s financial quota was based, auxiliary organizations of women parishioners are listed as: the Mission Circle (16 members), the Clara Barton Guild (10 members), the Ladies Aid Society (15 members), and the Association of Universalist Women. Years ago women met in the morning or afternoon – sewed for the Red Cross, and held card parties for the benefit of Stamford’s poor (admission 15¢!). After the UU merger in 1961, the name was changed to UUW – Unitarian Universalist Women. It was revived two years ago through the efforts of Connie Scanley, after a fairly length hiatus. In addition to timely discussions, the UUW raises money for our Society, and this year voted to financially support a young woman teacher in Afghanistan.

We have had controversy over many things – should we remove the pews or keep them? Remove them!! And I have to tell you what our dear friend and former Board president Fred Berg told me: when they decided to store these monster pews in the basement, the ones who voted to keep them never showed up to do the moving. Fred and his teenage son, Paul, did the job by themselves. You may not know that the large stained glass window in the anteroom between the social room and sanctuary, called the Lockwood window, was once in the sanctuary. Moving it to its present location caused quite a furor. Is it good art or bad art? When you leave this morning, take a look at this window, and decide whether or not you would have voted to move it!

Also, there was the Great Cross controversy. When you are outside look up at the two crosses on top of our church. I have not been able to find out what style they are, or who chose them, but this was a true cause célèbre. When we voted to keep them up there some people fled to the Westport UU church.

There has never been a dull moment. I thank Rev. Ron for his genuine interest in our history, and for getting me started on some real research.

Many noteworthy things have not been mentioned – details of our transitional housing home, Metcalf House, our becoming a Welcoming Congregation last year, our innovative services, and much, much more. Our newsletter often runs eight pages – every word of interest, and a testimony to our involvement in UUSIS, the community, and the world.

And as I keep going through the accumulated records, old reports, and memorabilia, maybe I’ll find out someday what became of the Communion silver, and where the Rose window came from!!

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