An American Unitarian architectural aesthetic
Date
1974
Authors
Netherton, Frederick John
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
This thesis in concerned with American Unitarianism, its ideological origins and development, as expressed in the architectural styles of its churches. The thesis is structured upon the premise that architecture creates images of conviction and persuasion; that is, architectural style represents in concrete, visual form the ideas a people have of themselves: when those ideas change, there is a corresponding change in architectural style.
Out of a conflict between Anglicanism and Puritanism, the two Established Churches of Massachusetts Bay, Unitarianism emerged in the eighteenth century as the liberal wing of Puritanism and represented theologically the same ideology as American republicanism. As a result, when the Republic was born after the American Revolution, American Unitarianism saw itself as the National Church of the Republic. It expected that all other Protestant denominations would join with it in a catholic Protestantism, structure upon a rational approach to Christianity and a belief in the, essential goodness of man. Its expectations were never realized, and it became another demonination in 1825, losing all claim as a National Church.
This failure to establish a catholic Protestantism as the National Church, as well as the failure to formulate a permanent creed, can seen in the succession of architectural styles in Unitarian churches. For, unlike the Republic which traditionally has built in the Roman Revival, Unitarianism has never: created a permanent style for its churches, but, rather, has utilized the style in fashion for the day.
In the early years of the Republic, Unitarianism, as the National church, did use the American National Style, the Roman Revival. It rebuilt the older Puritan meeting houses in the traditional form of a church by removing the main entrance and the pulpit, opposite, from the long sides of the rectangular plan of the meeting house, and placing them opposite each other on the short sides of the rectangle. The main entrance was through a towered gateway with temple-front facade, a form which symbolized these churches as the National Church of the Republic. The churches newly built followed the same style, which lasted until about 1825, the date of the formation of the American Unitarian Association by which Unitarianism became a denomination.
Then followed the succession of ·current styles. With the Greek Revival (1825-1845), Unitarianism followed the Republic into the Jacksonian democracy, and with the Classical Eclectic (1845-1860), Unitarianism followed the attempt to establish an American Architecture. The Gothic or Medieval Revival (1840-1900) was used by both sides of the Transcendentalist dispute which tore Unitarianism apart beginning about 1835. The orthodox Unitarian rationalists used it to symbolize their essential Christianity; the Transcendentalists, to symbolize man's mystical communion with nature. These, two opposing factions were reunited under the Revival of the Classical Revival (1893-1930), which symbolized the principle of personal freedom in religious matters. Beginning in 1905, Unitarians began.to adopt the Modern style, which to them represented, and still represents, an egalitarian humanism which hopes to make a heaven of this earth.