The First Unitarian Church of Oakland is located in western

Downtown Oakland Downtown Oakland is the central business district of Oakland, California, United States; roughly bounded by both the Oakland Estuary and Interstate 880 on the southwest, Interstate 980 on the northwest, Grand Avenue on the northeast, and Lak ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

. It is a member of the Unitarian Universalist Association.

History

The building site was purchased in November 1888 from

Jane K. Sather Jane K. Sather (''née'' Krom; March 9, 1824 – December 11, 1911) was an American philanthropist and one of the University of California, Berkeley's most significant benefactors. She founded the Sather Professorship of Classical Literature and t ...

, a patron of the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Franci ...

. Construction began in 1890 and was completed in September 1891, although it began to be used for various activities while still unfinished. The church building was designed in 1889 by Walter J. Mathews. This solid masonry Romanesque Revival style church departed radically from California's then predominant wood framed Carpenter Gothic style churches. It is noted for its famous stained glass windows produced by Goodhue of Boston, and for its arching redwood spans that were the widest at the time west of the

Rocky Mountains The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in straight-line distance from the northernmost part of western Canada, to New Mexico ...

. The 1906 San Francisco earthquake damaged the building, but did not destroy it.

Landmark

The church is listed as

California Historical Landmark A California Historical Landmark (CHL) is a building, structure, site, or place in California that has been determined to have statewide historical landmark significance. Criteria Historical significance is determined by meeting at least one of ...

#896, and is also listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

(NPS-77000284). The church remains a significant cultural and architectural landmark in Oakland.

References

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External links

*
Harvard.edu: Historical records of the First Unitarian Church of Oakland
— ''at the Andover-Harvard Theological Library, Harvard Divinity School.'' * Churches in Oakland, California Unitarian Universalist churches in California Churches completed in 1891 California Historical Landmarks National Register of Historic Places in Oakland, California Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in California Historic American Buildings Survey in California 19th century in Oakland, California 1890s architecture in the United States Romanesque Revival church buildings in California {{AlamedaCountyCA-NRHP-stub